Practice Chanters
Welcome to our Practice Chanter Pages!
Below on this page we discuss the basics of
what a practice chanter is. If you are a beginner, please take a few minutes to read this
page before moving on to the pages of chanters. If you already know all that, then see
these links:
Standard,
Long and Child's Practice Chanters
Practice Chanter
Sets: If you don't want to
wade through all the kinds of chanters and learning materials that we list, we've put
together some sets for you. These include a chanter, a book and a recording.
For a list of method books and recordings on learning to play
the practice chanter, and a video tutor, see our page of piping
books.
Practice Chanter Carrying
Cases
Reeds
The practice chanter (the "ch" is pronounced as in
"child") consists basically of the blowpipe and chanter from the bagpipes pipes
stuck together to make a wind instrument (i.e., it's a set of pipes without the bag and
without the drones). It comes apart in the center at the band; the double plastic reed is inside.
Many practice chanters are made of wood and have a plastic mouthpiece; however, some are
made entirely of high-grade plastic (these latter are not the cheapest ones). A new
chanter on the market is glass-filled nylon, which is not expensive. Wood is
traditional, and is a favorite material with many pipers; however, it should be noted that
the plastic has certain advantages: it gives a constant tone whatever the weather, with no
expanding, contracting or splitting.
At left is a typical wood practice chanter.
This one has a sole, the name given to the plastic disk on the end. The sole does not
affect playing of the instrument.
This is a typical plastic practice
chanter. This one does not have a sole; instead it has bulge at the end, which we call a button
sole.
This view shows a chanter pulled
apart to show the reed inside.
At left are shown two styles of practice chanter
reeds, short and long. The short one (just over 1 3/4" long) has a black plastic
sleeve that holdsthe two plastic reeds together. The longer one (2 1/4" long) has red
thread wound around to hold the reeds together.
The two styles of practice chanter reeds are interchangeable and
can be played in any practice chanter; which you play is a matter of choice.
Practice chanters come mostly in two sizes: standard and long
(smaller chanters for children also exist; see the bottom of this page). The standard
practice chanter's blowpipe and chanter pieces are somewhat shorter than those on a
full-size set of bagpipes, and the distance between the holes is very slightly less;
however, this is a convenient size to manage, and the standard practice chanter is the one
traditionally played by the majority of people. It's usually about 18-19 inches long
overall.
The long practice chanter's chanter piece is the same
size as this piece on a full-size set of bagpipes, and the hole spacings are the same as
well; a long chanter is 21-23 inches long overall, depending on the brand. People who play
the long chanters like the fact that they feel the same as the pipes. Which size of
practice chanter you will play is entirely up to you; if you have short arms, you will
probably find that a standard chanter works better for you. If you are tall with long
arms, you would be comfortable with a long chanter, and could play either size.
The woods used in both practice chanters and bagpipes are
dense, hard woods. The best are African blackwood and ebony; cocus (a figured light beige
wood) and rosewood are also used. Note that rosewood comes in different grades; our
cheapest chanters and pipes are made of an inexpensive type of rosewood, obviously a wood
that is in plentiful supply.
Prices of practice chanters vary a great deal, and here,
again, you must make a choice. Some people feel that they are better to buy an inexpensive
one until they see where they are going on this, and then get a good one later on. Others
figure that if they are going to play this for the rest of their lives, they might as well
get a good one right up front. As with everything else, you pretty well get what you pay
for in quality of workmanship, tone, intonation (i.e. keeping in tune), ability to stand
up to moisture from your breath and climate changes, and long-term durability.
Chanter Pitch
A practice chanter will play at a different pitch with different
reeds; it is not a precise-pitch instrument. If you try ten reeds in your chanter, you
will get ten variations in pitch.
This means that in group lessons, where the students play
together, the teacher has to try to get the chanter reeds fairly close to playing the same
pitch, but this is not easy.
Also: the three different sizes of chanter (standard, long and
child's) all play at a different pitch with the same reed. The long chanter plays
about half a tone lower than the standard chanter; the child's chanter plays about a tone
higher than the standard chanter.
In group lessons, the students need to play the same size of
chanter if they plan to play in unison, and pretty well the same style of reed,
chosen/trimmed very carefully.
If you are not taking chanter lessons in a group class, none of
this matters, and you can play the chanter and reed you wish.
Practice Chanter Reed
This reed will probably not wear out from
playing for a very long time. Practice chanter reeds usually die because the string wound
around the double reed unwinds from handling, or the dog gets a hold of it. (Well,
sometimes the dog gets the whole chanter; it's just the right shape to make it really
great to chew on.) However, we have found that beginners often have reed trouble at first
until they get the hang of handling them; you may want to consider ordering a couple of
extra reeds with your chanter, in case of anything. Our practice chanters all come with a
tested reed included in the price.
Please note that when we ship practice chanters we normally put
the chanter reed into a tiny plastic bag and attach it to the packing slip, so that the
reed will not be lost.
The Sole
The sole on a practice chanter is the round disk on
the end; it is an optional feature that has nothing to do with playing the chanter.
Chanters that do not have a sole are described as having a button sole, which is really
just a bulge of the wood or plastic of which the chanter is made. Purists claim that the
button sole is the more traditional style.
Ordering information and Order form
If you do not receive a reply from us within a day or
so after sending in an order on the order form, or after emailing a question, please
contact us again, as our reply may have been thrown in your
spam bin or may have returned to us. Exceptions: weekends
or when we note on our front page that we are
closed for any reason.
Email us
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