Okay, next question. Thank you. “The dreaded sharp high G. What do I do: sanding, taping, soaking?” So we’re talking about the high G note on the pipes.  Probably the most problematic note I would say. And for most people, most setups, the high G is just a note that can be unstable, it can be sharp, it often has a lot of tape on that note. 

So there’s a couple of things to look for. The first thing to look for if you have sharpness on your top hand, especially F  high G, is dryness. A really good reed that is dried out will often get very thin and very sharp, especially on the top hand notes. 

So that’s where you want to have your Tone Protector. So it’s my humidity controlling chanter cap, very popular, award-winning product used by pipers all over the world. But especially important, if you want to have a consistent sound, you want your reeds to last longer, and to deal with changing humidity conditions around you, especially dryness. 

So get that Tone Protector on there. That would be the first thing.  I would not soak the reed. I would not lick the reed.  Since I invented the Tone Protector, I have eliminated all licking and soaking because what that does if your reed is really dry and you have a super sharp high G. That’s a problem which obviously you need to address. But if you lick that reed or you soak it, you are now shocking the reed.  It was a little dry piece of wood, and now you have shocked it with a lot of moisture.  It may alleviate some of that sharpness problem, but now you have introduced other problems. The reed is going to be very unstable, it may be on the flat side, and people who lick or soak the reeds need to pinch the reeds.  So you’re introducing all kinds of instability to the reed which you don’t want to do. Much better off to keep that reed from drying out in the first place with your Tone Protector Chanter Cap. If you have other reeds that you want to protect as well, get them in the Tone Protector Reed Case. All my extra backup new spare chanter reeds are in the Tone Protector Reed Case. And then of course all my chanters, you can see over my shoulder there my rack of chanters. They’re all capped with the Tone Protector at 84% humidity.

Next thing to check: so we got moisture, note not overly dry. We’re at the optimal moisture level.  Next thing to check is, is the reed too easy? 

So that you just have to feel based on your blowing strength preferences.  If you’re striking in your pipes and the chanter reed comes in kind of early early, chanter sound possibly too easy.  Maybe you just can feel that the reed was a good strength previously, and now it’s eased up on you, a little on the easy side. That can cause sharpness on the top hand as well.  So check for that if the reed is too easy. 

Otherwise you need my Pipers Ultimate Reed Poker.  So this is a specialized tool, it goes in the bottom of the reed and you just push it in a millimeter or two.  It opens up the reed from the inside. Check out the video on my YouTube channel about working with chanter reeds and there’s a demonstration in there for what a reed that needs to be poked sounds like, and how the poke will fix it.  So the poking just opens up the reed a little bit, making it very slightly stronger.  But it can solve some of the sharpness problems that you get on the top hand, especially high G. 

Okay, next thing to check is, “Is the reed too far into the reed seat?”  Meaning, is it too deep? So what you can look at, get your Braw Tuner out, get your InTune Mic, check the tuning. If things are in tune at the bottom, and then they start to get sharp when you get to the top hand, like maybe D is a little sharp, E is even more sharp, F is even more sharp.  So as you go up, the sharper it gets, then that’s a really good candidate for raising the reed up a little bit. So if you have a pipe chanter that has a threaded reed seat, you can maybe just raise the reed by untwisting it counterclockwise, a quarter or a half turn. 

It may be too loose there, or if your reed seat is not threaded, you’re going have to pull it out and put a little bit of hemp on there. Maybe just one wrap of hemp and then put it back in. So that raises the reed in the chanter, which then lengthens the distance from the reed to each of the holes, which then flattens all the notes because of the pitch of a note.  This is my practice chanter here, but the pitch of that note, that high G note, is determined by the distance from the top of the reed to the top of that hole. 

So when I raise the reed up, it lengthens that distance a little bit. So it’ll flatten every note, but the top notes, it flattens the most. So it’ll flatten the high A the most, high G second most, F a little bit less, and as you go down.  And the reason that it affects the lower notes less, is that the distance from the top of the reed to that bottom hole isn’t that affected by little changes in the reed position, whereas the shorter distance, it’s affected a lot. 

So that’s how it works to flatten the top hand. The last two things, like if you’ve sorted all that out, it could just be that the reed is toast. Maybe it wasn’t a good reed to start off with. Maybe the reed was fine, but it’s old.  And there’s only so much you can do with Tone Protectors and pokers and tuning to save a reed that really is dead because a reed is made from cane, which is a natural material. And after so many million or billion times vibrating back and forth, it just loses its springiness and its resilience. 

And it’s going to have to be replaced. So the Tone Protector really helps lengthen the lifespan of your reeds because the reeds are not getting super dry and super wet through this drying out process and slobbering, moistening process.  And the other thing the Tone Protector does is it significantly reduces the amount of wear and tear on your reeds, not only through those humidity swings, but because you’re not having to do so much to it. 

