Journal of a bagpipe beginner: My test of 6 practice chanter reeds

• Practice Chanter: McCallum long chanter
• Reeds: Warnock, Q, Ezee, TruTone, David Chesney Premium, Heavy Tone.
This was an amazing experience: the differences between the practice chanter reeds were bigger than I expected, but all of them have individual qualities that match different needs as for the strength, loudness, and warmth.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:50 Warnock
1:22 Q
1:52 Ezee
2:22 TruTone
2:49 David Chesney Premium
3:19 Heavy Tone

After having been practicing for two months with the Warnock reed I was given together with my practice chanter I wanted to try different ones. I was specifically looking for a louder reed to play outdoors and for one which allowed to obtain a straighter High A; a less hard reed was optional but welcome.

The hardest ones to blow are for me TruTone and Heavy Tone, but they probably only need more time to develop their full sound; the lightest ones are for me Ezee and Q.
Unfortunately, the audio files were normalized in terms of volume when exported, so here is my summary based on the graphical look of the waves in the audio editing program: The loudest reeds are David Chesney Premium and of course Heavy Tone, the quietest ones are Ezee, TruTone, and Warnock.