How to Blow a Highland Pipe Chanter Reed Copyright 1995 David Daye Everyone knows that a strong chanter reed is usually louder and more stable than a weak reed, for which reason most bands prefer stronger reeds than many solo players use. Many pipers also believe that strong reeds have better tone than weak reeds (I do not believe this). However the *way* any particular reed is blown is sometimes overlooked by amateur level players and pipe-majors. It is possible to pick a reed which may seem ideal for a band, and yet produce substandard sound because its player is too weak to blow it properly. That player may actually be able to blow a stronger sound from a somewhat easier reed. These sound samples illustrate the difference in overall loudness balance when the same reeds are set up first for very gentle blowing and second for much stronger blowing. However I doubt they will give a useful indication of tonal differences, since the digitizing process removed important higher frequencies in order to keep the files small enough for storage and easy transfer over the Internet. I took meticulous care in recording these samples so that they would give an accurate comparison. The drones were untouched. I carefully marked my foot position and angle on the floor so that I was at the same distance and orientation from the microphone for both samples. The tape recorder settings were untouched. When creating the digital files from the tape recorder, the record and playback settings were untouched between samples. There was no use of automatic loudness control either on the tape recorder or in the digitizing equipment. All differences in loudness between samples are real. To clarify, I did not manipulate the strength of any reeds, I merely retuned them to permit blowing at 2 different levels within their existing range. The tuning had to be ideal in both cases so that only the effects of blowing strength would be apparent. I didn't want mis-tuning in either instance to distract the ear. In the under-blowing example, the chanter is overwhelmed by the drones. Hear particularly how the top hand notes nearly disappear in the drones. This relative imbalance occurs even in strong reeds whenever they are blown too lightly by weak or tired players. In the firm-blowing example, the chanter is much stronger, particularly on the upper notes. You may find the tone more appealing in this example, but I caution against inferring too much about tone from this comparison since much important high-frequency sound was deleted for the sake of Internet file transfer. Some learners blow too hard (large men seem prone to this), in which case the chanter is prone to squealing, and some top hand notes can actually become louder than bottom-hand notes. End of how to blow a reed.