I've been getting a bit frustrated lately with my playing. While I am content with how I'm progressing on the tunes, I've been having the worst time playing with all three drones open. I just couldn't seem to keep up enough pressure to maintain that steady background drone. As the pressure drops off, the drone pitch changes, giving it a (what my instructor calls) a "double tone." Not a desirable sound.
So I've been practicing squeezing the bag harder, and trying to keep the bag filled with air at the same time. The offshoot of this is after one, maybe two tunes, I find myself squeezing down so hard, I'm actually starting to bend forward, while trying to fill the bag with air. My lips break down and I might as well have a mouth full of Novocain for all the control I have over my mouth at that point. After one particularly strenuous attempt, I started feeling pain in my groin. And yes, I've been told that hernias are a very real risk for bagpipers.
I figured I just needed to work harder to build more strength and stamina.
Then last week, after a discussion about obtaining new reeds, Neil (our instructor) said he wanted to test our pipes. With reed instruments, if you force too much air through them, the sound will cut out. So he asked each of us to blow our bags up and try to get to that point where the drone reeds cut out.
I couldn't do it.
So I tried again. This time Neil squeezed the bag with me. Even together we couldn't get the sound to cut out. He took one of my drones off and blew directly through the reed till he was shaking and his face turned red. Still couldn't get it to cut out.
He said that was a sign my pipes weren't "passing air efficiently."
Drone reeds (pictured below) are cylindrical with a hole in the side. The reed itself is a thin blade that covers that hole and vibrates as air passes over and under it into the hole. How that reed covers that hole makes all the difference in the world to the instruments sound.
What Neil did was slide the bridle back, ever so slightly, then blew again. He got the cut off. He did this for each of my drone reeds and we put my pipes back together. Then he asked me to play a tune.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It was a WORLD of difference! I felt like I had been struggling to push a stalled car down the street, and then the driver suddenly said, "Oh wait! Let me take off the parking brake..."
Seriously, my drones were strong and clear, and sounded so easily! I had to leave at that point, so I didn't get to experiment then, but once I got home I put them together and struck up the bag.
I got through the 3/4 marches as well as the 4/4 marches without needing to rest. I felt elated, like I could play all night! My regret is that I didn't know any jigs or reels, because I sure felt like playing something jaunty!
So thanks Neil, for taking the weights off my bat.
