Here are 8 tunes that are good tunes to learn, for two reasons: They are beginner friendly and they are commonly known among other Swedish bagpipers.
Each tune is presented in four ways: A written score, Midi sound file (generated directly from the written score, i.e. played exactly as noted), mp3 (me, playing the tune) and as a wmv video (showing my hands playing the tune).
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
Långdans från Sollerön is a good practice tune for staccatos. In all bars where there are three quarters (bars 1, 5, 9 and 11), try playing the second and third note staccato. Stay in tempo! It is very tempting to accelerate while playing this tune.
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
Visa från Venjan is a mediaeval ballad about a virgin getting water from a well, when a knight in shining armour suddenly shows up asking for her hand. She responds that she will accept if he fetches her three red roses. The knight fails to find the flowers (possibly because this takes place in the middle of Swedish winter) so he asks a painter to paint him three red roses instead. With the painting in hand, he returns to the virgin who is very surprised to see him, and even more so when she sees the painting. "I only said that as a joke", she says. "If so, joke received", says he, and they both live happily ever after. Mediaeval ballads are strange, sometimes.
For the beginner, the challenge here is to separate notes that are repeated, e.g. the C#'s in the beginning of the second part.
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
Vals från Enviken is a good tune to learn how to make a second voice which goes well with the melody. Record yourself playing the melody, then listen to that with earphones, while trying to play a second voice. For example, follow the melody but one third below, i.e. two fingers below on the chanter (where possible).
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
A "steklåt" ("steak tune") is a tune (usually a march) intendend to be played on large dinner parties (e.g. a wedding celebration), when the main course is carried in and served.
There is a notable difference here, between the written/midi version and the way I play it in the sound example and in the video. I play G instead of G# i the second bar of the third row. This requires (well, at least it makes it easier) a hole under the right hand thumb.
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
Krigsvisa om danskarna (war tune about the Danes) is a propaganda tune against the Danish army. Sweden has a long history of wars and conflicts with the Danes. (Not in the recent 200 years though)
"Armar, tarmar, lår och ben, sig upp i luften svinga, och hela mänskokroppar med, sig stora flugor flinga. Och när vi såg att det var så hårt, när vi såg att det var så svårt, då började vi att stanna, och gav upp den röda fanan."
The lyrics to this tune are not for the faint of heart. The first part roughly translates to "Arms, guts, thighs and bones are flying through the air. And whole human bodies too, attracting big flies".
This is also a great tune for a pair of pipers, where one plays a second voice which mainly stays one third below the melody.
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
This is one of very few "real" Swedish bagpipe tunes, i.e. tunes with a known connection to a bagpiper in the old tradition. There are only about twenty of those, and all of them were written down second hand. In other words, they were all played by someone else, on some other instrument, when first written down. Since most other instruments have a greater range and flexibility than bagpipes, many of these tunes had already then, when written down, transformed into something which is no longer playable on pipes. This tune is an exception, possibly because Jont Lars Olsson, after whom this tune was written down, sang (lilted) the tune.
Jont Lars had this tune after the bagpiper Gucku Olof Olsson (b. 1828). Olof often played with his younger brother, Anders, who played the fiddle. Together they were known as "Guckupojkarna" (the Gucku lads).
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3 (two bagpipes, in series with a British tune - Miller of the Dee
video
Ljugaren (also a great tune for two bagpipes) is a tune with a connected story about a woman playing this tune on a spilåpipa (a traditional fipple flute) as a lament for her husband, whom she has just seen go through the ice and drown on lake Ljugaren. The tragedy occured November 17, 1888.
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
This is also a "real" bagpipe tune (song, in this case), also know as "Rännarns visa". Lars Larsson Rännare (1786-1844) was a bagpiper in Dala-Floda and still today, no eye stays dry if you play or sing this song there. Once when I did that, a 97 year old man came forward afterwards and told me that he was Rännarn's descendant. That was a great moment.
Variants of this tune are known also from other places in Dalarna. The version from Leksand is more commonly known than this one, I think, but it does not fit the scale of the bagpipe. There are different versions of the lyrics, and number of verses, as well. I usually only sing one verse:
"Jag blåste i min pipa, då kom en liten duva fram, hon hette Rännar-Stina, jag tog'na i min famn, Sjung hopp fallerall, fallerallanla, sjung hopp fallerall, fallerallanla, hon hette Rännar-Stina, jag tog'na i min famn."
All the music scores, collected in one PDF document
A zip file with all tunes, music scores and midi (sound) files
Instrument care
On this page, I have collected various tips and trick, mostly about maintenance of the instrument itself. Peter Frodemo contributed to major parts of this page, in particular to the sections on bag seasoning and maintenance.
Bag seasoning
It is very important that the bag is airtight. It should not be possible to squeeze any air from a bag with plugged openings. Even a very small leak may make it noticably harder to play the instrument and also affect tuning, since leaks make it more difficult to maintain a constant air pressure.
There are many recipes for bag seasoning which makes the bag airtight. Here is one which works very well.
Buy hide glue (in granulated form), glycerine (glycerol) and a conservative such as Atamon (sodium benzoate, or whatever your old grandmother used when she conserved lemonade).
Pour two table spoons of hide glue in a can. Cut the top off a beer can or use a plastic cup.
Pour water over the glue, so that it covers the glue by about 0.5 centimetres (1/5").
Put the can in a pot of simmering water on the stove and stir until the the glue is completetly dissolved. The liquid should now have the consistency of unwhipped cream.
Add glycerine, about 4 times as much as there is glue in the can. Also add a table spoon of Atamon (or whatever conservative you use).
Stir and then let the solution cool down a bit.
Remove all pipes from the bag and plug the holes for chanter and drone with cork.
Pour about 1.5-2 decilitres (less than a cup) of the solution into the bag, through the hole for the mouth piece. Knead it thoroughly into the bag, and particularly at the seams and around the stocks.
Insert the mouth piece and carefully blow som air into the bag. Don't blow it up too much, just so that the insides don't stick to each other.
When the bag can't suck up more seasoning, remove the corks and mouth pipece and hang the bag up, upside-down, so that excess seasoning can drip out. Let it hang for a day or two.
The inside of the bag may remain sticky for a few weeks, but don't worry, the sides won't glue together. Excess seasoning can be stored in a bottle or jar with a tight seal. If kept cool it will last for a long time and can be used again after carefully heating it up again in a water bath or in a microwave oven. If you use a microwave, heat it up in steps, 5-10 seconds at the time. Don't let it become hot.
Air valve
The bagpipe's mouthpiece has a one-way valve attached to the end which goes into the bag. This is to prevent air from escaping back out through the mouthpiece, so it should be absolutely airtight. Two types of valves are common, the classic leather valve or a rubber valve. Both work great, but leather valves may require some maintenance to keep them airtight.
