Glengarry

[sgtslaughter64]

Gents and Ladies,

I will be piping tomorrow night at a local nursing home. Is it acceptable to wear a Glengarry indoors whilst piping or should it be removed like any other headwear?

Cheers,

Michael

[ASinclair]

I think you should probably remove your cover when indoors. I've seen videos of pipers indoors, and their heads are bare. However, perhaps OC Richard will reply. I believe he has been piping for quite awhile.

[EagleJCS]

I've heard the argument that since the pipes are an "instrument of war", a piper is therefore "armed" and may therefore wear their cover indoors (by pseudo-military rules). One might also argue that if a piper is wearing a dirk and/or sghian dhub, they are also armed and therefore OK to wear headgear.

However, my take is you'd be better off playing without headgear. Nursing homes tend to have the heat turned up a bit, and piping tends to make me a bit warm anyway.

[Tobus]

I've always seen it suggested that pipers should wear their full kit when performing, whether indoors or outdoors. If the hat is part of the piper's regalia in the performance of his piping duties, he needn't follow the standard convention of removing it during his performance (although he should remove it when he's not performing, methinks).

[Glen]

I've always seen it suggested that pipers should wear their full kit when performing, whether indoors or outdoors. If the hat is part of the piper's regalia in the performance of his piping duties, he needn't follow the standard convention of removing it during his performance (although he should remove it when he's not performing, methinks).

The piper is on duty, thus 'working' while piping, thus headdress appropriate; however, when accepting the 'paying the piper', headdress off.

[piperdbh]

I'm from the "hats off indoors" school of thought, unless a hat is required for religious or military rules. Plus, a nursing home is usually populated by senior citizens, in whose honor I would remove my hat anyway. My suggestion: leave the Glengarry at home.

[Farmer Jones]

It never occurred to me that this would be an issue, but when I think about it, there may be confusion. I was taught to remove my hat when going indoors. On the other hand our district piper wears his headgear when piping in dignitaries. I don't know if this has anything to do with "military rules" because I am not familiar with that rule. But in the case of a nursing home, I think commonsense must prevail. The audience in such a venue is not likely to notice or complain, and it has the possibility of becoming very warm in there too, so I would leave the cap at home.

[chasem]

I've always seen it suggested that pipers should wear their full kit when performing, whether indoors or outdoors. If the hat is part of the piper's regalia in the performance of his piping duties, he needn't follow the standard convention of removing it during his performance (although he should remove it when he's not performing, methinks).

This is what I had in mind when I first read this post. However, I don't see any fault in either wearing or not wearing the glengarry in this situation.

[OC Richard]

This issue always stirs up controversy, because many people have strong feelings one way or the other about it, and religion and military service usually gets involved.

When I'm piping I wear a hat (whether Glengarry or Balmoral) most of the time, because (as people have said) it's part of the overall look of the piper. When people are hiring a piper they're hiring more than the sound, they're hiring "show" or a visual element as well. To take off part of your costume is to lessen the "show".

The "show" aspect hit my good piper-friend and I most strongly when we attended a big convention a couple days in a row. The first day we wore ordinary piper's kit (Argyll jacket, ghillies, etc) and few people paid us much mind and we got few requests to play. The second day we went all-out with feather bonnets, doublets, full plaids, horsehair sporrans, dirks, spats, etc etc and we couldn't walk ten feet without a mob of people photographing us and begging us to play.

[sgtslaughter64]

This issue always stirs up controversy, because many people have strong feelings one way or the other about it, and religion and military service usually gets involved.

When I'm piping I wear a hat (whether Glengarry or Balmoral) most of the time, because (as people have said) it's part of the overall look of the piper. When people are hiring a piper they're hiring more than the sound, they're hiring "show" or a visual element as well. To take off part of your costume is to lessen the "show".

The "show" aspect hit my good piper-friend and I most strongly when we attended a big convention a couple days in a row. The first day we wore ordinary piper's kit (Argyll jacket, ghillies, etc) and few people paid us much mind and we got few requests to play. The second day we went all-out with feather bonnets, doublets, full plaids, horsehair sporrans, dirks, spats, etc etc and we couldn't walk ten feet without a mob of people photographing us and begging us to play.

That's great. I decided to go ahead and wear my glengarry after all. I was glad I did because it was terribly warm inside and it kept sweat out of my eyes! I am still learning, in fact I've only had one lesson but was asked last week if I could pipe a song for a group of us from our church that went Christmas Carolling. I was able to pull off O Come All Ye Faithful and had several residents asking when I would be coming back!

I think I've found my calling..