You’re not having to shave it, pinch it, poke it. All that stuff is reduced. So that also lengthens the lifespan of your reeds. But sometimes reeds, they’re just done. One of the signs that suggest to me that a reed is starting to go is if it loses pitch stability.  So a really great chanter and reed combo, in addition to being efficient and having a nice balanced tone and staying in tune, is very pressure stable.  Meaning, you play a note and it makes the pitch of that note.  And then even if you blow slightly harder, or slack off slightly, the pitch of the note doesn’t change very much or at all. That is a great reed. It’s stable. It doesn’t change based on pressure. 

You can hook up your Bagpipe Gauge.  And of course, we’re really trying to get really steady on the blowing, but you’re human. And so we all have little fluctuations in the blowing pressure, but you can’t hear any changes in the pitch of the note.  That’s a great reed. And that starts to deteriorate when the reed is starting to go. So what ends up happening is that the reed will be in tune if you’re blowing at exactly the perfect pressure, and if you slightly over-blow or under-blow, the pitch really changes. 

So that can also happen as the reed gets too easy, and gets too old, and starts to die. I will notice it when I’m tuning, I’m playing, everything’s really good, and all of a sudden, the bottom-hand notes kind of go… 

They kind of start to sag and dip. And I think, “Oh gosh, this reed is starting to go.” Sometimes a poke will help with that, but if it’s been poked a couple of times and it still does that, I chuck that reed and go to my Tone Protector Reed Case and get a new one. 

The other thing to look at is the pipe chanter itself. Pipe chanters are not all the same. Even if they look the same on the outside. That’s why pipers these days love these modern pipe chanters. My favorite, of course, is the Infinity chanter from R .G. Hardie. You take these older pipe chanters, you just take a Hardie chanter, a Henderson chanter from 50 years ago, high G is horrible, it’s really sharp. 

So that may be a combination of an old chanter with a new reed, and they’re not compatible. Yeah, but even with the old reeds, you listen to those old recordings, sharp Ds, sharp Gs, flat low Gs. They didn’t have the sound that we love today, which is a nice balanced sound. And by balanced, we mean that the pitch is sort of equivalent from top to bottom. The top hand is not crazy sharp or crazy flat. Also balanced means volume. We want an equal volume projection up and down the scale.  We don’t want really loud and honking on the bottom hand. And then when you go to the top end, it’s really thin and quiet. So modern chanters with a good modern reed, like my Foundation reed, are going to give you that balanced sound that’s efficient, that’s pitch stable, that stays in tune through your performance. 

But finally, I’ll say, “Tape is fine. Tape is great.” Putting tape over the holes to tune the notes on the chanter, nothing wrong with it. There’s a lot right with it. If you want to have your pipes be in tune, you need a lot of tape on your chanter. 

Even a chanter that is technically perfectly designed, like the Infinity chanter, every reed is different. So by getting that reed in the chanter at the right depth, you are still going to have to tape things up to get every hole perfectly in tune. 

If you hear a piper, and their pipes sound amazing, and they are in tune, and every note is just dialed in, 100% guarantee there’s tape on that chanter. And here’s why: every reed is different, and every reed is changing. 

Even with Tone Protectors, and moisture control systems, and synthetic bags, and InTune Mics, and Braw bagpipe tuner apps, and Bagpipe Gauges, and even with all the tools that we have, and you have your iPhone and your iPad to record yourself, all these things that help us play better, and pieces of technology that help our pipes be more stable. 

The pitch that’s coming off of your chanter changes. It not only changes as you play, as it warms up, it also changes based on the conditions, temperature, humidity, playing in the sun, playing in the shade.  It also changes as the reed evolves and breaks in over the lifespan of the reed. So things are way more stable than they ever have been because of technology, and because reeds are getting better. But still, things change. 

So even if, hypothetically, you found the perfect reed, and you stuck it in your perfect chanter, and it was perfectly in tune on every note with no tape, well, how long is that going to last? Well, it might last for a few minutes.  But it’s not going to last for an hour. And if it’s that way today, it’s probably not going to be like that tomorrow. Or if it’s that way in the shade, it’s not going to be that way in the sun. So what that means is you’re going to have to be compensating for those little changes with tuning, just like we tune our drones. 

We’ve got to tune every note on the chanter, and we do that with the position of the reed in the reed seat and also with tape. So there you go. OK, well, I think we’re getting kind of close to wrapping up. Let’s see if we got one more here. 

Yes, OK. I get a bunch of questions about confidence and competing, and how do I build confidence, or how do I get the courage to go out there and compete? And this time of year, if you’re playing in a pipe band, or you’re a solo piper and you’re going to be competing at the Highland Games this summer, you’re starting to think about that, and what’s coming up, and what tunes am I playing, and what events am I playing, and what do I need to do to be ready to compete this summer and to have a positive experience? 

I’ve been competing for a really, really long time. My first bagpipe competition was I think in 1989 and I played through all the amateur ranks, and at the professional level, and at the U .S. National Championships in Kansas City, and at the gold medal in Scotland, and Australia and all over.  And I also played with pipe bands locally here and at the highest level. I played with the Simon Fraser University pipe band for 19 years, a top-level band.  We won the World Pipe Band Championships three times when I was in the band. 

