Buying a bagpipe

[Mr. Woolery]

On the Dunbar plastic pipes, there used to be an option to have O-rings instead of hemp on the pins. Not sure if this is still done, but the two sets the local band bought were very problematic, as the O-rings don't stay in place properly and the drones won't stay in tune. Personally, I just don't really like the weight of the plastic pipes. And for all that people keep saying they are cheaper, they aren't much more affordable than blackwood if you have the same options as to drone reeds, bag, and so on.

I play McCallum pipes and have been happy with them. I've heard them described as being the Yamaha of the pipe band world. You can find a better set, but the McCallum pipes are going to be good, solid, attractive and reliable. I love the sound of my mom's old Hardies and my dad's Lawries, but my pipes are my favorites. The one set of Naills in the band doesn't impress me tremendously, as they keep cracking (sign that they were made of poorly-seasoned wood, as the piper cares for his instrument better than anyone else there) and the owner has recently upgraded to a set of vintage Lawries, which sound better and feel better to play.

Brand is a matter of personal choice and half of it is going to be luck if you don't have several sets to compare locally. Go with one of the reputable makers and make sure you have a warranty with the instrument and you should be fine. McCallum has a 2-year warranty, Soutar has a lifetime warranty, others have other policies.

Self teaching is possible, but even the self-taught seldom actually recommend that road if you have any other options available. There are so many pitfalls that can trip you up on the road to piping nirvana that very very few pipers with any skill can claim they did it without a teacher. Do your best to get some sort of instruction, at least at first, so you avoid common problems with fingering and timing.

Bagpipes have one of the steepest initial learning curves of any instrument in the world. With a guitar, you can learn two chords and strum along to several songs within a week. A banjo can have you at least strumming along in a day or two. A tinwhistle is not a hard instrument to learn, nor is any of a host of others. At least in order to get where you can make sounds that are close enough to music that you have some sort of reward for your efforts. Bagpipes have a completely different instrument to learn before you can play the actual pipes! Practice chanters are vital for learning the fingering and timing without having to coordinate the blow/squeeze on the bag, keep the drones from falling off your shoulder, worry about neighbors showing up with torches and pitchforks, and try to ignore the howling dog under the table (mine hates my piping).

I personally think it is appropriate to start trying to learn the full pipes about the time you have three tunes well learned on the practice chanter. Others see it differently. I actually went years on the practice chanter before I started getting serious enough to play the big pipes. But the payoff should be sooner than most folks get it. Once you have learned a couple of tunes on the practice chanter, start watching on Dunsire for a used set of pipes to show up on the trading post. You can ask there for anyone who has a set that he'd let go cheap. I once saw a set of Hardies go for $350 (and I was too late to get them!), so they do sometimes appear cheaply. Or, if you want brand-new (sometimes the vintage pipes are a better bet, as they usually have had all the problems with aging wood taken care of already), start shopping then. And call up dealers to ask them about what is good and bad about the pipes they stock. Talking to a piper on the phone can make it a whole lot simpler than e-mail.

In the end, enjoy the music and try your best to play well enough that others will enjoy it too.

-Patrick

[Carolina Kiltman]

Just a quick note: Andrew Lenz "journey" is most instructive, and can give you a good idea of what it takes. From personal experience, DO NOTbuy one of the cheap Pakistani pipe sets. I am sure the artisans who make them could make quality pipes given the time, good materials. But they turn them out as "piece work", and quality control is totally absent. Also the tanning process of the leather bag is something you don't want to know about.

I come from a family of musicians, (no pipers), and having tried to self-taught myself, I am a miserable failure. The pipes are perhaps the most difficult instrument in the world to learn to play well! So if you are serious, and cannot find an instructor, get a good quality chanter, and learn to play it well. That way you don't have to worry about fingering, grace notes and the like when you start the difficult part of synchonising the bag (blow/squeeze) with what your fingers are doing!

I don't want to discourage you, but if you can become proficient on the chanter first (and it is a relatively cheap way to find out if you are going to be a piper) then go for the full set, as the previous posts tell you.

Good Luck. I have decided to be a listener rather than a player.