The Bagpipes and the Recorder!!

[cajuncelt]

Good luck to the beginning pipers. I've played for a little while and am in a Scottish Pipe Band here locally. There's a book called "Rythymic Fingerwork" that is a must. Also, make sure you have a teacher. Learning the pipes on your own will be a catastrophe later if you don't.

[porrick]

Good luck to the beginning pipers. I've played for a little while and am in a Scottish Pipe Band here locally. There's a book called "Rythymic Fingerwork" that is a must. Also, make sure you have a teacher. Learning the pipes on your own will be a catastrophe later if you don't.

Thanks - us newbies need all the encouragement we can get

I got my first set of pipes a couple of months ago (on the chanter for an intensive year), and find the joy of progression in terms of stamina and getting them to sound ok(ish).

Totally agrre with the tutor bit, but alas, the nearest tutor is 750 miles away (one-way)

[Tattoo Bradley]

Good luck to the beginning pipers. I've played for a little while and am in a Scottish Pipe Band here locally. There's a book called "Rythymic Fingerwork" that is a must. Also, make sure you have a teacher. Learning the pipes on your own will be a catastrophe later if you don't.

I've found a tutor about 100 miles away. The plan is at least one, if not two lessons a month. He has video tutorials online to help me between lessons. I've got the determination anyway.

[MadBagpiper]

or you can always go my way and buy a College of Piping Vol. 1 book and teach your self. if you have any questions just ask.

[wgority]

<BEGIN RANT>

While the College of Piping tutors (as well as the National Piping Center tutors) are superb resources, I would paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes by saying that "A piper who is his own instructor has a fool for a teacher".

As I said, these are superb resources, but a beginning piper does not have a sufficiently well-trained ear to pick up a lot of the problems and subtleties that arise in early work on the practice chanter.....and for that matter, later when transitioning to pipes either. No amount of prerecorded material or written material can equal the immediate feedback available from a live human being with years of experience listening to pipes. When I was starting out, I drove 2 hours each way for lessons to get the best available instruction that I could. (yeah, yeah, yeah - I drove it uphill both ways in 18 feet of snow and blinding blizzards in mid-July)

Find a qualified and serious instructor even if you can only meet once a month and have to travel great distances to do so. A beginning piper will advance more quickly and learn more accurately. It will prevent having to unlearn bad finger position and technique later in the game. I have a student right now who purported himself to be "self-taught" and "having 2 years experience". I've had to completely dissect his technique and I can assure you, it's damned slow going. I've seen and heard too many self taught pipers through the years who can't even tune their bloody drones properly!

Bagpipes aren't an instrument that you can pick up and just learn. There have been organised schools of instruction of piping for well over 400 years. There's a reason for this. It may well be a horn with only 9 notes, but it's a complicated instrument and playing it correctly is a demanding proposition. As a piper for 25+ years, I ask anyone who wants to learn the instrument to take the time and make the effort to please learn it properly. Take the time to learn proper technique and develop an ear for the tunes and tuning. It's not enough to know how to hack your way through Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace. Bagpipes are a wonderful, frustrating, giving, demanding, beautiful instrument. If you learn properly they will give a lifetime of joy and pleasure.

It's the self taught and "St Patrick's Day" hack-pipers who make our instrument a joke and cause serious pipers have to work harder to uphold and defend our instrument, reputations and our craft.

The foregoing is not meant to offer offence or disrespect to anyone here. There are exceptions to every belief and I'll even admit I've known a couple very good self taught pipers. They are, however, far and away in the minority of that group. These are opinions I've developed over the years and are based on long observation and consideration. You may disagree with me or them and that's you right.

<RANT OVER>

[porrick]

<BEGIN RANT>

No amount of prerecorded material or written material can equal the immediate feedback available from a live human being with years of experience listening to pipes. When I was starting out, I drove 2 hours each way for lessons to get the best available instruction that I could.
<RANT OVER>

Aye, I do not disagree with you, but with a 15 hr drive EACH way, or four flights and $800 return...