So I’ve seen the whole range of things, and one of the lessons I’ve learned is that it’s really important to have the right mindset about what competition is and what competition isn’t. And it’s taken me a while to figure this out but I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and I think it’s really important to use competition wisely, and that is to use it as a way to set a goal. 

It’s a specific goal. You’re going to play these tunes and these events on this date in this place, and you use it to try to prepare, and you use it to try to be your best. But whether you win the prize, or placing, or the medal, or the trophy, or you don’t, is not important.  Of course, we all want to win when competing. I want to win. But when you focus on that, it takes your mind and your ability to win. And that’s what I’m going to talk about.

There’s an amazing video that you can look up. I’ll put a link here. And it’s to the actor, Brian Cranston, a highly respected and award-winning actor, Breaking Bad, Seinfeld, a whole bunch of other stuff. 

And someone is asking him backstage (he’s just won an award) “What advice would you have for aspiring actors?” And this video is like a minute long, and you’ve got to watch it. And he says something that just made so much sense to me as someone who competes in a competitive art form, like bagpipe competitions. 

So he says, as an actor, you have to know what your job is. He realized that for much of his career, the early part of his career, before he was successful, he was going into auditions trying to get a job. 

But that was the wrong approach. Wrong approach. He says, what an actor does, is to create a compelling, interesting character based on the text, and then go and present it in your audition, and then walk away.  And that’s it. Everything else is out of your control. So don’t focus on it. Don’t go to the audition to try to get the job. Go to the audition to do what you do, which is to act, and then walk away. 

And then he says, there’s power in it. It gives you confidence. And it also is saying, “I can only do so much.” So he says for him, it was just a revelation, this idea of trying to go out and win a job, or a role, is it doesn’t make any sense. 

And he said that was really important for his success in life. And when I read that, I saw that. I thought, “Oh my gosh. That’s so wise.” And it’s saying, focus on your job. So if you’re a piper and you want to compete, what do you do? You play bagpipes. You take the written sheet music and you bring life to it in a musical, beautiful way on a wonderful sounding instrument. And that’s what you’re supposed to do. Even when going into a competition, you can’t win the competition.  There’s nothing you can do to get that gold medal, to get that trophy. That’s somebody else’s job. That’s the judge’s job. Don’t take away their job. You can’t take away their job. Don’t even think about it. 

So you don’t want to think about playing other than,  “This is when I’m going to play.”  You don’t want to obsess, or think about, or waste any energy on who else you’re competing against, and how good they are, and who they are, and who their teacher is.  And you don’t want to think about who the judge is. Oh, what is that judge? Do they like me? Do they not like me? What did they give me last time? That’s not your job. Your job is to do the best you can do with your performance. 

So focus on the technical aspects of your performance, memory, technique, tuning, phrasing, expression. Focus on that. Do what you do. Go to that place on that day, on that stage, or that platform, or that piece of grass, and do what you do. 

And then walk away. I think that’s a wonderful mindset. And it helps you focus on what you can do, and the other stuff, it’s out of your hands.  It’s not just irrelevant. In my experience, it’s actually a distraction and a detriment to that.  So as we go into competition season, if you’re going to be competing, the other thing to remember is: you’re lucky you get to do this super fun/amazing hobby/ pastime/way-of-life, which is play bagpipes.  Whether you’re doing it on your own, you’re doing it in a band, in the summertime, going to your Highland Games, get to see your friends, get to get dressed up, get to listen to great music, get a chance to go out there and show what you do, the luckiest people in the world to get to do that.  So remember, you don’t have to do it.  You do it because you want to do it.  You’re lucky because you get to do it.  Go out there and do the best you can, and walk away.

All right folks, I think we’ll wrap it up here.  This is really cool.  I’m going to keep doing these, and thank you for your questions.  Thanks to everybody who’s watched on the live stream.  If you like what I have to say, and you’re interested in learning from me, check out my BagpipeLessons.com Inner Circle: it’s BagpipeLessons.com/membership.  I do weekly live zoom classes for my members just about every week, and you get access to all of my recorded live sessions.  There’s hundreds of them now, and hundreds of other lessons in my exclusive lesson library with tunes and videos and product demonstrations and lessons and exercises and so much more. And you get that all with your membership.

Check out my Essentials Masterclass at BagpipeLessons.com/masterclass.  By the way, that entire master class is included with your Inner Circle membership.  And if you’re looking for some more free stuff go to BagpipeLessons.com/learn.  It’s got links to all my videos and free guides, and you can download all kinds of other cool stuff.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel here. Subscribe and click the bell icon so you’ll get notified when I post a new video when I go live like today.  It really does help, as more people subscribe, YouTube knows that you like my videos, and they will show these videos to other pipers, who I think will like them too.  So thanks again, happy Friday.  We’ll see you next time, and Mahalo, Thank you