Because orders for reeds took such a long time to be filled from Scotland, Chris started making his own drone and chanter reeds. The drone reed is a tube of cane, about 8-10 mm across, which is split in such a way so that it has a single, beating tongue. The pitch of the drones, "A" for the bass and "a" for the two tenors, is matched to the "a" of the pipe chanter. Drone reeds were easily mastered by Chris but the chanter reed seemed to need more experimentation.