Interesting Article on Pakistani Bagpipes

[Thomas H]

WOW , I was just asking about the bag pipes ... Not wheather or not Any one thought I could play ,I said I could not but I have never even held a set .
Never mind .sorry to have asked

[pbutts]

WOW , I was just asking about the bag pipes ... Not wheather or not Any one thought I could play ,I said I could not but I have never even held a set .
Never mind .sorry to have asked

Don't be discouraged. As someone who is still learning to play a full set of pipes after 20 some years, I can tell you it is like learning nothing else. I can play the melodies to a dozen tunes from memory on the practice chanter and have another dozen or so that I can play decently with the music in front of me. But I've just now made enough time to work on playing the pipes themselves and it can be frustrating--learning how to balance the breathing and squeezing, keeping the chanter reeds and just one drone reed balanced and playing evenly (I have the bass drone and second tenor stopped up while I'm learning to do this much). My biggest challenge right now: just properly starting (striking in) and stopping.

But this is why everyone is so insistent that you get a good teacher. You really need someone to keep reassuring you that you will get over whatever obstacle you currently face and that the basic elements of your technique are correct.

Find a band within driving range....most give lessons and can probably loan you some gear while you get started.

Good luck.

[Meggers]

The appearance is the only thing that you can see to be different in pictures. Having played both Pakistani-made and Dunbar pipes, I will tell you that there is a huge difference in the way they play. Pakistani pipes will have some or all of the following characteristics:

1) Chanters that are poorly bored, so that the sound is muffled and rough
2) Chanters that are poorly drilled so that the chanter is not in tune, and cannot be made to be in tune without extensive work
3) A bag that is leaky, badly shaped (making it difficult to play) and which may harbor parasites
4) Chanter reeds that are so poorly made that they will only squawk, not play musical tones
5) Drones that are poorly bored so that they will not sound good - if they sound at all. (There have been several cases of drones that were not bored all the way through.)
6) Drones that cannot be tuned - and if they can, will not stay in tune
7) Drones that are bored narrow and rough, so that they are muffled and thin sounding
8) Drone reeds that won't sound, or that won't sound properly
9) Drone reed seats that are too small for proper reeds.
10) A blowstick that is too narrow to allow the bag to be inflated properly
11) A blowstick valve that makes blowing even more difficult
12) a blowstick that is too long, resulting in awkward posture/difficult playing
13) A mouthpiece that is too narrow and poorly shaped, making it impossible to get a good seal and properly fill the bag

They really aren't any good at all. If you just want to waste $150 on piping, send it to me. Our band could get our Christmas parade bag covers embroidered with something festive.

I get a really funny sense of "HA HA!" moment when I read this. My fiance is Pakistani and something in me really wants to be like "guess what. Your country makes crappy bagpipes" Maybe I will ;) Someday. When the time is right.

[MacGumerait]

WOW , I was just asking about the bag pipes ... Not wheather or not Any one thought I could play ,I said I could not but I have never even held a set .
Never mind .sorry to have asked

Thomas H , if you felt the bug to play the pipes and are enthusiactic about it don't get discouraged . I think all of us fellow XMarkers are trying to let you know that it's not learned in the way that one might think .

If one was in a marching band in high school and played the trumpet , they probably started in grade school or middle school with the recorder or in the old days called the fluteaphone , they didn't start with the trumpet itself .

I think what people are saying is that you have to start with the chanter , a pactice chanter , not a full set of pipes . If you decide to become a piper , that's great ! But learning the pipes starts with the chanter .


If you do pursue the pipes and decide to buy a full set of pipes some day , I would not recommend Pakistani pipes . The reasons have already been stated . Please know that if you intend to pipe ( after you have tried a practice chanter ) your best bet is to stick with the tried and true pipe makers .

[bikercelt1]

I, for one, would never tell anyone to bail on their ambition to do anything. If you want to play the pipes I say go for it. All I say is, it's a damned difficult insrtument so do it in the way tha's most likely to give you the best results. If accomplished pipers find inexpensive Pakistani pipes difficult to impossible to play then I figure a neophyte like myself will be hopelessly lost. Get the best practice chanter you can afford and find an instructor. In the long run that's always going to be the cheapest route to mastery of a musical instrument.

Jamie

[OC Richard]

If one wishes to ask the question "what is the least expensive decent set of Highland pipes available?" well, if I had a student with a very limited budget who wanted to get a set of pipes I would pick one out for him on Ebay. Scottish-made pipes of the very highest quality, made in the c1950-1980 period, often go on Ebay for far less than a comparable new set would cost.

It's jaw-dropping to see ignorant buyers pass up good Scottish-made pipes and purchase new Pakistani pipes for the same price. Oi oi oi. But it happens every day.

BUT a warning! Buying pipes on Ebay is not for those with little knowledge! There are many pitfalls for the uninformed buyer. You need to have somebody with many years of experience with a wide variety of bagpipe makers, and a lot of experience buying and selling pipes on Ebay, to find your "diamond in the rough" for you.

But $150 is an unrealistic budget. New decent quality student-model orchestral flutes, clarinets, etc go in the $1000 to $1500 range and the same is true with bagpipes made by good makers. Expect to pay at least $1000 for a new bare-bones bagpipe by a good maker.

Good vintage Scottish-made pipes regularly go on Ebay for well under that amount.

For example, in descending price order, on Ebay at this moment are these Scottish-made African Blackwood pipes

Dunfion pipes for $800 and $769
Kintail $700
McCallum $610 and $560

and lowest of all these Hardie pipes
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BAGPIPES-RG-...item2a229b14ae

To keep the above prices in perspective, note that currently on Ebay is a load of Pakistani pipes going for over $650. In my opinion only a fool would pay that amount, or indeed any amount, for a set of Pakistani pipes.

If you're interested in playing the vintage pipe game, you might want to get the book Highland Bagpipe Makers by Jeannie Campbell. There you can look up, for example, the firm of RG Hardie and discover that they were based in Glasgow and began making pipes in 1950 and find out all sorts of details about Robert Gavin Hardie. I should point out that the original Hardie pipes are no longer made, and that the name "RG Hardie" has been aquired by a new firm in Scotland. The "new Hardies" look and sound completely different than the "old Hardies".

Vintage pipes usually aren't stamped with the maker's name and old bagpipe identification is a contentious art. This site really helps, with great photos of vintage pipes from a huge number of makers

http://www.thebagpipeplace.com/museum/index.html

One must keep in mind that piping isn't an inexpensive hobby. I recently paid $300 for a new sheepskin bag. Your $150 budget just barely covers the cost of a set of good synthetic drone reeds.