Leather valve
The leather valve stiffens over time and may require the occasional application of some some olive oil or almond oil to soften it up. A valve that feels soft but still won't stay airtight can be greased with some vaseline to make it sticky. Leather valves often work better if a second half circle of leather is glued to its "free" end, to make it heavier.
Rubber valve
The rubber valve consists of a "cap" of rubber, attached to a metal tube at the inner end of the mouth piece. It is essentially maintenance free and should work perfectly for many years (*). The disadvantage is that if it starts to leak there is not much else to do than to replace it. Go to a kite makers store - kite makers use this kind of rubber caps to protect the ends of the kite frame. Cut the "lid" with a sharp hobby knife or razor blade.
N.B. When the above picture was taken, I blew air through the mouthpiece to make the lid visible (to open it). It stays closed when resting, and the crack can hardly be seen.
(*) The mouthpiece in one of my bagpipes has been stuck, as if glued into the bag, for 14 years when I write this - fortunatey, I've never had to adjust the valve, it works perfectly.
Stiff bags
Nowadays, most bagpipe makers use chrome tanned hide when making bags and such bags usually don't require much maintenance. But there are also bark tanned bags around and those can get stiff or even hard after a few years. To review a stiff old bag, go to a saddle maker and buy some saddle oil.
Remove chanter and drone from the bag, and cork the openings. Leave the mouthpiece where it is.
If the bag is not too stiff, blow it up (carefully if very stiff).
Knead saddle oil into the outside of the bag, all over and particularly around the seams.
Let the air out, and knead the bag until it has sucked up all the oil it can take.
Let the bag rest for a few hours.
Repeat if necessary.
Warning: Oiling the bag will most likely make it a lot darker, and it won't let moisture through as well as it did before.
Watertrap
Your reeds' greatest enemy is humidity, and it does get rather moisty in a mouth blown bagpipe bag. One way to do away with some of the problems associated with moisty reeds is to get a bellows blown bagpipe. But there is another, very simple and cheap solution, and elegant at that since it is invisible; Make a watertrap!
The idea is to lengthen the mouthpiece inside the bag using a plastic hose. Some moisture will condensate on the inside walls of the hose, but the main point is that the air enters the actual bag at the back, far away from the reeds. That way, the bag itself will catch much of the moisture before it reaches the reeds. So, to be precise, it is the bag which is the real watertrap here, not the hose.
The effect is almost like playing a bellows blown bagpipe, i.e. you can set your reeds to work best when dry. That means that you can just pick up your bagpipe and start playing, without having to "warm" up first. If you set up your reeds like that in a mouthblown bagpipe without watertrap, they will quickly go out of tune when the humidity gets to them. With a watertrap it takes much longer (several hours in my experience) before you get tuning problems.
If your mouthpiece is equipped with a rubber valve, it is very easy to make a watertrap. Just remove the rubber cap from the metal tube it is attached to, attach the hose there instead. Now, insert a similar metal tube, halfway, into the other end of the hose so that you can attach the rubber cap there.
If you have a leather valve, the detaching and attaching of the actual valve gets more tricky, but the principle is the same. I recommend taking this opportunity to replace the leather valve with a rubber one. Widen the mouthpiece bore at the inner end, so that you can insert a metal tube there with the same inner diameter as the rest of the mouthpiece.
The watertrap has some drawbacks, but in my opinion the advantages outweighs the disadvantages by a great margin. The sound of blowing air into the bag gets louder with a watertrap, and it is a bit harder to blow since the tube is longer. If the hose is too long, the valve may hit the back end of the bag and temporarily stop working. If so, just shorten the hose a bit. Another disadvantage is that the bag won't be as easy to fold when you put the instrument away. The mouthpiece stays rather rigid and won't fall down towards the bag if you release it while playing, which to me is an advantage since I often do.
Rubber rings
Bees-wax is often used to tune individual notes on the chanter. That works well, and for semi-permanent tunings I use it as well. However, it is a bit cumbersome to use bees-wax for holes that often needs fine tuning, e.g. the minor/major double hole under the upper hand long finger, or the bottom hole (E on an E/A chanter). The same goes for the the tuning hole(s) on the drone.
For many years, I have used rubber rings instead, cut from a bicycle hose (thin hose, for racing bikes). There are some disadvantages do that, though. The rubber, most often black, can stain the wood, and when used for the major/minor double hole I have had problems with air leaks under my finger when playing the chanter tuned to a minor key. The colour as such may be an aesthetical problem. Bicycle hose does exist in other colours, but most bicycle shop owners are not used to customers who care, so they are not easy to find.
A better alternative, at least for the major/minor double hole, is to cut rings from the little finger of a dish washing glove - the cheap common type in rubber. The inside of such gloves are often lined with thin white felt. I turn these rings inside out, rubber side towards the chanter. That way, the colour of the rubber is not an issue and, in addition, it makes a tighter seal. Rubber gloves are thinner than the walls of bicycle hose, so the risk of leaks under the finger(s) is reduced. On the other hand, the rings are not as easy to move up and down along the chanter, as the bicycle hose rings are. Therefore, I still have a bicycle hose ring at the bottom, for the low E, since I often retune that note with my right hand pinkie while playing.
There are even thinner rubber gloves, in latex - the kind used in hospitals, for example. In my opinion they are too thin and even harder to move around.
A reed's life
Musicians on other reed instrument change their reeds often. Oboists, for example, often make their own reeds and replace them at least once a week. But Swedish bagpipe reeds seem to last for a long time, no one knows for how long. Two of my reeds (the one to the right is one of them) are 14 years old when I write this. I know of reeds in daily use that are more than 25 years old.
So, it is unlikely that you play your reeds to their death, and old age does not seem to be a problem either. An accident is more likely, and that can happen anyone, anytime. Therefore it is a good idea to keep your reed making skills in shape, and to have spare reeds with you at all times (and to play them regularly).
Wood maintenance
When a bagpipe is made, the wooden details must be treated in some way to make them resistant to moisture, among other reasons. It is common to oil them in, or to varnish them with, for example shellack. Some people claim that oiled wood needs to be retreated quite often, once a year or so, to prevent cracks from developing. In my opinion this is an exaggaration and the risk of cracking shows tell-tale signs of urband legend.
If your bagpipe was made in softer wood (birch is common for Swedish bagpipes) and if they were oiled in when crafted, you may have to oil them in again once or twice in the instrument's lifetime, not more. Varnished wood should not need treatment again, ever. I have not oiled in any of my instruments (of any kind) since 1995, and have so far not noticed any problems due to that.
But, if you want to oil your wooden parts anyway, soak them in a 50-50 mixture of terpentine and linseed oil (boiled). Swedish bagpipes are rarely made from materials too hard for this mixture to penetrate, but if you have details in harder woods, like ebenholz, bubinga, african blackwood or similar, use a thinner oil. Almond oil, for example.
