Winter is the time to get all the new music down. Mostly we work on practice chanters in the early winter and gradually switch to working on the pipes.  Gordie is working on the details of our new reel Fioana McLeod with pipers Richmond Johnston, Nic Stoker, and Jim Peters.

The pipe major of the grade 3 hammering the details at a Tues. practice.

Sometimes the complexity of playing the pipes and the sheer volume of sound they put out can get in the way of hearing the details. That is why we work on the practice chanter to learn new tunes and fix old ones. You don’t have to worry about blowing and squeezing. There are no worries about your reeds giving you trouble. Tuning only takes a minute and that saves a lot time.

Here Pat and Alex are trying out different reeds.

The chanter reeds begin to lose tone and volume after a while. Some last a few weeks and many will last a season but at some point you have to get a new one. The band will buy a box of reeds in the fall and pick out the good ones and begin to set every piper up with the best reed possible for them. Perhaps the reed works well right out of the box but more often it will need a bit of fine tuning.

Our fall class of beginning pipers is in its fourth week. Right now everyone is struggling with the practice chanter trying to get their fingers to do what their mind wants them so desperately to do. All the students are doing well though and they will be playing pipes in the not too distant future. It just takes practice and more practice.

Working hard with the practice chanter. One student couldn't attend this night. Two young students are working with another teacher.