Dumb mistakes you've made as a piper

[MacAngus]

The Biggest mistake I made was at balmoral school of piping .
Alasdair gillies had just set up my brand new Blackwood chanter so i could play my march for him i put my pipes on a bench to go get a sip of water my pipes fell off the bench and cracked my chanter.

[piperdbh]

I blew the chanter out of the bag once at a funeral. That was embarrassing.
A different time, a visitation/viewing was to start at 4 pm at the funeral home, which is about 5 miles from the cemetery, so I got to the cemetery at approx. 4:00, thinking I had plenty of time. The family had decided skip the visitation and go straight to the cemetery, but no one bothered to tell the 'piper. I pulled in to the cemetery to find the hearse, family, casket, military honor guard and flower van already there. That one wasn't my fault, but it felt like it.
I've been nervous and rushed tunes, and played wrong notes, and been too dry, and had squirrely drones, but nothing to compare to forgetting the 'pipes at home.

By the way, I think the aforementioned quarry is near Mt. Airy. It's where they quarried white granite to build monuments, bridges, and curbs for streets in New England states that use a lot of salt to melt snow in the winter. The salt would eat concrete, but it won't harm granite. I saw it on television not too long ago.

[Dall_Piobaire]

Gotta love it as it makes that quick exit. caught mine in mid air, made it look like it happens all the time!

The qurarry I was asking about is on the southeast side of Silar city. I used to teach Scuba there many years ago!

I think the one near Mt. Airy might be the American quarry, but I am not sure at all!

[piperdbh]

When my chanter decided to take a day off, I was in the middle of, of all things, "Amazing Grace". The sound just stopped! I looked around to see if anyone noticed, which of course they did, and then looked at the chanter in my hands, which by then was about a foot from its stock. I socked it back in and struck in again, and hurried to the bank the next day to cash the check before anyone stopped payment on it.

I'm looking forward to reading future posts in this thread so I'll know what not to do.

[Dall_Piobaire]

See, now it's not just us pipers who are tired of amazing grace, but it is our instruments as well!

[EagleJCS]

A couple of years ago I was competing with the band at a games where I'm also one of the co-directors (organizers) of the contest (it's not a conflict of interest as I don't pay the judges - the Games does).

Anyhoo - I don't usually wear my band kit all day, there's a lot of running around I have to do in the morning - through a wooded area with underbrush, etc. - so I usually wear my kilt hose & my tennis shoes (trainers) and shorts, then put on the kilt & rest of the band kit around lunch time, just before band tune up starts.

On the day in question, I was running short on time and forgot to change into my ghille brogues - I went into the comp circle wearing my tennies. I didn't realize I still had them on until we went up to the line! As I recall, there were a couple of remarks on the scoresheets (like "Nice shoes!"), but we still placed pretty well - I don't think it counted against us.

[MacAngus]

Eaglejcs that's a great story. It's good you weren't docked points .
In scotland they used to dock points if any men competed and had long hair.

[O'Callaghan]

Eaglejcs that's a great story. It's good you weren't docked points .
In scotland they used to dock points if any men competed and had long hair.

I don't play the pipes, but how many points would I lose for hair down to my waist, LOL!

[jeremy j starche]

I was piping at me mum's funeral -- up on stage.

While I didn't quite "walk off the end of the stage" I did look down and realize that I had one foot hovering above mid-air. First time I ever tried to play and walk backwards at the same time.

*NOT* my best performance ... but it was mum's wish I play....

[george7]

There's always the "how many times" have I played that part? For my 2 part 2/4, I played a repeat three times in competition.