Unwanted resonance
Not many pipers ever experience this problem, but for those who do it can be very confusing; resonance between the chanter and drone reeds. The risk of this happening depends on many factors, for example the bag's shape and the distance between drone stock and chanter stock.
A typical effect of resonance between chanter and drone reeds is that the chanter suddenly goes out of tune when you switch the drone on or off. Another effect is that the drone may refuse to fine tune - when you move the tuning slide, nothing happens, then nothing, then suddenly the tone moves drastically. Like ketchup from a bottle. In both cases, the resonance keeps the reeds locked to a particular frequency. If that frequency happens to be the right frequency, fine, but few are that lucky.
If you are among the few who experience this, try doing some minor adjustment to one of the reeds (preferably the drone reed). If that does not work, try replacing one of them. If that does not help either, or if you have no spare reeds, you can try to insulate the bag by inserting a piece of foam rubber through one of the stocks.
Things that are good to have
Most Swedish pipers I know are very inventive, often using things for other purposes than they were intended for. For example the abovementioned bicycle hose or dish washing glove. My toolbook is full of various things of practical use. Here is a list.
dental floss, strong sewing thread, thread seal tape (teflon tape), used to wrap joints.
toothpicks, to pick out or fine tune bees-wax in the finger holes.
a weapons brush for air guns, a 4mm drill, or a round chainsaw file, to clean out the pipes when needed.
tweezers, used to move the hair (if you have them) under the tongue of your reeds.
o-rings or cut pieces of a thin plastic hose, used as bridles for the reeds
cigarette lighter, to adjust reeds and to melt (weld) bees-wax when doing semi-permanent retuning of finger holes.
cut fingers from a dish washing glove or bicycle hose, used to retune finger holes and the drone
hobby knife, small cutting board, caliper, razorblades, lacquer, reed segments, used in reed making
bees-wax, for reed making and finger hole adjustments
Reed making
The most difficult thing to learn about swedish bagpipes is not how play them - it is how to make an adjust its reeds. Every bagpipe maker and most pipers have their own idea on how to do this. This page explains how I make reeds, with some comparisons to other styles. This is not to say that my way to make reeds is the best way, only that it works best for me.
Is it really necessary to make your own reeds? No, you can probably buy reeds from your bagpipe maker. But, no piper can avoid having to adjust reeds, i.e. to tune them. And to really understand how that works (see the section on tuning, you should at least know how to make them in theory. Besides, it feels a lot better experimenting with your reed if you know that you can make a new one, should you have to.
The reed is the thing that makes the noise. Traditionally, it is in one piece - a cylinder of cane where a tongue has been cut or sliced out. This tongue vibrates as air flows through the reed, making the sound.
Bagpipe reeds are made from ... reed! It is, of course, not a coincidence that the source material and the end product carry the same name. When talking about reed making, it is confusing, however, so I will use the word "cane" when I mean the material - the growing reed.
The only suitable form of cane growing in Sweden is Pragmites australis (common reed, "bladvass" in Swedish). However, Phragmites is fragile and sensitive to humidity, so many pipers (myself included) prefer the kind of cane most other instrument reeds are made from - Arundo donax (giant reed, Spanish cane). This does not grow in Sweden, but cane segments, cultivated on farms for the very purpose of making reeds, can be imported (from France or Spain, for example). I recommend Alliaud Roseaux in particular, who by now should have become used to Swedish pipers and their strange (to him) reed dimensions.
When I got started as a Swedish bagpiper, I made reeds in the traditional way (from Phragmites australis), as taught by Leif Eriksson - the nestor among Swedish bagpipe makers. "Traditional" here means downcut, with bridle and hair (the reed to the left in the adjoining picture - the technical terms will be explained later).
Then, in 1995, I met Alban Faust, who makes upcut reeds from Arundo donax, without bridle nor hair (the reed to the right). That made a drastic change to my success rate when making reeds.
My current reed making style is an inbetween, though it is much closer to Faust's than to Eriksson's. I make upcut reeds from Arundo donax, with bridle and hair. The bridle and hair are complements, though, not necessities (as opposed to downcut reeds, where they usually are).
Two different kind of reeds (both for chanters in E/A). The downcut reed to the left, with hair and bridle, is made from Phragmites australis. Phragmites is usually not air tight in the node end, so this end has been sealed with some sealing wax (the red "hat" at the top). The upcut reed to the right is made from Arundo donax. This type of reed does not require hair or bridle. Phragmites reeds are usually (as here) shorter than Arundo reeds.
Some useful tools. Two cane segments (not cut down to length yet, a sharp knife, a single edge razor blade and a handle for that.
Getting started
I will now describe how I make reeds for a Swedish bagpipe chanter in E/A. As I said before, I use Arundo donax. The methods I will describe are the same if you make reeds in other materials, for chanters in other keys, or for drones, but measures and details may differ.
Cane is hollow and grows in segments separated (also on the inside) by nodes. On Arundo donax, the wall on the inside at the node is usually airtight, on Phragmites australis it usually is not.
If you buy cane from a supplier, the cane has probably already been cut so that one end is closed (by a node) and the other is open, which is what we want. The segment should be slightly thicker than the inner diameter of your chanter. For most Swedish E/A-chanters, this means just over 6 mm.
Chanter and cane segments
The cylinder should be 50-55 mm in length (measured between the node and the open end). To shorten the cane segment to this length, I cut around it with a sharp knife (actually, I hold the knife still and roll the cylinder while pressing it to the knife's edge) until I'm almost through. Then I can break it off.
I clean the inside of the cylinder with a 4mm drill and, if the node end is not already airtight, I seal it with melted sealing wax. Arundo donax nodes usually are airtight.
I use mediterranean cane (Arundo donax) for my reeds, but if you want to make reeds the traditional way, you should harvest common reed (Phragmites australis) in late winter or early spring, when the ice breaks up, and use segments that have been embedded in the ice, i.e. segments from the water line. (This being a tradition from a country where the lakes always freeze over in winter)
Preferably, the cane you pick has had a tough life, and therefore grown slowly and become hard. Cane from lakes or ditches by farmed fields have most likely been over fertilized and grown too fast, making the cane thick walled, or even solid, and porous.
The cane should be left to dry for a long time, at least a year. It should be gold-brown when you make your reeds, not green (Arundo donax becomes more yellow when it dries).
Before starting to make a Phragmites reed, take the segment and try to crush it between your thumb and the middle joint of your index finger. Really try! Of course, if you succeed you destroy the segment, but then it was probably not a good segment anyway.
Roll the cane segment against the knife ...
... and then break it off.
Cutting the tongue
The tongue can be cut out from the reed in two ways. If you hold the reed vertically in front of you, with the node end up and the open end down, the tongue can be cut downwards from the node end or upwards from the open end.
Downcut reeds
Downcut reeds are cut (sliced) from close to the node towards the open end. In other words, the tip of the tongue comes close to the node, and the root of the tongue comes close to the open end and the chanter. Downcut reeds are usually, but not necessarily, made from Phragmites australis cane.
