Pipers

[Pyper]

I took up piping in October 2010 at age 50. I can attest that anyone who tells you "it is dead easy" is LYING.

If it was easy, everyone would do it, right?

But it's not overly complicated either -- just get good instruction, practice with patients, and the rest will follow in time.

A directory sounds useful, but bands come and go fairly regularly, and pipers along with them, so keeping it up to date might be problematic. If you ask your question on bobdunsire someone with personal info will probably be in touch.

[FatherWilliam57]

practice with patients

I always thought pipers might be a little "off," but they're being institutionalized now? Holy cow!

[piperdown]

I always thought pipers might be a little "off," but they're being institutionalized now? Holy cow!

You must be a drummer...hehehe

[Laird_M]

A search for "bagpipe lessons", berkshire, UK -hire turns up this: http://www.clanmanpiper.co.uk/

Per the site: P/M Graham Waller (ex-Scots Guards) of The Pride of Murray Pipe Band, is willing to provide lessons in Windsor or Berkshire or your home. I don't think you can get much better instruction than an ex-Scots Guards.

Must stop using the works search engine, it sure didn't give me anythig like as good a result as that!

[ohiopiper]

I have found that many, but by no means all, people with prior musical experience have an initial hurdle to cross when taking up the pipes.

First and most obvious is fingering. I know several former saxaphone players that struggled for a time changing from sax fingering for a note to pipe fingering.

Secondly is the idiom or style. There are no rests or changes in volume in pipe music. This makes cutting and dotting, that is holding a note longer or making it shorter, one of our main means of expression, along with embellishments. Most of these deviations have become standardized over time, but the music remains written without the changes. This can lead to some confusion when a beginning piper picks up a piece of sheet music and plays it as written and then is told it's not right.

[EagleJCS]

I think part of the problem with standard music notation for pipes is that it would be far too busy if tunes were notated accurately for note durations. There would be so many double-dots and 16th or even 32nd notes - in addition to changes to the way embellishments are notated - that people would get much more intimidated. So, we make do with the way things are and pass along the oral traditions: "6/8's and strathspeys really emphasize the dot-cut."; "REALLY emphasize the dots there!"; "Cut that note just a little more!"; "Hold that high A longer!"; "I know that reel is written with dot-cuts, but I want it just a little bit rounder, but not completely straight."

(I'm helping clean up the scores my pipe band is using, incorporating the hand-written changes that have been made over the years, changing the scores to more accurately reflect the embellishments, etc., that we're playing).

[Pyper]

No music worth listening to is really played how it's written. If you take a score of Bach or Hendrix or whatever you like and type it into a midi program it will sound really boring.

The problem arises when someone who understands the style and convention of one system tries to apply it to another, without taking the time to learn the appropriate style.

[Laird_M]

Managed to get hold of the guy in Windsor and also the local pipe band.

I have my cub meeting on a Monday so can't go the band way.
The other chap is quite reasonable - loans you all you need and only charges £35 an hour.
Once I'm a bit more flush, and have a wee bit more time, I think I might follow up on this.

[EagleJCS]

Excellent! Best of luck with it.

And keep on Scouting! If you haven't found it yet, we have a Social Group on here for Kilted Scouters. My Scouting 'resume' is over there, so I won't re-post it here.