The other side of druid

**druid** · 2nd May 10, 12:29 AM

My 11yr old's school has an "Arts Day" where they share their Family Heritage and for those with talent, performances.

I'm the Piper, my 13yr old [Elizabeth] is on the right and her GF from school on the left side as they are standing there on stage [Emily]. This is one of the 3 Highland Dances they/we do. Pipers, go easy on me...this reed only has about 6 hours on it and isn't broken in yet

**BoldHighlander** · 2nd May 10, 10:25 AM

Cool!

**Tartan Tess** · 2nd May 10, 11:22 AM

Thank you for posting that.
The girls did a great job (and you too DAD!)

**Highlander31** · 2nd May 10, 11:24 AM

Nice video. You and the girls gave a fine performance.

**McClef** · 2nd May 10, 12:30 PM

I'm no expert but the pipes sounded fine to me.

**Woot22** · 2nd May 10, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by McClef

I'm no expert but the pipes sounded fine to me.

Same here, my web connection stinks so I could not catch the whole performance, but from what I heard you sounded great dude. Keep up the good work.

**thescot** · 2nd May 10, 12:42 PM

Man, that was a great little show. People--including me--may money for tickets to stuff like that. Please extend my congratulations to the young ladies, and accept the same for you piping.

thanks.

**druid** · 2nd May 10, 01:01 PM

thanks all.

My Pipes are pre-1900 Lawries, with E-Z Drones [which I was dead-set against in the beginning/traditionalist], chanter is a Shepard with a Warnock reed.

Would you believe the girls started learning the Dances in late January? They are fantastically speedy students...lol.

We would have done the Broad Sword and Fling but the girls also participated in choral and instrumental performances that day. It would have been too much on their tiny bodies...lol. Elizabeth is 13 and Emily is 12.

Perhaps sometime in the near future I can get the other dances on tape as well...

**MacMillan of Rathdown** · 3rd May 10, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by druid

thanks all.

My Pipes are pre-1900 Lawries, with E-Z Drones [which I was dead-set against in the beginning/traditionalist], chanter is a Shepard with a Warnock reed.

Would you believe the girls started learning the Dances in late January? They are fantastically speedy students...lol.

We would have done the Broad Sword and Fling but the girls also participated in choral and instrumental performances that day. It would have been too much on their tiny bodies...lol. Elizabeth is 13 and Emily is 12.

Perhaps sometime in the near future I can get the other dances on tape as well...

Maybe I'm misreading this, but if you have replaced the chanter, and replaced the drones (and presumably replaced the bag) what remains of the original pre-1900 Lawrie pipes?

**davidlpope** · 3rd May 10, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown

Maybe I'm misreading this, but if you have replaced the chanter, and replaced the drones (and presumably replaced the bag) what remains of the original pre-1900 Lawrie pipes?

Scott,

I think you've misread. E-Z Drones are reeds, not drones. The original drones are really where the "heart" of a set of pipes is at, and what people are after. Older pipes' chanters were pitched lower than modern chanters, so they're 1) hard to reed and 2) sound very different to the "modern" piper's ear. As a result, old chanters are usually switched out for new ones. To be honest, most pipers tinker around with their chanter/ drone combinations so it's pretty rare to find anyone competing with a matching set. For a while the Naill solo chanter was "in", now there's been a shift towards the new MacCallum chanters. Bags are switched out as needed, as well, since almost everyone has a favored bag and the hide ones wear out over time. In all truth, if I was buying a vintage set of pipes, I'd probably just buy the drones alone (the "sticks") and use my preferred set-up for the other components.

David