Upcut reeds
I prefer upcut reeds, which means that I cut in the other direction - from the open end towards the closed end. So, the resulting tongue's tip comes close to the chanter and the root comes close to the node. Upcut reeds are usually, but not necessarily, made from Arundo donax cane.
Theoretically, the direction should make no difference to functionality or sound. However, in my opinion, there is a reliability difference, both when making the reed and when it is working in the chanter.
Downcut reeds have the root of the tongue close to the open end which means that the crack may creep up (due to the tongue's vibrations), separating the tongue from the body. Downcut reeds require a bridle - a tight wrapping of string at the tongue's root - to prevent this. Upcut reeds do not have this problem, since the node prevents the crack from creeping up. It also prevents me from cutting to far, accidentally separating the tongue from the body. Upcut reeds may have a bridle anyway, for other reasons, but it is not required.
Eventually, the reed will be inserted into a chanter, and it should be a tight fit. When the reed becomes wet it swells, which induces unwanted stuctural tensions in the reed. These tensions are more likely to affect the tongue if it is downcut, since the root (the tongue's "hinge") is so close to the source of the problem (another reason for needing that bridle). On upcut reeds, the root of the tongue is far from the source of the tensions, and the tongue is therefore less likely to be affected.
Tuning a bagpipe is done by tweaking various parameters on the reed - moving the bridle, for example, if there is one. All such adjustements to the reed have unwanted side effects. In my experience these side effects are stronger on downcut reeds than on upcut reeds. Many of the side effects are negligable on upcut reeds, but must be compensated for (by adjusting something else) on downcut reeds. However, since most upcut reeds are made from Arundo donax and most downcut reeds are made from Phragmites australis, it is hard to say if the difference is due to the direction of the cut, or the material.
Anyway, upcut reeds it is. I start by searching for the cylinder's "eye". This is a small bump, or indentation on one side of the cylinder, close to the node - the remnant of a sprout having grown there, I guess. It may not be there, but if it is, I cut out the tongue on the other side of the cylinder. This is to ensure that the bump or indentation does not affect the tongue (become part of it).
I then mark the tip of the tongue with a thin and sharp knife, 37mm from the node. This is the measure recommended by Alban Faust, for chanter reeds (of his own making). He recommends 35mm for drone reeds, but I use the same measure for both kinds of reeds. To me, it is not crucial that the length is exact, as long as it is not too short. If required I shorten the tongue later, using a bridle.
I then cut down (saw down) with the knife at the mark, until I'm almost through the inner wall of the cylinder. Then I replace the knife with a razor blade, and push with that until I can only just see the edge of the blade if I look inside the cylinder. Arundo donax can be very hard, so it may prove difficult (even dangerous) to get through with a normal, double edge, razor blade. I use a single edge razor blade instead, of the type painters use to scrape left-over paint from windows. There are handles for such razor blades (see the picture above with the tools).
The next step is to crack the tongue open (to lift the tip), by bending the blade towards the open end of the cylinder. (This is a critical moment and it does not always succeed.) I then carefully insert the blade under the tongue and use it as a lever, to lift the tongue some more.
It is important to be careful here, so as not to cut away material from the edges under the tongue (causing air leaks). Finally, I remove the blade and bend up the tongue by hand. The crack should go up all they way to the node (or as close to it as possible).
That I'm lifting, not cutting, allows the crack to follow fibres in the material. Some makers prefer to cut, ignoring the direction of the fibres. I don't. I believe (only by intuition) that the reed becomes more reliable if it is allowed to do "what it wants"
Lifting the tongue and looking inside the cylinder, I sometimes find a small seed (looks like a small piece of cotton) close to the node. If so, I remove it.
By now, I have imposed quite an amount of strain and stress in the tongue, by cutting and bending. If I'm not in a hurry (one should not be) - I leave the reed to rest for a few hours. When I come back, the tongue has relaxed a bit (lowered itself towards the body).
I now try blowing through the reed, by inserting it in my mouth, node end first, almost all the way (so that the tongue can vibrate freely inside). Eventually, when the reed is finished, this should produce a crisp and steady tone, slightly above E (upper E on your chanter, i.e. the highest note on most E/A-chanters) (Sound example).
Most likely, though, the reed does not sound right yet, if it sounds at all. There are two probable reasons for this - the tongue may not be elevated enough (from the body) and may also be too stiff (thick).
Mark the tongue's length and saw with the knife (the white piece of plastic is a template, 55 mm long and with marks at 35 and 37 mm)
Push down with a razor blade
Crack the tongue open
Lift the tongue, using the razor blade as a lever
Thinning out the tongue
Workshop in Gagnef Photo: Anne-Marie Eriksson
Tongue scraping
It is very difficult to explain in words how stiff the tongue should be. When lifting the tongue, after only a few millimeter the tongue starts resisting, as if it doesn't want to be lifted more than that. The tongue should feel stiffer than the tongue of a jews harp, softer than picking a guitar string (but close).
Reeds made from Phragmites australis seldom requires tongue scraping, but Arundo donax reeds usually do. The sound of a reed with too thick tongue, if it makes a note at all, is hard and raw and much sharper (higher) than the top E of the chanter.
To make the tongue thinner I slice with a sharp knife along the full length of the tongue, from the root to the tip. Slicing is risky, though, in that it is easy to cut away too much. Scraping with the knife instead is slower, but safer.
About the only irreversible mistake one can make to a reed, is to make it too thin. Most other mistakes can be counteracted, but if the tongue becomes too sloppy, we're in trouble. A layer of nail polish applied to the tongue might help, but it is probably better to start all over.
Lifting the tongue
If the reed won't let any air through at all, or if it shuts close almost immediately when trying (listen to this), the tongue should be lifted from the body. This can be done in two ways.
The traditional way is to insert a hair under the tongue, close to the root. This should prevent the tongue from closing and will also lift it some (depending on the thickness of the hair). At this stage, however, I would do it another way.
The other way is to heat set the tongue. This is done by lifting it (more than actually wanted) and heating it with an open flame. One or two quick passes (along the whole length of the tongue) should be enough. When the tongue is released, it will go back towards the body again, but not all the way. In a similar fashion the tongue can be lowered again, if necessary, by pressing it against the body while heating.
If the tongue is lifted too much the reed may become strong and stable, but the pitch will be flat (too low). The reed requires too much air pressure, and you can hear that it does not start directly when you start to blow - there is a hiss as air goes through it, just before it actually starts to sound.
Sound example.
Leif Eriksson does not heat set at all, I think. As far as I know, he only uses the hair method - perhaps (probably) heat setting is more risky when working in Phragmites australis. Alban Faust on the other hand, never uses hair (nor Phragmites). I do use a hair, but not at this stage.
