Reactions to kilts

[scotswelshrunner]

While reading the blog "A year in a Kilt"( http://www.ayearinakilt.com), I also thought I'd post a few comments on my third week in a kilt. Everyone has a story to tell about the reactions and experiences of donning this delightful article of Highland dress but I'm going to try to blog about it more often. Follow if you'd like.


http://hiroshigeowl.blogspot.com


What are your favourite stories about reactions in public to the kilt??

[pbutts]

R. G. Hardie with an "e" on the end. Nicely done.....the photos aren't bad at all. Practice lifting your middle fingers independently when you're doing other things and the practice chanter will come along nicely.

[OC Richard]

First, about the Highland pipes and the Irish whistle, I've been playing Highland pipes since 1974 and the whistle since around 1976 so I'm here if you have any questions. I would recommend not trying to learn both simultaneously. I've had students who have done, and the progress on each is slower. I would focus on the Highland chanter first and after about a year, when you've developed the "muscle memory" on the chanter, you can start working on the whistle without hindering you piping progress.

It's much easier learning now, what with the internet and Skype lessons and all. You really should get a teacher... it's amazing how much time a beginner can waste, how much their progress can be slowed, by practicing something wrongly for months until somebody finally points it out to them, or they realize it's wrong on their own (not very common).

You're right there by Portland which I believe has a thriving piping scene. I'll do a bit of looking into that and see who is teaching up there. Colin Gemmell is an amazing player and teacher but I'm not sure where he's located nowadays.

About your kiltwearing, you look like "an old hand" at it, not a newbie at all!

About kiltwearing stories, I've been wearing kilts regularly for 35 years now and really not much has happened of note. Southern California is so multicultural anyhow, yesterday all the women I saw walking along our street were wearing traditional Indian dress.

The thing that stands out, to somebody interested in the history of things as I am, is the ignorance I run into. One time I was piping somewhere and a teenage girl comes up and says "are you Scotch-Irish? My family came from Scotch-Ireland!"

I wonder if she's ever tried to locate her ancestral home on a map??

[scotswelshrunner]

Thanks for the info and hints OC. I have a few options in the Portland area for pipes and when I can clear my schedule,will attend some free lessons by the River City Pipe band. Life has changed since I bought the chanter and whistles so they are on the back burner for a wee bit. As for the kilts, well ignorance is bliss some say but I still call it laziness. Youngs kids excepted of course but there have been enough movies,books and media attention devoted to a kilt and being Scottish that there is no excuse. After Braveheart and Rob Roy I expected everyone to know but I guess not.

[OC Richard]

will attend some free lessons by the River City Pipe band.

Well it may be that you get what you pay for. I checked their website and discovered that they are a noncompetition band. I hate to sound like a snob, but the truth is that musicians who are serious about the music and who are good players play in competition bands. I listened to a YouTube video of that band and it's my impression that a band that sounds like that is not in a position to teach serious beginners.

Right there in Portland you have the Portland Metro Pipe Band, a Grade Two competition band. Every piper in such a band will play at a level far higher than any piper in a noncompetition band. A band that reaches Grade Two will have instruction of a very high standard, and it is such instruction that you should seek.

Listen for yourself!! Here is Portland Metro competing in Grade Two at the World Pipe Band Championships. This is the Mecca, as it were, for serious players

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkHuj5G9HMo

Now listen to River City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztEhMBJjPRk

Please maximize your time and effort with serious lessons from serious players. Your progress will be far quicker and you will end up a much better player.

[scotswelshrunner]

Thanks OC. I shall try my best to make it work with the piping. So far it has been slow and I've not been able to practice much at all since buying the chanter. Work and life have mixed in. We ALL know how that goes. But at least I have the goods. Now to make the time.
And yes, Portland is a great place for piping. We have a great Scottish/Welsh and Irish social scene.

[OC Richard]

Now when I look back at my post above it seems pretty harsh, but I stand by what I said.

But I want to add one thing: when I said that "you get what you pay for" when it comes to free lessons, that's not quite accurate, because "free" implies "zero" as in standing pat or having no impact one way or the other. In fact, poor lessons aren't "zero" but can actually make your playing go backward in several ways 1) teaching poor technique 2) not detecting and correcting errors the beginner is making, allowing the formation of bad habits which will take much effort to un-do 3) teaching or modeling poor musicianship as regards timing, style, idiom, and tuning 4) modeling or conveying an unprofessional or amateurish approach to the instrument and music.

The Highland Pipes are a glorious instrument with a glorious history and in the right hands are capable of producing some of the finest music in the world. The music is complex and requires much training to master. I always tell people to not learn the way I did! Because I lived in a place where there were no pipers, and back then there was no internet. So I had the Donald MacLeod tutorial (books and thick vinyl records) and the College of Piping Tutor and a few albums of piping and that was it! I was pretty much on my own. It has taken me decades to shake off some the bad habits I picked up then.

Don't do what I did! You have a fantastic world-class piping organization right there. And nowadays you can do Skype lessons with any teacher anywhere on earth. Good luck! Richard

[Katia]

Enjoying the blog so far. I agree, you look quite smart in a kilt, as stated in your other thread. (I play some whistle too, but haven't done much lately. Okay, I admit it; lazy. And hard to practice whistle indoors in winter; even "muted" the cat's not happy with anything higher than a B-flat whistle.)

I'd love to see more kilted folks out and about. If I ever see any of you guys and I'm staring but trying to appear not to be, it's cause I think it's great someone's out in a kilt, and I'm probably wondering if you're a member here, but I'm too shy to approach a stranger. If any of you ever see me in a kilt and are staring, I'll know it's because you know it's not a "pretty skirt" and that it's not a "skirt" and "knee socks" in an attempt to do a "schoolgirl" thing.

[Dixiecat]

And hard to practice whistle indoors in winter; even "muted" the cat's not happy with anything higher than a B-flat whistle.)
)

LOL. Does that bring back memories. I used to play piccolo in a marching band. My cat (Dixie) would come and bite me when I started practising any John Philip Sousa pieces!

[TheOfficialBren]

Hahaha!

My dog hates my whistle. He howls.