Playing Bagpipes In Cold Weather

Don't do it.
The choice may not be yours.
Sometimes you have to play at a graveside during the coldest part of the year. In Northeastern US this can be brutal. A bagpipe can simply freeze shut. You need to keep air circulating through the pipes to prevent them from icing up. Then there's the matter of your facial muscles, which go slack in the cold weather and make it impossible to clamp down on the blow pipe. Fingering can be a problem too when you can't feel the holes in the chanter.

I once played a policeman's funeral on a windswept cemetery hill in weather that was 5 degrees Fahrenheit without wind. The windchill brought the temperature well below zero. I had handwarmers stuffed into the backs of my fingerless gloves, but I still had trouble moving my fingers. I had to wrap handwarmers around the base of my blow pipe stock to unfreeze it at one point. During the breaks I held handwarmers against my face to get the blood circulating. The bugler, playing Taps, could not make a sound come out of his bugle except something that sounded like a frail hiss.

All in all it makes for good stories but bad piping.

CTPiper Domain Name Kidnapped

Unfortunately, my original domain www.ctpiper.com lapsed during a period of immense labor on my part and someone else has now registered it.
I greatly miss the domain and will attempt to recover it in the future.
I'm also thinking of simply developing a new name.

In the meantime you can always reach me here on my blog: www.ctpiper.blogspot.com

Gig Masters

Gig Masters is an internet site that allows musicians to post their contact information. I just received a 3 month free subscription to list my name on Gig Masters, so I'm interested to see what comes of it.

The sound of the bagpipe should be all the advertisement you need, but word of mouth helps too.

Bagpiper's Home For Sale

I'm selling my house, even though it's a perfect location for bagpiping. It's in a neighborhood, but has some seclusion. Unfortunately, we've simply outgrown it.

East Hampton Funeral

I played at a funeral in East Hampton, Connecticut, yesterday. I wish I had remembered my camera because the view of the lake was spectacular. East Hampton is a hidden gem.

Is Bagpiping in Recession?

I don't see as many as I used to. Has the effect from Braveheart worn off?

Tuning A Bagpipe

Tuning? It's not easy. You've got 3 drone reeds. Those are the easy ones. Then you have a chanter reed, which is composed of two cane blades pressed and tied together with a small space between them. It's sort of the same concept as when you take a blade of grass and stretch it between your thumbs and blow. Air passing over the flexible surfaces causes them to vibrate, which creates sound. Once you have the sound, then you have to adjust it for each note on the chanter. Covering a hole on the chanter makes the chanter "longer", or at least lengthens the distance that the sound must travel before escaping into the environment. The farther the distance, the deeper/lower the tone. Cover all the holes and you have the lowest note, Low G. Since chanter reeds are made from wood/heavy grass (cane is sort of like bamboo) the surface is absorbent and reacts to heat and moisture. Your pipes might be in tune in the shade, but as soon as you walk into the sun all the notes go sharp on you.

Next, put 30 pipers together in a band and you've got a problem that sometimes takes weeks to solve. Some bands never solve it. But when it's right, it's great.