Heat setting of the tongue
This is an E/A-chanter reed. It is fully functional and well in tune (and has been for almost a decade when I write this). As you can see, the tongue does not have to be lifted much - the elevation is actually almost unnoticeable. Note also that this reed has both a bridle (a short piece of plastic hose) and a hair.
My reason for having a bridle and a hair
Upcut reeds do not require bridle or hair. However, I have found it convenient to use them anyway.
When having made a reed, it works properly, and the chanter is in tune, I insert a hair which is so thin that it makes almost no difference to the tuning of the chanter (I pick the hair from my arm). Indeed, the hair is not there for tuning, only to prevent the reed from stopping when wet - a wet tongue is less rigid than a dry one and will tend to go back towards the body.
I do use a bridle for quick fine tuning, though. But instead of a tight wrapping of string, I use a plastic ring cut from a 5mm (inner diameter) plastic hose. The inclusion of a bridle makes the measured length of the tongue, when cut out, less critical. Also, I sometimes impregnate my reeds by dipping them in almond oil. This makes the tongue heavier (it sucks up some of the oil - that's the point) and the bridle may be needed to shorten the tongue, to compensate. By the way, if you also want to impregnate your reeds, use almond oil or olive oil, not linseed oil! Linseed oil leaves a residue which clogs the reed.
A man (Hans Rönnegård) and his reed making toolkit Photo: Anne-Marie Eriksson
Summary
This is how I make reeds, in short:
I take a cylinder of cane, about 6mm thick and with one end sealed by a node. I cut it to length, 50-55 mm, measured from the node.
I mark the tongue's tip 37 mm from the node. If the cylinder has an "eye", I do so on the other side.
I saw down at the mark with a sharp knife, until I'm almost through the wall. I then replace the knife with a razor blade and press down until the edge of it is only just visible from the inside.
I crack the tongue open, bending with the blade, and then use the blade as a lever to lift the tongue further. The last bit, I lift by hand.
I let the reed lie for a few hours.
I thin out the tongue until its stiffness feels right.
I lift the tongue slightly from the body, by heat setting.
Step 4 and 6 are the critical ones - where fatal mistakes are most likely.
Finished, but not yet adjusted, reed
Trouble shooting
Problem
Solution
The reed won't let any air through at all
Lift the tongue or move the bridle(*) towards the tip.
The reed starts to sound, but shuts close immediately
or
The reed sounds, but the pitch varies a lot with air pressure
Lift the tongue or move the bridle(*) towards the tip.
In the worst case, the tongue is too thin. If so, not much can be done.
The reed lets air through, but makes no sound (except the hiss of air passing through)
or
The reed requires very high air pressure to sound.
First, lower the tongue or move the hair(*) towards the root.
If that does not work, thin out the tongue.
The reed sounds and is steady, but the produced note is much sharper than the top E of the chanter
Thin out the tongue.
(*) if you have one ...
The next step is to try the reed in the chanter. See the section on tuning.
Tuning
This page explains how I get my reeds to work well in the chanter, i.e. how I adjust them and tune the chanter. (This is not to say that my way is the only way.) I also mention some tuning problems specific to drones.
If you have not already, I suggest that you read through the section on reed making first. Even if you do not make your own reeds, knowing how it is done is helpful when learning how to tune them. In particular, you need to know some names of the different parts of the reed, as well as some reed making concepts. I assume here that we already have a reed which in itself makes about the right sound.
It may be necessary to scrape away some material from the open end of the reed to make it fit properly in the chanter. I do this with a sharp knife. My reeds are upcut, so I slice from just below the reed tip towards the open end (all around the reed). This way, I make an edge immediately below the tip, where the reed suddenly gets thicker. This prevents the air pressure from pushing the reed too far into the chanter.
It is important that the reed fits properly, with no leaks between the inner chanter wall and the reed. If the reed is too thin you can make it thicker by wrapping adhesive tape around it. An upcut reed reed should be inserted as far as possible without the tongue tip hitting the chanter.
Tuning of a chanter. The guy to the right is Håkan Sjöö. Photo: Anne-Marie Eriksson
What is "out of tune?"
The chanter can be out of tune in three ways:
The scale is too narrow or too extended, i.e. the distance between the notes is wrong.
The most important parameter to control this is the elevation of the tongue over the reed body. Lifting the tongue narrows the scale, lowering the tongue extends the scale.
I prefer heat setting to adjust this. But if the reed has a hair under the tongue, the elevation can be adjusted by replacing it by a thicker or thinner one, or by moving the hair. Moving the hair towards the root, making the free vibrating part of the tongue longer, has approximately the same effect on the scale (but the opposite on tone quality) as raising the tongue, and vice versa.
Once the reed is finished and tuned and played in, this problem seldom occurs.
The scale as such sounds right, i.e. the notes are in tune when compared to each other, but the whole scale is sharp or flat. The whole scale should be shifted down or up.
A heavier tongue tip shifts the scale down. A lighter tip shifts it up. Making the tip heavier is best done by applying some bees-wax to it. Not too close to the edges, though - we don't want the tongue to stick to the body.
Consequently, making the tip lighter is best done by removing wax from the tip. If there is no wax to remove, I cut away material from the tip with a sharp knife. But there is a limit to how thin you can make the tip without causing leaks.
If the reed has a bridle it can be moved. Moving it towards the root (in effect, making the tongue longer) shifts the scale down and vice versa. In my experience, this technique has more side effects than the bees-wax method - the notes on the upper half of the scale are more affected than the notes on the lower half. For small adjustements, though, it works well. (This side effect on the scale is there for the bees-wax method as well, but the effect is not as strong.)
Individual notes are wrong.
If a single note is sharp, it can be flattened by inserting som bees-wax at the top edge of the corresponding finger hole. In effect, the finger hole moves down slightly (and also becomes smaller).
To sharpen a note which is flat is more difficult, unless there is some bees-wax in the finger hole to remove. One thing to check is that the chanter bore is clean (remove the reed and look through it). Dirt in the chanter can have surprising effects on tuning. I use a barrel brush for an air gun to clean the bore, if necessary, but letting a 4 mm drill slide through the bore works fine too.
If the note is in the lower half of the scale, make sure that there are no leaks in the upper half (under fingers, under any keys, or between the reed and the chanter's inner wall). Leaks in the upper half may affect the tuning of the lower half a lot.
As a last resort, one may have to file up the finger hole. If so, file with a thin round file on the upper, inner hole edge. But, only after making absolutely certain that everything else is OK, that only this note is wrong, and that this is so for several reeds.
In what order to tune things
When tuning a chanter, I do things in a particular order:
I listen to the reed itself. The sound it makes should be a reedy, steady tone, slighly above the top note on the chanter (E) (Sound example).
After inserting the reed into the chanter, I then check that the pitch of A is approximately right.
Next, I check that the top E is right in relation to the A. It is more important, at this stage, that this interval is right, than that the pitch of A is.
