Chanter review?

[Mr. Woolery]

Col Mac- Part of your problem is trying to use the fingertips. Pipers don't normally finger with the tips, but with straight fingers. An instructor is almost necessary here. There are only a few people who ever manage to self-teach to any degree of competence and even thy normally suggest that people look to getting a teacher if possible.

On the subject of practice chanters, there are a lot of good makes out there. I've not played a Shepherd, but I have a Walsh poly and it is good. I've played Gibson, Dunbar, Piper's Choice, and all are good chanters.

I have a 30+ year old Hardie practice chanter (standard length, from a time when few people had long chanters available). It is my favorite chanter. It sounds good and it feels great. My teacher does not insist on any particular make or model of practice chanter, but she keeps several reeds to swap between her two blackwood chanters so she can match the pitch of any student's instrument. I would not expect this from most teachers, though.

My children both have blackwood chanters and they do sound and feel better than plastic. Part of my intention in giving them chanters that cost twice as much as the poly they started with is that they learn early on how to care for a wooden instrument properly. They disassemble the chanters, oil them, use caution when handling. All skills that they need for when they are playing on the bagpipes.

If someone will not take care of a wooden instrument, then plastic becomes an appropriate option. If they take care of their instruments, wood will deliver better sound and feel, whether in full pipes or in the practice chanter. My opinion, but it seems to be accurate, based on the pipers in our area. After all, plastic has only been an option for a relatively short time, compared to how long pipers have been taking proper care of wood instruments.

-Patrick

[SteveB]

JimB
The first few weeks on my practice chanter resulted in horrible noise. Four months later and my spouse can recognize my attempts at Bruce's Address and Amazing Grace. I am still learning how to interpret musical notation and translate that to my fingers. My tutor is insisting that all future practice is with the metronome, so that I can develop even tempo while doing scales, exercises, and learning tunes. We are working on tune memorization.

Mr Woolery and I agree that the Blackwood practice chanter is well worth the initial expense. A piper spends more time on the practice chanter than on the Great Highland Bagpipes. It is used to learn new tunes, exercises old tunes, and experiment with musical expression. The resonant quality of the Blackwood long practice chanter with a good quality reed makes the learning process enjoyable. The wood vibrates with the tune, and according to my tutor, gives a better feel as to what to expect on the bagpipe chanter.
I am not a piper yet. That is a ways from now. I do enjoy my Dunbar Deluxe long practice chanter for the instrument that it is, and enjoy performing on it each day.
I have used it to play tunes for the children in my classes to sing along with. The volume is reasonable, and sound is within the range that the children can enjoy. (Kindergarten and first grade.)
I do have to practice even these simple childrens tunes for many hours before I can play them. It is all good finger exercise, and helps keep the incentive going for getting to the stage where my tutor will invite me to get a set of pipes.
Slainte

[wvpiper]

They disassemble the chanters, oil them, use caution when handling. All skills that they need for when they are playing on the bagpipes.

Poly chanters need to be taken apart and swabbed out also. Same skills required. FYI- I've heard that you shouldn't oil the inside of a blackwood pipe chanter. According to the advanced pipers at dunsire forums, it will change the pitch and perfomance of the chanter. I can't say. Food for thought if they're oiling the inside of the chanter

If someone will not take care of a wooden instrument, then plastic becomes an appropriate option. ...............If they take care of their instruments, wood will deliver better sound and feel, whether in full pipes or in the practice chanter.

Of course, there all kinds of variables regarding wood that you cannot control; heat, cold, humidity, etc, all of these can adversely affect wooden pipes and their playability, as well as their durability. That's why the poly pipes were developed. Stability and their durability, and I've heard they sound just as good as blackwood. You can take the best care of a blackwood instrument, but if a chanter rolls off a table, twist it wrong, it will break. Accidents happen, drones get stepped on and broken, etc. Won't happen with poly

I think frankly the blackwood v poly argument boils down to 'tradition' and not so much about performance. What are the basics of good pipes: smooth bores in dense material to push the sound out and not absorb it. Diameter and length of bores affects the pitch. These properties can be achieved with poly just as well as blackwood, in my opinion with the advantage of being more stable and requiring less maintenance.