Competition practice 7/13/24 with plastic chanter reed

[@Marcblur]

Thank you for the kind words and vote of confidence, Ralph. I'm not doing production levels yet for supplying other pipers, but hope to be soon.

[@kohrsthomas]

Wonderful clear, crisp and cracking embellishments. Nice calm playing. This will be a good day at the comp! Have fun there. Thank you very much for sharing!

[@abbaralph2011]

Thanks for listening. We will see how I play in front of a judge, that’s the hard part haga

[@Squidtoken]

Lovely tunes as always. You are a wonderful musician! There is no doubt in my mind that you'll do an excellent job in the competition! Wishing you the best of luck 😀

[@abbaralph2011]

@@Squidtoken thanks, glad you enjoyed it, I appreciate it!

[@michaelkazmierskidunn7189]

HOLY MAZZILLO I can't tell this reed from the tonal quality of cane reeds!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You've definitely convinced me to go to an all-synthetic reed setup for solos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THen I won't have to worry about Piobaireachd LOL. Very very similar to cane. Legit, if Mark were to be taught how to make Italian bagpipe reeds, his would be the tonally best syntehticsynthetic reeds for Italian pipes too. I'm serious. Synthetic reeds in Italian bagpipes, especially on the higher chanter, sound tonally worse than cane. But for the lower chanters they are much more difficult to tell apart. And full circle, Mazzillo is the best Italian bagpipe maker in history.

[@abbaralph2011]

@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 Marc did make some reeds for my Italian bagpipes, a piva Emiliana bagpipr

[@michaelkazmierskidunn7189]

@@abbaralph2011 Listen bro: Piva pipes are knockoff of French bagpipes. If you really want "real" Italian bagpipes, try to get in touch with Carmine Dante, he does speak English. He makes the best 3 palmi (standard size) Italian pipes I know. I've read pages from Nico Scaldaferri who said that Piva pipes are not true Italian bagpipes. They're knockoffs.

[@abbaralph2011]

@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 I wouldn’t know anything about that except they are a historical bagpipes from hundreds of years ago.

[@michaelkazmierskidunn7189]

@@abbaralph2011 Here's the real story. And don't be afraid to ask me for help if you're interested in getting a zampogna. I have contact with several makers. Scaldaferri says that in the 1880s, when French immigrants moved to northern Italy, they brought their cornemuses with them and the Italian woodworkers started copying their instruments and called them Piva. And of course historically there was one part of northern Italy that had a LOT of French speakers, so communications with cornemuse players was of course possible. In the 1980s it became so common in Switzerland that the Swiss name Piva just stuck, especially in the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland. Whereas, the actual "zampogna", particularly the "Lucana" breed, was invented in the early 1800s. Like I said, I'd recommend the maker Carmine Dante. He doesn't have a website but he's contactable. Plus, the zampogna tradition is truly unbroken since 1800 or so. Whereas the Piva had a serious gap, so it's not really traditionally Italian.

[@abbaralph2011]

@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 well that is all interesting. Thanks for sharing, I will look into it

[@m.r.b.806]

Hi AbbaRalph! What grade are you currently competing in?

[@abbaralph2011]

@@m.r.b.806 I am rated at grade one but I do not expect to place. I am playing mainly for my own enjoyment and comments. One thing also, I probably won’t play those tunes exactly like that in a competition

[@m.r.b.806]

Very nice! I’m a few years out of practice, I used to compete solo’s grade 4, and Band grade 3… Now I’m back to grade 5, which was just becoming a thing when I was playing

[@m.r.b.806]

I was going to guess that you were a highly competitive grade 2

[@abbaralph2011]

@@m.r.b.806 best of luck to you on your journey my friend!

[@abbaralph2011]

@@m.r.b.806 I think I am going to use this setup next Saturday kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGqQlZl-mdWha5Isi=VpWbSEzcPhMCAt01