GAITA DE BOTA O PIEL - Elaboración artesanal de este INSTRUMENTO tradicional de viento - Documental

The Riojan bagpipe, which has fortunately been preserved to this day, is characterized by the fact that its air tank is made of a leather boot or skin, it has two sound tubes, and the flute has a double-reeded reed and eight holes. In the town of Alberite, Fernando Jalón, motivated by a deep interest in popular music, has recovered this traditional instrument that was almost cornered into oblivion. As a child, they made us toys, which is on the same basis as the grunt's cane and which they called bagpipes. Specifically, an uncle of mine made me. He said: I'm going to make you a bagpipe. And what he did was like a grunt rod but with holes. The same, the tongue is done. And it is that, Fernando's vocation sinks its roots in childhood, when, looking at the elders, he learned to make simple musical instruments. Let's clean the inside. It is a simple tab. The only thing that holes are made in the cane itself. In other words, it's still a clarinet. And well, with two or three holes... A simple reed, worked with musical sensitivity, comes to give a lot of itself in the hands of this young craftsman. Currently, Fernando's specialty is the construction of boot bagpipes and, for this, he begins by manufacturing each of the tubes that will be housed in the skin. On the band saw, cut the wood, which has already been drying for some time, to the appropriate measurements. I am marking the approximate center of the piece, to take advantage of everything we can. On the lathe, Fernando gives the cylindrical shape to the outside of the piece. We have already made a cylinder and now, with this cylinder, what we are going to do is place it directly on the plate. Then, with the wooden cylinder centered on the plate, drill the inside with different sized augers to give it the conical shape. I drill the piece throughout its length, with bits that vary in diameter from larger to smaller. I start with a coarser bit and end with the finer one. Now I am going to insert the conical reamer, which is the shape that the interior will have. With the shape that the interior will have. The reamer, which has a blade on its surface, serves to refine the conical interior of the tube. Now we are going to make the hole that will serve as a housing for the mouthpiece.” “Now we are going to make the outer shapes of the bagpipe. With the gouges for roughing first, and with those for refining later, Fernando shapes the exterior of the flute. I am now making the recess where the cork is going to be housed, in the spike. A final review with the gouges to model the surface and with the sandpaper to refine it, leaves the tube ready to give it the sonority. Now I'm going to mark where the holes are going to go. That's why I look for the most suitable plan of the wood, the direction of the grain. I have a table that already has the measurements and that I have to follow. Now I am going to puncture in the center of each hole so that the drill bit does not deviate, because it will be very fine and the surface is curved, so that it does not deviate. Now I am going to give each hole its diameter. Fernando gives them half a millimeter less than the actual size, which will allow him to tune the instrument with ease. After passing the reamer to remove the internal burrs, the piper goes over the edge of the holes with the file so that the fingers sit well. Voucher. Now we are going to glue the cork. We roll it over to flatten it, thus preventing it from cracking when we curve it and it also acquires more consistency. The piece already has the holes and the recesses. To stick the cork to the wood, use conventional contact glue. As it takes several hours to dry, the piper wraps the cork with thread so that, with his pressure, it is completely fixed. Now I'm taking it, and so, under pressure, I leave it for about 12 hours. When the cork is glued, the piper can now place the double-reed mouthpiece on it, made up of two sheets of cane joined and tied on a neck that has a cork to fit it in the hole. Starting from a piece of cane, one of those that grow spontaneously on the banks of rivers and ditches, Fernando is going to prepare the reed for the grunt. What we are going to do is make an incision, from where we are going to remove the reed that will vibrate and produce the sound. As we remove wood, the grade goes up. And now we are going to see which is the mouthpiece that makes the pedal note sound, the accompanying note, the grunt. So this mouthpiece is a simple reed. What it does is, as we put it on... As we lengthen the tube, the note sounds more serious. Another of the tubes of the boot gaita is the blower, whose manufacturing process is similar to the previous one. Now we are going to make the hole where the screw that holds the leather tab goes. The blower is used to blow air into the leather boot; therefore, your mechanism must allow it to enter but not leave. This will allow the air to enter the bellows and not leave. The seats are turned pieces of wood that, tied to the leather boot, will serve to hold the pipes of the bagpipe. To reinforce these pieces, the piper places ferrules on them, which are rings of bone, horn or tin, which in turn embellish the tubes. To make a tin ferrule, Fernando has first prepared a cardboard mold through which he is going to pour the molten metal. The liquid tin is distributed throughout all the recesses in the wood, until it cools, forming a solid piece of wood and metal. Now we are going to shape the tin, along with the wood. On the lathe, this bagpipe maker lowers the seat made up of two materials: tin and wood. Well, that's it. This is the piece that is tied to the bellows and is the seat of this whole set. The seats are already prepared to mount them in the leather skin that the piper acquires from specialized boatmen. Once the holes to accommodate the seats have been marked, our friend Fernando cuts them respecting the peaks that will allow him to tie the pieces together. Now I put the pieces inside so that the peaks come out and I can grip well. Now what we are going to do is tie. The same thread that cobblers use to sew. You give it several turns, it tightens well. I learned it from a boatman from Alesanco. It's over, this one is over. Each of the three seats, securely attached to the leather boot, will house the tubes that make up the bagpipe. We already have the seats tied in the boot, and we already have the whole instrument ready to play. We set it up... In addition to being a maker of dulzainas and boot bagpipes with an extraordinary vocation, Fernando Jalón is a researcher of popular music and an expert performer of bagpipes and other traditional instruments, which have been on the verge of falling into I forget. I'm Eugenio Monesma, director and producer of the documentary you just saw. If you liked it, I encourage you to subscribe to the channel by activating the notifications from the bell and so you can enjoy the hundreds of documentaries that I already have on the channel and those that I will upload weekly.