Can a 50 year-old Learn to Bagpipe?

feedingthenet: New Post has been published on...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:07:37 -0400

feedingthenet:

New Post has been published on http://feedingthe.net/bagpipe/
Bagpipe

Only one neighbor views my music this way. The rest really like to hear me play.

It’s important to start them young!

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:44:46 -0400

It’s important to start them young!

"The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven’t seen the joke yet."

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:42:19 -0400

“The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven’t seen the joke yet.”

- Oliver Herford. (via lois-marine)
Pretty good joke.

So it is back to the Caledonians. The police band has pretty...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:07:27 -0400

So it is back to the Caledonians. The police band has pretty much dried up. We were essentially down to three pipers and virtually no drummers. Our PM is due to deploy to Afghanistan, and we haven’t had a practice in a month. I think it’s pretty much done. We are almost a virtual band, in that we could get eight or nine pipers if we needed to do a funeral or ceremony. But everybody has started playing with another band as their primary. It’s too bad, but I guess that’s what all kinds of band go through.
I went to practice Wednesday night and played pipes. I need to get these settings down and learn their new and old tunes. It was odd playing in a circle with so many people. I have a tough time hearing myself and I worry about how well I am playing. But the guys were very supportive!

Great picture!

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:51:47 -0500

Great picture!

Practice Chanter Reed

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:22:53 -0500

Practice Chanter Reed:

I was screwing around with the reed in my long practice chanter. It was cutting out, so I took a long spin through the variety of reeds I have. I ended up putting a Gibson back in there. Like a hour prior to band practice. Big mistake. The Gibson is much harder to blow, but I was fooling myself into thinking I could handle it. Wrong.
I sounded good for the first few tunes, then started stinking up the process.
What I should have done was watch this excellent youtube on adjusting practice chanter reeds. I got home, spent 15 minutes trimming and adjusting the reed. All better. Andrew Hagen does a very nice job showing how to adjust reeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xCYRxwEzvc

Chris Apps Cane Practice Chanter Reed

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:44:45 -0500

Chris Apps Cane Practice Chanter Reed:

I have been trying for a couple months to get used to my Chris Apps cane practice chanter reed. I really like the the tone and the balance once I got it consistently dampened and used frequently.
But I finally gave up and took it out. Actually back to one of Chris’ plastic reeds. I found that once it was moistened it was fine, but after leaving it alone for a week, it got moldy. I used the peroxide to kill the mold, and it was fine. But then I left home on a five day trip, without my practice chanter (well, without that practice chanter) and when
I got home I had to go through the rehydrating process. Which isn’t too bad really. But it takes it a while to get to the right moisture level. And frankly, I am trying to spend more time on the pipes if possible. So I might get 30 or 45 minutes on the PC, but then I’m on the pipes and I just leave my plastic PC open and allow it to dry out. So when I play it next, I just put it back together and start playing.
The cane reed would be great for those guys who do a lot of instructing. Constantly on the practice chanter. Especially a wet blower. But for me, it is more trouble than it is worth. I’m going to set it aside for a little while and see how I feel about it.
Who knows, maybe
I will go back to it. I have gone back to practice chanter reeds that I used to hate, but then try again and find that it is just the thing. I must have at least a dozen reeds for the PC. Including some I made myself

My new favorite practice site. I’ve been spending a lot...

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:57:00 -0400

My new favorite practice site. I’ve been spending a lot of time in LA recently, and found that I can fit my pipes in my larger suitcase, as long as it stays warm and I don’t need a lot of clothes. Around the corner is this overpass. The homeless types seem to stay over on the north side of the road, so I just walk along under here. The acoustic effect is excellent. The Hawthorne Police did not stop this time, but I was ready for them. Wearing my police band tshirt.
I get lots of thumbs up and encouraging honks. No one has thrown any fruit or rotten vegetables. A lady made her husband circle back around the block so she could ask me to do a funeral.
And I just kept playing. Today I played for almost an hour. Lots of small breaks for a sip of water, but almost continuously for a full hour. And I will get a chance to play tomorrow morning before I head off to work. Last week I played so much in one day, my drones started cutting out from being so moist because I played so long in my two sessions.
I just need to remember my earplugs.

Cane practice reeds

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:05:19 -0400

Back in July, I saw an ad from Chris Apps that mentioned his cane practice chanter reeds. It sounded like something I would like, so I ordered one. I was hoping to give a review on how it worked out, but so far no reed. So no news to report on that one. Not sure why he would send out an email advertising a reed that it would take over two months to deliver.

