Tuning the Drones

Highland pipes have three drones - two tenors and a bass. The tenors should be tuned identically and produce an identical sound.

To begin with, you can start learning to tune your pipes with one tenor drone only. Once you have struck up the drones, touch the top of the middle tenor and the bass drone to stop these two reeds and this will leave you sounding the outside tenor and the chanter only. Alternatively, you can purchase drone corks which fit in the top of the drones and stop the air flow. Do not put tape around the reed or insert it upside down as this can cause damage to the reed.

Each tenor drone has two sections. Tune the first tenor drone by moving the top section up (to flatten) or down (to sharpen) the tuning pin of the bottom section. Tune the drone to the high A note of the chanter, and then sound a low A to check you are in tune. In simple terms, there will come a point where the drone sound does not produce any 'wavering' with the sound of the low A on the chanter, and when this happens the drone is in tune. Repeat this process with the middle tenor drone and, similarly, the same with the bass drone. The bass has three sections to the drone. Turn the mid section against the tuning pin of the bottom section to tune. The top section is only used for fine tuning.