The Practice Chanter Reed
What should you look for in a good practice chanter reed?
Make sure the blades on the reed you are purchasing are evenly bound together with no overlaping, both blades on the reed should be symetrical. If you are a beginner select a reed that is easy to blow. This will allow you to concentrate on your fingering rather than your blowing. An elastic band can be used to weaken a strong reed, carefully wrap it around the blades of the reed the further up you place the elastic band the easier the reed becomes, this will also sharpen the pitch so you may have to add hemp to the reed .
How do you adjusting the pitch of a practice chanter reed?
As mentioned above you can place an elastic band on the blades. Another way of sharpining the pitch is to remove some hemp from the reed and set it lower in the practice chanter reed seat, if the reed is too sharp add some hemp to the reed and raise it up in the reed seat.
How to take care of the practice chanter reed?
When dismanteling the practice chanter the lower half of the practice chanter is held just above the High A hole and the lower half is gripped above the ferrule, carefully twist the sections in opposite directions and draw the sections apart, go slowley so as not to scrape or damage the practice reed.
To dry the reed hold it by the staple and blow into the staple end in order to blow the moisture out then carefully dry the blades with a clean tissue.
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