Practice chanter present

[David]

A wee while ago I managed to trace my family tree back to 1524, a direct father son line all the way back. I said to my immediate family I feel even more Scottish now, if that was possible! Some would say that I have warped sense of humour, but they all took me seriously when I said due to this new found feeling of Scottishness I was going to learn to play the pipes. I kept this going for the past few months, including posting links to manufacturers on my Bookface page and changing my home page banner? to the logo for the National Piping Center, and pointing out the center to the wife as we drove by it one day.

Well my son being a daft as my father was, bought me a practice chanter from McCallums and gave it to me for my birthday on Friday.

I now feel committed to at least give it a bash. Anyone know of a good book called something like "Teach yourself the bagpipes in 10 easy lessons even if your kilt has more musical ability than you do".

[Ron Abbott]

Not the sort of instrument to have a 'bash' with.

If you want to learn, I'd strongly suggest that you do yourself a favour and get a teacher.

Preferably face to face lessons; but if that's not possible there are a number of pipers who teach using skype or similar nowadays.

[chasem]

I think everyone here will second Ron's advice. Pipes are a bit more complex in some ways than other instruments and it's not as easy to learn on your own. Several aspects are likely to be learned wrong and will then be difficult to fix down the road.

I'm not sure if it's the same in Scotland, but generally pipe bands in the US will teach students for free. If not, there are other options, but definitely learn from an experienced piper.

[OC Richard]

Yes I agree with Ron. You're extremely lucky to be in a place where there are good teachers all around.

Vast numbers of people all over the world begin the pipes in places where there are no teachers; sometimes the closest piper is hundreds of miles, even thousands of miles, away.

40 years ago I was one of those unlucky ones. I lived in a desert (no, really, with sand dunes and date palms and coyotes and roadrunners all around, just like the cartoons) with no pipers and no internet. I had 'the green book' (the famous College of Piping book) and a practice chanter and loads of enthusiasm and little else.

I think sometimes people misunderstand the most important advantage of having a teacher: time. A good teacher will guide you on the most efficient possible path to success. You will accomplish in months things that, on your own, might take years, or might never be.

Not having a teacher is like a car stuck on an icy road, its engine roaring and wheels spinning: regardless of how much energy is expended there's little or no progress, and you might even slide backwards helplessly.

The greatest thing about piping is that it's FUN! Just last night I was at an evening garden party where several pipers and drummers where present. We sat in the pleasant air (after a hot day) had great food and large quantities of home-brewed beer and took out our pipes and drums and just played for the sheer fun of it. A week from now we'll be in the competition circle at a Games with judges critiquing our every flaw. Last night was a reminder of what the music is really about.

Good luck!

Oh another thing, having a good reed with your practice chanter will make a huge difference. Nearly all the pipers in our band play McCallum chanters but none of us use the reeds that came with them. My favourite reed is a John Walsh reed, which suits the McCallum chanter perfectly: easy to blow, sweet tone, good scale.

I have a black poly full-size (pipe chanter size) McCallum chanter with engraved alloy bits, but I'm probably going to get one of their new whimsically-coloured poly chanters to use as my 'car chanter'.

[Ron Abbott]

I've no idea what reeds I have in my practice chanters. I once worked for J&R Glen and still have some practice reeds from back then! Over the years I've acquired others as well.

As for practice chanters, I've currently got a blackwood one that was made by Joe Hagan and I've got another old blackwood one which my father owned and it is has sterling silver mounts from 1921.

At one time I had one of those long practice chanters but I've no idea what I did with it.....and at any rate, I really hated it!

I was lucky when I was a youngster.

My father played for one of the top 1st grade bands in the world, if not thee very best at the time.
His cousin also played as did his uncle.
My (late) godfather was a very well known pipe-major (as is his son) and I also had one of my father's best friends teach me for solo stuff.....and he was one of the best pipers in the 20th century.
On top of that I was named after a friend of the family, who was the pipe major of a well known top pipe band and even the school I went to had piping instructors.

If only I paid more attention to what they were trying to teach me !!

[David]

Not the sort of instrument to have a 'bash' with.

If you want to learn, I'd strongly suggest that you do yourself a favour and get a teacher.

Preferably face to face lessons; but if that's not possible there are a number of pipers who teach using skype or similar nowadays.

"bash" is the typical British understatement. Realising they are a bit tricky to play, my intention over the next few weeks is to see if I can manage to produce a recognisable scale out of them and then see what transpires. I am fortunate in that if I decide to give it a "real bash", the National Piping Center is barely 30 minutes from my home; and I see they do a range of lessons; day, evening, Saturdays and even a course of intensive 15 X 50 minute 1 to 1 lessons over a 5 day period, though at £330 for this option I would need to be committed, the wife says I should be, and the sooner the better

[tulloch]

That is great news David. Congratulations. Your love of the instrument will drive your commitment or you won't become a piper. Get a book, learn to read music, (if you don't already). Work with a teacher. You don't have to get a weekly lesson but it will probably be most useful during the first year. Play a lot. You won't regret a minute of the time you spend on it.