"An American once won a
Nobel Prize by making a rat hysterical, and the technique he used is exactly the same as
that which the reed makers are using on me."
Who among us, and this is a test, has not had the same or similar feeling as we searched
for a reed that might not only provide good sound but last for a while? After we have gone
through the box or the wee plastic baggie full of these things, selecting two or three
that seem to show some promise, we then begin to "renovate" them. We sand,
shave, open up with a poker, pinch the bottom, pinch the top, and then try to unpinch it!
We wet it a bit. We dry it out. We raise it; we lower it. We even, for heaven's sake,
massage it, hold it tenderly to warm it up, talk to it, beg it to respond, order it to
behave, and swear at it. Throughout this process, we look at it a lot, examining it
carefully and turning it this way and that as if our eyes could somehow will the thing to
work. In fits of despair, we sometimes demolish it by snapping it in half, or stepping on
it, or throwing it across the room. This can be very satisfying.
Even supposing the reed is whatever we classify as "half decent", we then have
to get out that roll of tape or the gouger so that the individual holes on the chanter can
be made smaller or larger to suit the idiosyncracies of the reed. Before playing, we have
to pinch it so it's not too flat. Ten minutes later the darn thing is too sharp and has to
be raised. We move some tape around, sometimes with a clear purpose and sometimes randomly
so that we'll look like we know what we're doing when the Pipe Major glances over.
Finally, it is "set". Two hours or two weeks later it gives up the ghost,
shrieking like a banshee, completely unbalanced, brutally sharp or flat on the top or
bottom hand, the possessor of the soul destroying "collapsing 'F'", or just
plain ugly.
"Eventually, discouraged and mentally worn out, the rat went off its head."
Surely, this is what the mysterious but articulate "J.C.M." writing in 1948(!)
in Volume 1, Number 1, of the Piping Times, was speaking of when he wrote an article
entitled "This Reed Racket". Recently reprinted in the September, 1998, issue of
that venerable magazine, the article shows clearly that in some respects the concerns of
the pipers of 1999 are the same as those of players over 50 years ago.
This is not intended, nor should it be construed, as some kind of a blanket condemnation
of reed makers. It is not. Reed problems today are fewer, I think, than they were a few
years ago, as more people have learned the basics of reed manufacture and manipulation. In
addition, most people (I think? I hope?) understand the difficulties of making and
managing reeds. Nevertheless, as "J.C.M." neatly sums it up:
"One really good reed-maker could double the time we spend in actual playing and
would raise the standard of piping by at least ten percent in a year."
Is it safe to say that, overall, reed manufacture, production and quality control have
improved? What do you think?
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Rorri McBlane
Editor, B.C. Pipers Association Communications
bcpaeditor@dccnet.com
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