Are You Ready To Enter... The Tone Zone?

Has your Pipe Major or instructor ever told you to “blow tone” or “blow steady”, but never really explained what those terms mean or how to make them happen?

Join me on a journey to – the "Tone Zone"...

You’ve heard the word “tone” before I'm sure, so it’s easy for you to imagine that all, or at least most, pipers know exactly what the word means.

But do they, really?

On the other hand, “blowing steady” means just that, blowing and squeezing the bag such that the pressure inside the bag always remains constant, regardless of the note being played or the tempo of the tune.

Many pipers, unfortunately, believe that blowing steadily and good “tone” mean the same thing. But you can have a remarkable ability to blow steadily, yet produce poor overall tone. How can that be?

The answer lies in how we achieve a great tonal quality of our bagpipe. Great tonal quality, or “tone”, occurs not simply by blowing steadily, but by blowing at a high enough pressure that the chanter reed vibrates with such energy that it produces all of its potential harmonics or overtones.

To achieve a great tonal quality, we want to maximize those harmonics so they can resonate with the harmonics that our drones produce. The more harmonics and resonance, the more musical our bagpipes become.

So the big question now is no longer "how steady can I blow?" It's, "how do I find the blowing pressure that produces my chanter reed’s maximum harmonics and resonance?"

Even though this sounds complicated, it's actually pretty easy. Every chanter reed is unique, even those made by the same manufacturer. Each reed has its own "sweet spot," that point of vibration where all the richness of the reed is present.

It's often a surprise to learn how high the pressure needs to be to get to that spot on the reed. The trick is to then ease off slightly while keeping your blowing and squeezing pressure constant. That's where a manometer becomes a handy visualization tool.

If you can blow consistently at the sweet spot, steady blowing will become automatic and natural, the your pipe's overall tonal qualities will vastly improve. Strive for the harmonics, and the technique of blowing steadily will follow suit.

Discovering the "Tone Zone" is a transformative journey for any bagpiper, that will forever improve your bagpipe sound. Want to learn more about it? Check out this Dojo Conversations podcast as we dive deep into it!