The workshop about tuning your drones covered the basics.
Sound Theory
Sound consists of longitudinal waves: the particles of the medium through which a sound travels oscillate along the direction in which the sound is travelling. In air, this causes small compressions and rarefactions of pressure, above and below nominal atmospheric pressure. The human ear responds to frequencies between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second, although children can often hear up to 30 kHz whilst older people have a more limited range. Fortunately for the latter, human speech is mainly confined to the region between 300 Hz and 3 kHz.
Bagpipe Drones
Tuning drones is nothing more than blowing your bagpipe to pitch and then adjusting your drones to produce a harmonic sound that blends perfectly with each note on your chanter and with each other. In the simplest example, you want to eliminate all of the “wha wha” that the drones produce when out-of-tune.
Key things to remember
- Pitch will change with time, environment and you
- Always tune when fully sounding the chanter
- Playing low A will tune flat for most pipers
- Play a simple tune (so you’re not multi-tasking)
- Bass drone is most important – provides that rich deep sound
The practical process
- Outside tenor
- Bass drone to tenor
- Middle tenor to the other two