Now, when the interval between A and top E is OK, I shift the scale so that my A is a true A (440 Hz). Hopefully, I'm already so close that the side effects of shifting the scale does not destroy the interval between A and top E. If required, I go back to adjusting the interval (step 3) again.
When both the A and the interval A-(top)E are OK, the other notes on the chanter usually are too, with the common exception of low E. But I leave that for later and adjust the other notes individually if I have to first.
Low E is so often out of tune that I always have a ring of rubber (from a bicycle tyre) there so that I can adjust it easily, covering more or less of the upper half of that finger hole with the ring. On some chanters, the very end of the chanter can be turned to tune this particular note (turning it partly covers/uncovers the tuning hole from the inside). I check this note between every tune I play and sometimes even adjust it while playing (with my right little finger). Low E also very easily gets out of tune if you don't cover the finger holes in the upper half of he scale properly. A small leak there makes a big difference for low E.
The previous point also implies that low E is not suitable as a reference when tuning the drone. It is better to tune the drone by comparing it to the chanter's A or B. More about drones below.
Air consumption and sound
Swedish bagpipes should not be hard to blow. If you must refill the bag more often than every 5 seconds when you play, something is wrong (with the bag and/or the reeds).
Assuming that the bag is airtight, a reed which requires too much air probably also sounds bad. Compare to the sound of Swedish bagpipes in the same key as yours from a record. Comparing to two other single-reeded instruments, the clarinet and the harmonica, the sound of a Swedish bagpipe should be much closer to that of the harmonica. However, there is plenty of variation in how different bagpipes sound, even among those made by the same maker.
If the tongue of the reed is too elevated, or too thick, the chanter will be hard to blow, it probably makes strange noises (screeching or burring) when pressure is released, and the sound is closer to a clarinet. The sound should be much crisper than that, but it is an issue which is hard to describe in words.
Workshop in Estonia, showing off Swedish bagpipes and how to make reeds. Photo: Mikael Larsson
Drone reeds
Making drone reeds is easier than making chanter reeds, since they only have to work well for one or two notes. On the other hand, there is a stability issue when making drone reeds, which is usually not addressed when making chanter reeds - the drone note should not be affected if you vary the pressure on the bag.
When inserted in a pipe (chanter or drone) a reed can only be stable for one note (one frequency). On the chanter, the stable point is usually somewhere close to the middle of the scale. If you take a note above that point and increase pressure, the pitch goes sharp (up). If you take a note below the stable point and increase pressure, the pitch goes flat (down). On the chanter, this effect is sometimes used to reach notes beyond the usual scale (listen to Brudmarsch från Dalby, for example). But when doing that, the drone should stay put, i.e. the stable point of a drone should be the drone note!
This is best controlled by the weight of the tongue's tip (or the tongue's length, I presume, but I never do it that way). If we add weight to the tip, we move the stable point down the scale, and vice versa. So, if the drone note goes sharp with increased pressure it is above the stable point and, therefore, some weight should be removed from the tip (the saying goes "if the drone goes sharp, sharpen the blade"). Consequently, if the drone goes flat some weight should be added instead.
The really interested reader just discovered a small contradiction. If the drone should have its stable point at low E, i.e. lower than the chanter's typical stable point, then the drone reed should be made slightly longer than chanter reeds. But in the section on reed making I said that Alban Faust recommends that drone reeds are made a bit shorter than chanter reeds (35 mm instead of 37 mm). How is that?
The answer is that there is another stability issue with bees-wax on the tongue's tip - added weight there decreases the risk of the reed shutting close. Therefore, it may be a good idea to make the drone reed a bit too short, on purpose, so that we must compensate for that later with a hefty piece of bees-wax on the tip (which then solves three problems at the same time - it makes the drone flatter, it moves the stable point down and decreases the risk of it shutting close).
Tables of adjustments and effects
I end this section with two summarizing tables, on what happens when doing different things to a reed, and how to counteract various problems.
Adjustments and their effects
Adjustment
How to do it
Effect
Lifted tongue
Heat set it (see the section on reed making), or insert a hair under the tongue, or replace the hair(*) with a thicker one.
The whole scale moves down and shrinks (the upper half moves more than the lower half). The tone becomes rawer and stronger. The reed requires more air. The chanter may screech and/or burr for low notes (in particular if heat set only at the root). More stable tone. Less likely to shut close. In extreme cases, the reed may stop sounding without shutting close, i.e. still letting air through.
Lowered tongue
Heat set it (see the section on reed making), or replace the hair(*) with a thinner one.
The whole scale moves up and widens (the upper half moves more than the lower half). The tone becomes finer and weaker. The reed requires less air. More unstable tone. More likely to shut close.
Heavier tongue tip
Add some bees-wax to the tip.
The whole scale moves down. Less likely to shut close. Moves the stable point down the scale.
Lighter tongue tip
Remove some bees-wax from the tip, or scrape away some material from the actual tip with a sharp knife.
The whole scale moves up. More likely to shut close. Moves the stable point up the scale.
Thinner tongue
Scrape or slice along the full length of the tongue with a sharp knife.
The whole scale moves down and shrinks. The tone becomes finer and weaker. Requires less air. (Same scale effect as when lifting the tongue, but opposite sound effect.)
Longer tongue
Move the bridle(*) towards the root.
The whole scale moves down, the upper half slightly more so than the lower half. Requires a bit more air.
Shorter tongue
Move the bridle(*) towards the tip.
The whole scale moves up, the upper half slightly more so than the lower half. Requires a bit less air.
Longer free length of the tongue
Move the hair(*) towards the root.
The whole scale moves down and shrinks. The tone becomes finer and weaker. The reed requires less air. Increased risk of the reed shutting close.
Shorter free length of the tongue
Move the hair(*) towards the tip.
The whole scale moves up and widens. The tone becomes rawer and stronger. The reed requires more air. Decreased risk of the reed shutting close.
(*) if you have one ...
Trouble shooting
The chanter
Problem
Solution
The chanter is hard to blow, the sound is raw and "closed in"
First, lower the tongue or move the hair(*) towards the root.
If that does not work, thin out the tongue
The interval between A and top E is too narrow
Lower the tongue or move the hair(*) towards the tip.
The interval between A and top E is too wide
Lift the tongue or move the hair(*) towards the root.
The whole scale is sharp
Make the tip heavier with some bees-wax or move the bridle(*) towards the root (more pronounced side effects).
The whole scale is flat
Make the tip lighter by removing some bees-wax from it or move the bridle(*) towards the tip (more pronounced side effects).
If you want to make the tip lighter but there is no bees-wax (left) to remove, scrape away material from the tip itself with a sharp knife. If the tip is too thin to do that, tie a bridle to the root (unless you already have one - if so, move it towards the tip).
An individual note is sharp
Press some bees-wax down the upper edge of the finger hole.
An individual note is flat
In order (until the problem is solved):
Remove bees-wax from the finger hole.
Clean the chanter bore.
