The Bagpipe Society

Tidbits

30 years ago I got my first set of Swedish bagpipes, not knowing that they even existed until the year before. Despite efforts from me and many others, most Swedes still don’t. But I’ve learned a lot! Here are some random tidbits and tricks about Swedish bagpipes I have learned over the years:

Never tune a Swedish bagpipe chanter after the 6-finger note!

There are two reasons for this. One is that Swedish tunes most often have their tonic in the middle (the 3-finger note), and it’s therefore reasonable to tune after that. A more important reason, however, is that Swedish chanters tend to be the most stable there, in the middle of the chanter range, and more unsteady towards both ends. The 6-finger note is not a good reference. It’s a moving target which frequently needs to be adjusted. I sometimes do that even while playing (see below). By the same reasoning you should never tune the drone after that note. Tune the drone after the 3-finger note first, then tune the 6-finger note after the drone!

Toothpicks in my coin pocket

Very few people use cash nowadays, at least here in Sweden, and especially not coins. The only thing of monetary value in my wallet is a credit card. But, for some reason, wallets still have coin pockets. I have toothpicks in mine. They are great for shaping or removing the bees-wax we often use to fine-tune finger holes.

Minor/major double holes

Almost all Swedish bagpipe chanters, nowadays, have a double hole under the top hand longfinger - the minor/major third (since the tonic is usually the 3-finger note). When we are to play a tune in minor we prepare by covering the upper hole, sometimes with bees-wax, but today it’s more common to move a rubber ring along the chanter to cover/uncover that hole. A common beginner’s mistake is to only uncover the upper hole when playing in major, sliding the rubber band down to cover the lower hole instead. Don’t. The chanter is designed to play in major when both holes are open, not just the upper one.

Avoid rubber bands for D#

Some chanters have a double hole also under the top hand index finger. That’s D/D# on an E/A-chanter. If you have one, it’s tempting to use a rubber ring also for that to cover/uncover the D# hole. The problem is that the ring tends to interfere with your thumb on the back side. So, it’s better to cover the D# hole with something sticky. Bees-wax, for example. I semí-permanently plugged mine, actually, since I rarely use it.

The wall thickness of rubber rings

The rubber rings I mentioned are often cut from a bicycle hose. You want a hose from a racing bike (smallest diameter). They are usually black but you can find them in other colours, if you’re lucky and willing to get a strangest-question-of-the-year award from the bicycle shop owner.

However, rubber hoses have rather thick walls, and this may cause air leaks under your long finger when playing in minor. For the minor/major double hole I therefore often instead use a ring cut from the little finger of a dishwashing glove. They are thinner, and available in more glorious colours, though they should be turned with the coloured rubber side on the inside (against the chanter wall). Mine are yellow, but only I know that.

For the bottom pinky hole, though, I want a bicycle hose ring since bottom E, as mentioned, often needs adjustments. I sometimes want to do that while playing, by pushing the ring up or down with my pinkie while the melody is busy elsewhere (in the upper half of the scale). Thin-walled rings made from dishwashing gloves are not easily pushed like that.

Cigarette paper

Synthetic reeds have become more common in the last decade. They are not affected by moisture in the same way as cane (that’s the point), but this does not mean that they are trouble free. Though moisture cannot impregnate the tongue and thereby affect its stiffness, small droplets may stick to the surface of the tongue if you play for a long time. You will immediately hear the effects when that happens. The top side of the tongue is easily wiped off, but the droplets don’t care which side is which. Cigarette paper is thin enough to be inserted under the tongue to wipe that side as well.

Hiding behind the drone

Most Swedish bagpipes have the drone tuned to the same note, and in the same octave, as the 6-finger note on the chanter. That’s low E on an E/A chanter, and it’s an excellent hiding spot! This is why staccato playing (rapells down to the 6-finger note) is so effectual on Swedish bagpipes. It’s also an advantage in session, if you mess up or forgot the tune you don’t have to stop playing. You can just go down to low E and stay there until you recover your wits.

When the melody jumps down to low E

That hiding spot can be a problem, though, when the melody actually goes down to low E. It may then not be heard as a melody note. For example, if the melody is A-E-A, it may heard as A-pause-A. In such situations, to make it more clear that I really meant E as a melody note, I often ‘walk’ down to it instead of jumping down to it, playing the notes in-between on my way down (G# and F# in this example). The idea is to give the listener a hint about where the melody is going.

Don’t stow your pipes up-side-down in a dark case

On a hot summer day in the mid 90’s, I was walking around at a festival with a bagpipe ‘quiver’ on my back - a standup case where the pipes had been stowed from top and neck first. That was a mistake. The next time I was to play my pipes the chanter didn’t make a sound, and when I pulled it out to figure out why, I could not even see the reed. It was completely encapsulated inside a gooey blob of bagpipe seasoning. The sun had liquified the seasoning and it had poured ‘down’ inside the bag towards the neck and the chanter reed. I had to clean it under a water tap. It was a cane reed, but I was lucky. It survived to play for many years after that.

olle@gallmo.se http://olle.gallmo.se