That leaves me with two choices:

a) forget about my interest in music and pipes
b) have a fool for a teacher, and enjoy the progress and positive feedback from family, friends and neighbours as I improve (I have no plans playing at ex-presidents' funerals or such)

I believe I will settle for alternative b)

[wgority]

Aye, I do not disagree with you, but with a 15 hr drive EACH way, or four flights and $800 return ...........
I believe I will settle for alternative b)

I'll not disagree with you Patrick. You'll note that I said "the best available instruction that I could". "Available" is the focal word in that phrase

In such a case as your's, I'd say you're utilising the best available instruction that you can. If, in your other travels, you can take your instrument for instruction, I'd say do it.

Unless you'd like to fly down to Glasgow a time or 2 a month for instruction at the College of Piping or the National Piping Centre.......

[MadBagpiper]

Aye, I do not disagree with you, but with a 15 hr drive EACH way, or four flights and $800 return...

That leaves me with two choices:

a) forget about my interest in music and pipes
b) have a fool for a teacher, and enjoy the progress and positive feedback from family, friends and neighbours as I improve (I have no plans playing at ex-presidents' funerals or such)

I believe I will settle for alternative b)

option A is no longer an option. I've wanted to play the pipes since I was 5 years old. I am now 16 and I play with skill. Someone should make a movie about it. Based on a true story.

[MadBagpiper]

<BEGIN RANT>

While the College of Piping tutors (as well as the National Piping Center tutors) are superb resources, I would paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes by saying that "A piper who is his own instructor has a fool for a teacher".

As I said, these are superb resources, but a beginning piper does not have a sufficiently well-trained ear to pick up a lot of the problems and subtleties that arise in early work on the practice chanter.....and for that matter, later when transitioning to pipes either. No amount of prerecorded material or written material can equal the immediate feedback available from a live human being with years of experience listening to pipes. When I was starting out, I drove 2 hours each way for lessons to get the best available instruction that I could. (yeah, yeah, yeah - I drove it uphill both ways in 18 feet of snow and blinding blizzards in mid-July)

Find a qualified and serious instructor even if you can only meet once a month and have to travel great distances to do so. A beginning piper will advance more quickly and learn more accurately. It will prevent having to unlearn bad finger position and technique later in the game. I have a student right now who purported himself to be "self-taught" and "having 2 years experience". I've had to completely dissect his technique and I can assure you, it's damned slow going. I've seen and heard too many self taught pipers through the years who can't even tune their bloody drones properly!

Bagpipes aren't an instrument that you can pick up and just learn. There have been organised schools of instruction of piping for well over 400 years. There's a reason for this. It may well be a horn with only 9 notes, but it's a complicated instrument and playing it correctly is a demanding proposition. As a piper for 25+ years, I ask anyone who wants to learn the instrument to take the time and make the effort to please learn it properly. Take the time to learn proper technique and develop an ear for the tunes and tuning. It's not enough to know how to hack your way through Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace. Bagpipes are a wonderful, frustrating, giving, demanding, beautiful instrument. If you learn properly they will give a lifetime of joy and pleasure.

It's the self taught and "St Patrick's Day" hack-pipers who make our instrument a joke and cause serious pipers have to work harder to uphold and defend our instrument, reputations and our craft.


<RANT OVER>

The bit about the St. Patricks Day Pipers- Amen brother. Every time I say, "Yeah, I play Bagpipes." there are normally 3 reactions:
Reaction 1.)"Oh I LOVE bagpipes!!"
Reaction 2.) "Bagpipes suck, but if you play them then it's cool."
Reaction 3.) " I heard some guy playing them once and he/she was horrible/awesome."
If I left a reaction out, please tell me.

What pipes are you talking about? Ullieans (sorry, i don't know how to spell that) or GHB's??

[wgority]

What pipes are you talking about? Ullieans (sorry, i don't know how to spell that) or GHB's??

As I play both uilleann pipes and GHBs (as well as many other types of bagpipes) it applies to both. However, in this case I was specifically discussing Highland pipes.

Reaction 1.)"Oh I LOVE bagpipes!!"
Reaction 2.) "Bagpipes suck, but if you play them then it's cool."
Reaction 3.) " I heard some guy playing them once and he/she was horrible/awesome."
If I left a reaction out, please tell me.

Those are pretty much it. I'll also add the corollary that the intensity of Reactions 1 and 2 are usually directly proportional to Reaction 3