Check for air leaks above the finger hole for the problematic note. Try pressing down your fingers on the chanter harder then you usually do, to see if that affects the pitch of the problematic note. If it does, you don't cover the holes properly.
Try another reed.
Try yet another one, two or three ...
File with a thin round file on the upper, inner edge of the finger hole. If you don't want to do that (which is understandable) the only remaining solution is to flatten all the other notes in the scale.
The drone
Problem
Solution
The drone note goes sharp with increased bag pressure
Remove some bees-wax from the tip.
If there is no bees-wax (left) to remove, scrape away material from the tip itself with a sharp knife. If the tip is too thin to do that, tie a bridle to the root.
The drone note goes flat with increased bag pressure
Add som bees-wax to the tip.
(*) if you have one ...
References
Bagpipes in the Nordic countries (and Sweden in particular):
Allmo, Per-Ulf, Säckpipan i Norden, Musikmuseets skrifter 18, AllWin hb, Stockholm & Uppsala 1990. ISBN 91-7970-846-3; ISSN 0282-8952. (The Book is in Swedish, but there is an English summary)
The first work on the Swedish bagpipe tradition:
Rehnberg, Mats, Säckpipan i Sverige, Nordiska museets handlingar 18, Stockholm 1943. (Also in Swedish)
A paper in English on the Swedish bagpipes:
Gudmundson, Per, "The bagpipe and its place, past and present, in Swedish folk music", in the Proceedings of the International Bagpipe Symposium, Uitgeverij 11&30, pp. 79-94, The Hague, Netherlands, 1988.
And another, derived from this Web page:
Gällmo, Olle, "Box of delights", The Bagpipe Society Magazine, pp. 5-9, Summer 1999.
A paper with a focus on the revival process, rather than on the instrument:
Ronström, Owe, "Making Use of History: The Revival of the Bagpipe in Sweden in the 1980s", in the UNESCO 1989 Yearbook of Traditional Music, pp. 95-108, 1989.
A book on bagpipes in general, and their history:
Baines, Anthony, Bagpipes, Pitt Rivers Museum, Occasional Papers on Technology, 9, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1995. ISBN 0 902793 10 1.
Links
Makers
In Sweden
Alban Faust
Jan Nordkvist
Börs Anders Öhman
Magnus Högfeldt
Max Persson
Anders Fagerström (electronic bagpipes!)
(Leif Eriksson has retired from bagpipe making. Jan Nordkvist has taken over his production)
Abroad
Boris Favre (Vancouver, Canada)
Matthias Branschke (Germany)
Seth Hamon (Texas, USA)
Cane suppliers
Alliaud Roseaux
Pipers and groups
Erik Ask-Upmark (Riksspelman 2004) (Dråm, Svanevit)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
mp3
video
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Click the score to hear the tune played exactly as written (midi)
Leather valve
The leather valve stiffens over time and may require the occasional application of some some olive oil or almond oil to soften it up. A valve that feels soft but still won't stay airtight can be greased with some vaseline to make it sticky. Leather valves often work better if a second half circle of leather is glued to its "free" end, to make it heavier.
Rubber valve
The rubber valve consists of a "cap" of rubber, attached to a metal tube at the inner end of the mouth piece. It is essentially maintenance free and should work perfectly for many years (*). The disadvantage is that if it starts to leak there is not much else to do than to replace it. Go to a kite makers store - kite makers use this kind of rubber caps to protect the ends of the kite frame. Cut the "lid" with a sharp hobby knife or razor blade.
N.B. When the above picture was taken, I blew air through the mouthpiece to make the lid visible (to open it). It stays closed when resting, and the crack can hardly be seen.
(*) The mouthpiece in one of my bagpipes has been stuck, as if glued into the bag, for 14 years when I write this - fortunatey, I've never had to adjust the valve, it works perfectly.
Watertrap
Your reeds' greatest enemy is humidity, and it does get rather moisty in a mouth blown bagpipe bag. One way to do away with some of the problems associated with moisty reeds is to get a bellows blown bagpipe. But there is another, very simple and cheap solution, and elegant at that since it is invisible; Make a watertrap!
The idea is to lengthen the mouthpiece inside the bag using a plastic hose. Some moisture will condensate on the inside walls of the hose, but the main point is that the air enters the actual bag at the back, far away from the reeds. That way, the bag itself will catch much of the moisture before it reaches the reeds. So, to be precise, it is the bag which is the real watertrap here, not the hose.
The effect is almost like playing a bellows blown bagpipe, i.e. you can set your reeds to work best when dry. That means that you can just pick up your bagpipe and start playing, without having to "warm" up first. If you set up your reeds like that in a mouthblown bagpipe without watertrap, they will quickly go out of tune when the humidity gets to them. With a watertrap it takes much longer (several hours in my experience) before you get tuning problems.
If your mouthpiece is equipped with a rubber valve, it is very easy to make a watertrap. Just remove the rubber cap from the metal tube it is attached to, attach the hose there instead. Now, insert a similar metal tube, halfway, into the other end of the hose so that you can attach the rubber cap there.
If you have a leather valve, the detaching and attaching of the actual valve gets more tricky, but the principle is the same. I recommend taking this opportunity to replace the leather valve with a rubber one. Widen the mouthpiece bore at the inner end, so that you can insert a metal tube there with the same inner diameter as the rest of the mouthpiece.
The watertrap has some drawbacks, but in my opinion the advantages outweighs the disadvantages by a great margin. The sound of blowing air into the bag gets louder with a watertrap, and it is a bit harder to blow since the tube is longer. If the hose is too long, the valve may hit the back end of the bag and temporarily stop working. If so, just shorten the hose a bit. Another disadvantage is that the bag won't be as easy to fold when you put the instrument away. The mouthpiece stays rather rigid and won't fall down towards the bag if you release it while playing, which to me is an advantage since I often do.
Bees-wax is often used to tune individual notes on the chanter. That works well, and for semi-permanent tunings I use it as well. However, it is a bit cumbersome to use bees-wax for holes that often needs fine tuning, e.g. the minor/major double hole under the upper hand long finger, or the bottom hole (E on an E/A chanter). The same goes for the the tuning hole(s) on the drone.
For many years, I have used rubber rings instead, cut from a bicycle hose (thin hose, for racing bikes). There are some disadvantages do that, though. The rubber, most often black, can stain the wood, and when used for the major/minor double hole I have had problems with air leaks under my finger when playing the chanter tuned to a minor key. The colour as such may be an aesthetical problem. Bicycle hose does exist in other colours, but most bicycle shop owners are not used to customers who care, so they are not easy to find.
