I was just wondering has anyone used this yet? I’m thinking about buying it.
If so, what do you think? Does it all run smoothly etc?
Thanks
Hamish
It’s very good for the beginner and beginner/intermediate piper.
Get it - it’s worth it.
Thanks Brian. I have heard the tutorial itself is good. But what about the new DVD fomat? Is it all running smoothly? Is each lesson assigned its own chapter so you can jump straight to it? Sound quality good? etc.
I have the VHS tape, so others will have to comment on the setup of the DVD.
Yeah, the VHS was good. I’ve found it helpful. I like the way Gay and Nollaig keep totally straight faces and are one thousand percent serious, as though they are teaching med students to conduct brain surgery or something. But of course that’s entirely appropriate. Uilleann piping and brain surgery are equally serious pursuits. Yes, yes.
Funny thing, I wonder if anyone else has every noticed on the VHS Vol. 1 version, there is a short segment, it is either at the very beginning or the very end, when the narrator is discussing NPU’s role and purpose, there is a quick shot of someone at a reed making session blowing with his mouth into a chanter, as though it was a highland practice chanter. Yikes! Sudden death for an uilleann reed, no?
That reminds me, last summer, after dinner with some friends I played a few tunes for the dinner guests, among whom was a highland piper. I put my chanter down on the table after playing. The highland piper picked up the chanter and was about to blow into it with his mouth. I just stopped him in the nick of time.
That will teach me to be careful who I invite for dinner.
By the way, I’m pretty sure the issue of the problems related to the DVD have been brought up before on this forum - IIRC, the problems have been corrected, but a search on that thread might shed more light.
The problems with the reed-making DVD, “The Heart of the Instrument”, were all ironed out and in a very fast, intelligent way by NPU. However, it is probably a valid question for the new DVD. Rest assured, however, that NPU will quickly make right any problem if you encounter one with the new DVD.
I agree with the othes here that the lessons themselves are an excellent way to get started. I only wish that DVDs were available when I first started, as running a VHS back and forth to find the spot you want is such a nuisance.
djm
Yeah, back in the “olden days” of the earliest days of the millenium, and then even farther back, to the mid-90s. 1990s, that is. 
I wonder what Seamus, Willie, Leo and Johnny must think as they look down upon the truly modern piping world, with all the high-tech gizmos and what not ?
Ennis pointed out that the best way to improve your piping was to record yourself (and listen to it, obviously). I’m not sure about the others, but I’m sure Ennis would be all over the latest technology. He was no stick in the mud.
djm
Oh, I agree - but I wonder more about what they’d think about we modern day pipers complaining about such things, as handy as they are. I can almost hear 'em saying, “Why, when I was first starting out, lessons were once a month, if I were so fortunate, and I had to walk to _____'s house, six miles away.”
something like that…
They were from a whole different world. The music itself would have been more ubiquitous in those days. The pipers would have been raised to it, as opposed to us “ferners” coming to it relatively late in life, and with minimum access to the music or to the teaching. I doubt that I personally would be anywhere near where I’m at with UPs (if at all) if it weren’t for the net and access to recordings and expertise from the other side of the planet.
djm
As to whether the music was “ubiquitous in those days”, it depends on what days we’re talking about.
Pipers are less scarce now than possibly ever in the history of Irish piping, and there’s easier access to material and even other pipers. While it’s true that in some areas and households of Ireland children would have been surrounded by lilting, song, and occasional musical instruments even if their families were not lucky enough to own an instrument, in other areas traditional Irish music would have been rare. The fact that while music in the form of song and lilting might have been commonplace, but gifted musicians still rare and dispersed, helps account for the enormous influence of the earliest studio recordings of music (for instance James Morrison, Michael Coleman, etc.) in Ireland when they arrived from “fur amerikay”. If there had been a great fiddler at every crossroads, why would Coleman’s 78s have had such a sweeping influence?
I suspect that even the isolated piper today has it easiler in many ways than the Irish-born piper of decades ago, with the exception of those few born into well-known musical families. Remember too that piping was in decline for a long time in Ireland, and by the 60’s and 70’s when a revival began, there were very few still carrying on the tradition.
Bill
Agreed.
Hello
I’d have to agree with Bill here. Andy Conroy had to move to Dublin from Roscommon just so he could get some help with the pipes. He ended up playing in one of Leo Rowsomes quartet.
Irish music was frowned upon by most of the people of Ireland during the first half of the 20th century. I remember Eamonn Coyne (Micks dad) saying that the priest would run you if you played within two miles of the local church, yet now musicians are actually playing at mass.
Apart from Leo Rowsome, I don’t know if many of the other great pipers had any pupils (You never hear of Ennis, Clancy or Reck having pupils). Today though most pipers are taught in classes. I was a pupil of Andy Conroy. Tommy Martin said that he was a pupil of Mick O’Brien.
Regards
John Moran
Billh wrote;
“fur amerikay”
or,
‘vericaw’ even
blowing into the chanter as a one time thing is certainly not sudden death for a reed. doing it regularly and repeatedly is. so i have been told by people much smarter than me.