Cane Practice Chanter Reed

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 15:03:54 -0400

Chris Apps came through and sent me my reed. It was worth the wait. I have played it now for a couple days without fiddling (read-screwing it up) and I really like it. It is in my long McCallum chanter and it works really well. It is harder to blow than my previous reed, but it is nicely balanced. It responds well and has excellent tone. I’m not sure it has way better tone, but a nice sound. It is not as loud as some of the other reeds that have worked in the chanter (some of which were real foghorns) but strikes a nice balance. I am going to try it in my travel chanter and maybe order another one to use on my travels.
Speaking of travels, I’m in LA today, so I brought my pipes and went out at lunch to practice. The 405 is right behind the hotel, so I went out under the overpass and played there. I must have played for 45 minutes almost continuously. I stopped to retune a couple times and get a sip of water. About halfway through I had to fix my tape on the high A hole, which had started to slip and made it really hard to get a decent high A. I ended up corking the middle drone to extend my chops, and was able to play at least an extra 15 minutes.
No one complained, though the Hawthorne Police pulled over to check me out. I should have been wearing my police pipe band tshirt.
I may go out again later if I get a chance before heading home on the red eye.

Police Pipe Bands

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 11:26:31 -0400

This week will be the fourth week in a row that the band has been asked to participate in a Line of Duty Death (LODD) for a fallen Police Officer. It has been a real honor to participate.

It also has shown me a real difference between Police and Fire Pipe Bands and non affiliated bands. We get to do something to honor these courageous public servants, usually at graduations, special occasions and funerals. There is a real sense of brotherhood in the DC area between all the different bands that have this affiliation. We can’t all make it to every funeral, but representatives from the whole area show and participate. It is a very moving experience.

Not something that the other bands get to do. We may have only a couple pipers that can attend (it is an all day event) but the next county over will send a couple and the next and so on. A fit tribute.

Joint Juice

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:39:02 -0400

I was flying with a buddy older than me that kept putting a mix in his water. Turns out is is “Joint Juice”. I looked on the web, and it is largely glucosamine and vitamin C, and some secret ingredients. So I have been trying it for about three weeks. It tastes good and it seems to be working. My fingers feel better lubricated and my knees are not creaking as much.
All good as far as I am concerned.

Burl practice update

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:56:27 -0400

All that practice trying to make my pinky (there has to be a real word for that finger) work independently has been paying off. I’ve been trying to keep moving the pinky away from the other fingers to help mimic the burl movement. At first, I didn’t have a lot of success. But I kept moving it sitting in the car, watching TV, just any time I wasn’t doing much.
And it has worked. I’m getting a lot more independence between the fingers which has really started to make my burls work. Usually my biggest problem was to do the burl and not pull that ring finger off. It’s still not perfect, but my burls are moving in the right direction. I’m thinking of designing a mini nautilus apparatus to develop more strength. Then my finger muscles might get too bulky and I’d have to find a way to work around that…..it’s always something.

Flaming Bagpipes! You don’t see this every day.

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:42:45 -0400

Flaming Bagpipes! You don’t see this every day.

A Homeless Man's Funeral

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 15:31:43 -0400

Sent to me not so recently……

A Homeless Man’s Funeral

As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper’s cemetery in the Kentucky back country. As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn’t stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I’ve never played before for this homeless man. And as I played ‘Amazing Grace,’ the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full. As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, “I never seen nothin’ like that before and I’ve been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.”

Apparently I’m still lost….

A couple years ago I donated several guitars and amps to...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:59:00 -0400

A couple years ago I donated several guitars and amps to Musicorps. They are a group that does very good work with our wounded warriors. They get them making music. I asked if they needed any bagpipes and it turns out they don’t get a lot of requests for bagpipes. But they do get a lot of requests for guitars.
So if you have any guitars or other instruments like drums or whatever, please contact them. They can be found at www.musicorps.net and I think it is a very worthy cause.

2010 Worlds. Talk about inspirational….I need to go...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:26:00 -0400

2010 Worlds. Talk about inspirational….I need to go practice more….

Celticpipes

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:11:17 -0400

Celticpipes

Celtic Pipes

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:10:05 -0400

I was trying BMW (bagpipe music writer) which is an excellent program for writing bagpipe music. Les in London swears by it. It does everything he needs and he has the annotations down cold. I like the program, but then found Celtic Pipes. My impression is that someone took BMW and turned it into a drag and click format, which works much better for guys like me.
It is a wonderful practice tool. Follow the magic music notes style presentation. Really easy to use. I can put a tune in in under five minutes. Did I mention that it was easy to use?
One drawback. It is not iPad compatible. It does Mac or PC. Check it out at http://www.celticpipes.net/ and see how you like it. I really can’t say enough about how really useful it is. For both writing the music and practicing. And for putting sets together. Even the harmonies.

Maybe he is just a little out of tune……

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:40:26 -0400

Maybe he is just a little out of tune……