Ah, yes . . . I remember Ron Elliott from long ago when he was living in London and was the leading light of the London Group. I don't recall a lot about him except that he was an exceedingly fine player and that he did indeed always lick his fingers before playing. In those days the London group met in a fairly scary East End pub called The Knave of Clubs (now an expensive gastro-pub, Les Trois Garçons) which was also known locally as 'The Bird House' because of the illegal trade in captive wild birds that was said to take place there. Piping would happen in the upper room which also functioned as the meeting place of the local Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, lined with the decapitations of huge horned mammals. I remember, too, that as a total beginner I was sometimes too scared to get my pipes out of the box!
However, pipers need to be brave souls and you are probably right about scraping the reed appropriately. That said, the problem for any beginner is the usual one. Is is a fault with the pipes or with initial technique? Or both? Unwelcome squeaking can arise from many causes (including mice in the bag, though I'm not qualified to advise on a solution to that one) and it takes a good amount of experience to determine what is really wrong. What should an isolated beginner do in such circumstances? Francis On 18 Mar 2010, at 12:55, Anthony Robb wrote: > > Francis Wood wrote: > > Finally, it's worth noting that squeaks are more often heard in cold > weather when skin is drier and less likely to seal a tone hole > reliably. > Perhaps the coming of Spring will help! > > True Francis - Ron Elliott (Nancy Kerr's dad) always used to lick the > finger tips of each hand before playing a tune (whatever the season). > The problem here, however, seems to be from the bottom keys and some > good advice has already been given but it seems to me that the reed > itself is prone to squeaks. This is often cured (if brave enough) by > lightly scraping the bottom third of the reed towards the staple across > the whole width (evenly on both sides). This lessens some of the vey > high harmonics and might well help in this case. I usually use a fresh > scalpel blade (size 26) which allows removal of very fine layers of > cane. > As aye > Anthony > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
