Tag Archives: bagpipes

Another set of reeds for our band

I ordered reeds again for our pipe-band.

A nice set of reeds from P/M Linden “Dixie” Ingram.
From which we got lessons at the Breuberg Summerschool.

Now i have to sort them by strenght and tuning. I have to take into account: peoples strenght to blow them, which ones needs scraping, hard blowers who get them into shape at the end.

Above is easy, middle and hard to blow .. increasing in strenght from left to right.

Next to do, is give them a number, and assign them to players.

While doing so i started playing with them to make a little website visitor counter 🙂

Last performance Tapsalteerie Folkband

https://media.henriaanstoot.nl/websites/tapsalteerie/en/

The folkband Tapsalteerie dates back to the spring of 2001. While enjoying a nice glass of wine Henri and Henny discovered that they had the interests in folkmusic. Together with Monique and Matthijs soon a band was formed. Recently Coline joined the band. From their mutual interests a varied repertoire was put together. Tapsalteerie plays Celtic music from Scotland, Ireland and England. Some tunes are played in their original state as much as possible, others have received a modern face-lift. The band is inspired by: The Tannahill Weavers, Mackeel, The Rogues of Scotland and Fairport Convention.

Our last big performance, as a whole band. In the years after stopping we played with Henny on different occasions.

Our band started in 2001, when i joined the Highland Valley Pipe Band.

A few years later we started the Nae Bother Folkband

Bagpipe Drone Tune Trainer

Somewhere in 2006 i made a drone trainer for our pipe band.

I was based on Flash, flash is dead. So i redid it in pure HTML5.

There is a long explanation howto tune in Dutch, it was in the Bands Wiki. Listen to the wave-beats and get it in tune!

Example beats

The page and source can be found here. (Just save page source to your computer!)

https://media.henriaanstoot.nl/dronetrainer.html

Forgot to show the frequencies being wrong while starting the drones. (Just press show to see them)

Electronic pipes

While they are not the real thing, and sound mostly bad. These little electronic devices are great on the move.

Great for using with headphones. Nice to have one of those in your backpack on holiday.

I’ve bought a Technochanter in 2004 and a deger in 2005, both with their benefits.
(I’ve got a little batterypowered mixer with dual output, so Coline and I can play a duet in silence 🙂 )

Technochanter at the top, the black one is the Deger

Both can play accidentals like natural C/F and more.

Links

http://www.fagerstrom.com/
https://www.deger.com/

I designed a electronic bagpipe in the 90’s myself, but it never was a success. ( Shall update this page when I find the schematics )

In 2010 I bought a Yamaha QY100 seqencer. I can connect the deger using a DIY midi cable, and use its buildin instruments.

Specs deger:

  • Same size and finger spacing as a long practice chanter.
  • Dual output: PHONES and MIDI! Headphones and MIDI devices can directly connect to the DegerPipes Chanter. It’s also possible to connect the phones output to an amplifier or a stereo.
  • The chanter contains all electronic components as well as the battery. No external box or additional equipment is needed.
  • Authentic Bagpipe sound including drones generated by wavetable sound synthesis. Highland Pipe and Smallpipe sounds integrated.
  • Perfectly tuned chanter scale and drones by usage of crystal oscillator and microprocessor control.
  • The Pitch is adjustable in a range of more than three octaves. This enables you to play together with other instruments in any key.
  • The drones volume is variable and can also be switched off.
  • Through MIDI output every MIDI compatible tone generator or other MIDI equipment can be used (for example PC with notation program).
  • An extended cromatical scale is available allowing you to play tunes which are not playable on the real pipe chanter.
  • Driven by a cheap standard 9V Battery, Accumulators are also usable.
  • Up to 100 hours of playing with only one battery.
  • Automatic power off after a minute of no activity.
  • A Metronome is integrated within the Chanter.
Deger Midi Cable

Specs Technochanter:

  • Fits in your pocket: only Ø16 x 225 mm (Ø5/8″ x 9″)
  • Uses earphones (not included): therefore perfect to play on buses, trains etc. Ideal for the commuter.
  • Natural C and F.
  • Pitch alterable.
  • Unforgiving at detecting crossing noise.
Finger Chart


Below a link to the QY100

Pipers Workshop

We gave a workshop for our pipeband.

Maintenance, making a goose, tuning and general advice.

Below is the work document from a day before (where is the final version???) Dutch only

Tuner with my own calculated offset of perfect harmonics/tuning

I also talked about tuning the drones.
https://www.henriaanstoot.nl/2006/01/01/bagpipe-drone-tune-trainer/

And some other oldskool tricks, like the metal dronestarter for cane reeds.

Some notes i made while playing with a Canadian Pipeband in Holten when i was 16 or so.

Old drone reeds.

Coline’s Persuasion

A trip to Scotland with our band. I wanted to remember the whole night drinking, staying outside on deck .. and getting lost.

So i composed a little tune we could play with the band.

The arches need to be played with slides .. like slipping of the deck. Same in bars 1,3,5 and 7 and second part

Coline persuaded several people to stay up all night. We drank a lot, and in the morning we tried to get down to our cabin’s.
But having to much to drink, apparently we took a wrong turn. We where in the living quarters of the cabin crew! A wrong elevator later .. the kitchen .. how did this happen. Friendly members of the crew showed us the way out.