First lesson

[OC Richard]

2014 makes 40 years piping for me!

You don't say your age, but I've observed over the years that the adult learners who succeed (becoming decent pipers) have these things in common:

1) prior musical experience
2) fanatical dedication
3) large amounts of free time to practice
4) excellent instruction

I can't think of anybody I know personally who has succeeded without having all four.

Two people who got good as adult learners were stay-at-home moms who had been music majors or music minors in college (trumpet, both of them, I think). When their kids were off at school they practiced, two to four hours a day, five days a week. (Not together; these women didn't know each other, but happened to have similar paths.)

Three were guys who had very understanding families and/or were able to practice at work (having private, and sound-isolated, offices!) and had played other instruments since their youth. These guys would put in each at least an hour a day Monday through Friday.

Set up against these success stories are untold dozens of adult learners with crazy-busy lives who simply didn't have any time to practice and the time and cost of their lessons was, in truth, wasted. A half-hour or hour lesson, once a week, accomplishes nothing if there's not several hours of practice in between.

Things like being stay-at-home parents, or being retired, or being laid off from work, are the bagpipe teacher's friends!

The Scottish pipes might be unique (or at least unusual) in having a number of different fields of knowledge/skill-sets that the truly well-rounded pipers masters (or at least knows something about)

1) the fingering of the chanter

2) the winding of the instrument or blowing technique, what pipers call "blowing tone"

3) tuning

4) the vast complex lore concerning reeds and the instrument itself (choosing and adjusting reeds, doing the joints of the pipes, choosing, maintaining, and tying-in pipe bags, knowing about different pipe makers, etc etc)

5) repertoire (ceol mor, ceol beag, etc)

6) knowledge of the heritage of the instrument (famous composers, various schools of teaching, the various milieus of the pipes etc etc)

7) knowledge of Scottish and Highland history and culture and perhaps at least a smattering of Gaelic (long the language of the pipes)

Now, there are plenty of pipers who don't know anything about 6 and 7. There are very good players who play in very good pipe bands who only have mastered 1 and 2 (all of their reedwork and pipe maintenance and tuning done by their Pipe Major).

I have seen some very good players (excellent fingerwork and blowing) who couldn't tune their own pipes.

So the list is longer than it perhaps need be; however the 'old guys' knew the whole lot, and many were (and are) fluent Gaelic speakers.

One thing that I've come to appreciate more and more over the years is the value of a good instrument (not necessarily expensive or by a famous-maker) and the value of an excellent set-up (the right bag and reeds and everything adjusted optimally). So many things that beginners struggle with, such as blowing tone, getting good strike-ins, and getting good cut-offs, are so much easier on an excellent and excellently set-up pipe. Such a pipe is a joy and pleasure to play.