Piping Progression

[SteveB]

Over the weekend I was with two of my neighbours. One owns a set of Walsh pipes and the other a set of McCallums. They were left in the back of my station wagon during a lunch break. When we returned we found:



Tuesday evening my tutor tried them out and approved them as my next step. I did get two thirds of the way through Amazing Grace before the first squawk from my playing. These are Piper's Choice smallpipes, that use Walsh practice chanter reeds for the chanter and the drones. Drones tune easily and the unit is soft to blow. My tutor recommended that I beef up the chanter reed. I have ordered a the recommended reed, and am jonesing for the anticipated sound. The chanter hole spacing is identical to my Dunbar Long practice chanter, and to my neighbours long Walsh practice chanter. Someday in the future they will grow up to be Great Highland Bagpipes.

Slainte

[medic78]

congrat Steve been following you since you started on your chanter in Jan

[SteveB]

medic 78,
Are you studying the pipes? It is a great journey and a lot of fun.
Slainte

[wvpiper]

The chanter hole spacing is identical to my Dunbar Long practice chanter,

It should, that's a long practice chanter in the kitchen pipes. Take the mouthpiece out, and the chanter out, and put them together and you have a second chanter.

medic 78,
Are you studying the pipes? It is a great journey and a lot of fun.
Slainte

Fun-that's debatable sometimes, torture, agony, depressing but in the end worth it.
I went straight from the chanter to the big pipes with corked drones, then opened one, two then three, etc.
I'm heading to a pipe clinic for a week later this summer. I'm really looking forward to it, as I know there's tons of info/technique that I don't know.

Good luck with the practice pipes. I would like to get a set of Scottish smallpipes, probably bellows blown in a year or two.

[beloitpiper]

I have a set of Walsh Smallpipes in D and love them! They sound great and are perfect for indoors. Keep it up!

[SteveB]

WVPIPER,
I did take the blowpipe and put it on the chanter at first to get a feel for the reed. This set is in polypentco (plastic). The chanter is a Walsh plastic long chanter made for Piper's Choice. There is nothing shabby about these pipes, excellent quality in the turnings, stocks and fit. A medium hide bag is hidden under the corduroy cover. While my tutor and I were playing with them, I hemped in my Dunbar Blackwood chanter with an Abbott reed. We both loved the rich tone and how well it worked with the drones.

I am an older student, (58) and need to develop the breathing/squeezing technique at a lower volume at first. This is to kill two birds with one small boulder. I have been frustrated by running out of breath at the wrong times while trying to learn tunes, with the drones corked it is being used as a goose. This is slowly giving me confidence to work on the tunes more than the breathing.

I am far from being a piper. I still have a lot to learn in the way of embellishments, alternate keying, and developing rhythm. I also am starting my learning of music with the pipes, from having no music background of any kind. The real frustration is realizing that I should have started a half century ago...

I have the good fortune that two of my neighbours are pipers, and although neither has time to teach, both have been very encouraging and supportive of all my efforts. My tutor is a very patient young (22) student in university in a pre-med programme.

Gregg,
One of my neighbours has the Walsh smallpipes with the four drone system and both the A and D chanters. I was in my front garden playing with my smallpipes, and before I knew it he had his out and was playing with me. It is really great to have the support of a grade 1 piper helping you through very basic tunes when you are just beginning.

I find the piping community here absolutely awesome with us newbies.

The only time I found anything at all depressing is when watching the fingers of Chris Armstrong blowing a strathspry at triple time. I have a long way to go...

Now if I could memorize tunes a little faster, I would be delighted. But after a while I am sure that it will come together.

With the addition of my smallpipes, my Caribbean neighbours are aware that another set of pipes is to be heard.

Slainte

[SteveB]

EagleJCS,
I was having fun with that age old piping joke in my original post.

I have some serious Scot blood in there somewhere. It would not let me buy just the practice goose, when for not all that much more I could get a two for one deal. A practice goose that I can use later for indoor events.

The smallpipes will be broken in for my first "piping" gig this Saturday evening.

Slainte

[bricelythgoe]

Sounds great. I am learning to play as well. I am coming up on a year this june. I am still on my practice changer (I don't have as much time to practice because of my second job). I think have the basics down. I have two songs memorized to play: Amazing Grace (of course) and By Cool Siloms Shady Rill (I think that is what it is called). It can be frustrating for me at times, but worth it when I get it right.

[piperdbh]

Congrats on the recent acquisition. I hope they spur you on to greater heights of glory.
Be careful about leaving the 'pipes in a warm car. Heat can do strange things, like crack chanters and stuff like that. That would be highly uncool.

[EagleJCS]

Sounds like the old joke about a piper who realized he left his car windows open with his very old, very expensive pipes in the back seat. When he got back, there were two more sets of pipes!

Congrats on the new acquisition, and have fun!