glove gaida
another diy segment. this time, i completed my membrane pipes using the foonki chanter design by Linsey Pollak (check out his stuff, it’s amazing).
i used a rubber glove as the bag, and made an equal-length drone using a very thin pipe. to connect all the pipes to the glove i made a tiny hole in each finger and used tiny garden hoses to channel the air. the final version had one chanter and 3 drones, octave above, fifth and unison.
though i managed to make all 4 membrane reeds, it’s hard to balance the pressure for all the pipes, since the 3 drones are each less than 1/3 of the diameter. as you can see in the video, it was also hard to keep the chanter from doing the above octave. so the result was an out of tune mess, so this video was the best moment, when the single drone was properly tuned
so i sacked this design and will change to single reeds. this change will allow an easier (and more visually appealing) shape. with these membrane reeds i have to make angles versus making just one base to keep the chanter in.
so far, the only material was metal pipes, garden hose, thread, rubber gloves and plastic bags, with a total cost of maybe 15€. so with enough work, proper pipes can be built for a ridiculously low amount of money. since i used proper measurements this time, it actually sounds good. choosing a cylindrical bore was key, since it makes tuning much easier and the hole position is always the same, plus the volume is slightly lower.
i have a rubber bagpipe bag, and made full pipes with this, but since i had no valve for the mouthpiece, it’s very hard to play. so now i’m doing one with a valve, 3 drones and 1 chanter, but it’s hard to tell when i’ll be done. i’m not very good at making single reeds, so this will be the main challenge.