A better alternative, at least for the major/minor double hole, is to cut rings from the little finger of a dish washing glove - the cheap common type in rubber. The inside of such gloves are often lined with thin white felt. I turn these rings inside out, rubber side towards the chanter. That way, the colour of the rubber is not an issue and, in addition, it makes a tighter seal. Rubber gloves are thinner than the walls of bicycle hose, so the risk of leaks under the finger(s) is reduced. On the other hand, the rings are not as easy to move up and down along the chanter, as the bicycle hose rings are. Therefore, I still have a bicycle hose ring at the bottom, for the low E, since I often retune that note with my right hand pinkie while playing.
There are even thinner rubber gloves, in latex - the kind used in hospitals, for example. In my opinion they are too thin and even harder to move around.
Musicians on other reed instrument change their reeds often. Oboists, for example, often make their own reeds and replace them at least once a week. But Swedish bagpipe reeds seem to last for a long time, no one knows for how long. Two of my reeds (the one to the right is one of them) are 14 years old when I write this. I know of reeds in daily use that are more than 25 years old.
So, it is unlikely that you play your reeds to their death, and old age does not seem to be a problem either. An accident is more likely, and that can happen anyone, anytime. Therefore it is a good idea to keep your reed making skills in shape, and to have spare reeds with you at all times (and to play them regularly).
Two different kind of reeds (both for chanters in E/A). The downcut reed to the left, with hair and bridle, is made from Phragmites australis. Phragmites is usually not air tight in the node end, so this end has been sealed with some sealing wax (the red "hat" at the top). The upcut reed to the right is made from Arundo donax. This type of reed does not require hair or bridle. Phragmites reeds are usually (as here) shorter than Arundo reeds.
Some useful tools. Two cane segments (not cut down to length yet, a sharp knife, a single edge razor blade and a handle for that.
Chanter and cane segments
The cylinder should be 50-55 mm in length (measured between the node and the open end). To shorten the cane segment to this length, I cut around it with a sharp knife (actually, I hold the knife still and roll the cylinder while pressing it to the knife's edge) until I'm almost through. Then I can break it off.
I clean the inside of the cylinder with a 4mm drill and, if the node end is not already airtight, I seal it with melted sealing wax. Arundo donax nodes usually are airtight.
I use mediterranean cane (Arundo donax) for my reeds, but if you want to make reeds the traditional way, you should harvest common reed (Phragmites australis) in late winter or early spring, when the ice breaks up, and use segments that have been embedded in the ice, i.e. segments from the water line. (This being a tradition from a country where the lakes always freeze over in winter)
Preferably, the cane you pick has had a tough life, and therefore grown slowly and become hard. Cane from lakes or ditches by farmed fields have most likely been over fertilized and grown too fast, making the cane thick walled, or even solid, and porous.
The cane should be left to dry for a long time, at least a year. It should be gold-brown when you make your reeds, not green (Arundo donax becomes more yellow when it dries).
Before starting to make a Phragmites reed, take the segment and try to crush it between your thumb and the middle joint of your index finger. Really try! Of course, if you succeed you destroy the segment, but then it was probably not a good segment anyway.
Roll the cane segment against the knife ...
... and then break it off.
Downcut reeds are cut (sliced) from close to the node towards the open end. In other words, the tip of the tongue comes close to the node, and the root of the tongue comes close to the open end and the chanter. Downcut reeds are usually, but not necessarily, made from Phragmites australis cane.
I prefer upcut reeds, which means that I cut in the other direction - from the open end towards the closed end. So, the resulting tongue's tip comes close to the chanter and the root comes close to the node. Upcut reeds are usually, but not necessarily, made from Arundo donax cane.
Anyway, upcut reeds it is. I start by searching for the cylinder's "eye". This is a small bump, or indentation on one side of the cylinder, close to the node - the remnant of a sprout having grown there, I guess. It may not be there, but if it is, I cut out the tongue on the other side of the cylinder. This is to ensure that the bump or indentation does not affect the tongue (become part of it).
I then mark the tip of the tongue with a thin and sharp knife, 37mm from the node. This is the measure recommended by Alban Faust, for chanter reeds (of his own making). He recommends 35mm for drone reeds, but I use the same measure for both kinds of reeds. To me, it is not crucial that the length is exact, as long as it is not too short. If required I shorten the tongue later, using a bridle.
I then cut down (saw down) with the knife at the mark, until I'm almost through the inner wall of the cylinder. Then I replace the knife with a razor blade, and push with that until I can only just see the edge of the blade if I look inside the cylinder. Arundo donax can be very hard, so it may prove difficult (even dangerous) to get through with a normal, double edge, razor blade. I use a single edge razor blade instead, of the type painters use to scrape left-over paint from windows. There are handles for such razor blades (see the picture above with the tools).
The next step is to crack the tongue open (to lift the tip), by bending the blade towards the open end of the cylinder. (This is a critical moment and it does not always succeed.) I then carefully insert the blade under the tongue and use it as a lever, to lift the tongue some more.
It is important to be careful here, so as not to cut away material from the edges under the tongue (causing air leaks). Finally, I remove the blade and bend up the tongue by hand. The crack should go up all they way to the node (or as close to it as possible).
That I'm lifting, not cutting, allows the crack to follow fibres in the material. Some makers prefer to cut, ignoring the direction of the fibres. I don't. I believe (only by intuition) that the reed becomes more reliable if it is allowed to do "what it wants"
Lifting the tongue and looking inside the cylinder, I sometimes find a small seed (looks like a small piece of cotton) close to the node. If so, I remove it.
By now, I have imposed quite an amount of strain and stress in the tongue, by cutting and bending. If I'm not in a hurry (one should not be) - I leave the reed to rest for a few hours. When I come back, the tongue has relaxed a bit (lowered itself towards the body).
I now try blowing through the reed, by inserting it in my mouth, node end first, almost all the way (so that the tongue can vibrate freely inside). Eventually, when the reed is finished, this should produce a crisp and steady tone, slightly above E (upper E on your chanter, i.e. the highest note on most E/A-chanters) (Sound example).
Most likely, though, the reed does not sound right yet, if it sounds at all. There are two probable reasons for this - the tongue may not be elevated enough (from the body) and may also be too stiff (thick).
Mark the tongue's length and saw with the knife (the white piece of plastic is a template, 55 mm long and with marks at 35 and 37 mm)
Push down with a razor blade
Crack the tongue open
Lift the tongue, using the razor blade as a lever
Thinning out the tongue
Workshop in Gagnef Photo: Anne-Marie Eriksson
Heat setting of the tongue
This is an E/A-chanter reed. It is fully functional and well in tune (and has been for almost a decade when I write this). As you can see, the tongue does not have to be lifted much - the elevation is actually almost unnoticeable. Note also that this reed has both a bridle (a short piece of plastic hose) and a hair.
A man (Hans Rönnegård) and his reed making toolkit Photo: Anne-Marie Eriksson
Finished, but not yet adjusted, reed
Tuning of a chanter. The guy to the right is Håkan Sjöö. Photo: Anne-Marie Eriksson
Workshop in Estonia, showing off Swedish bagpipes and how to make reeds. Photo: Mikael Larsson
