I’m interested in UP so I have a couple questions. First there are no teachers around me so I will be teaching myself. I am wondering if I can still teach myself if I just start off with a half set? The reason I’m gonna do this is because I’m on a very tight budget so I figured David Daye’s half set kit. This raises the next question of are his half sets worth the money and I’m not planning on selling them? Also, will I be able to build it even though I’ve never played UP before? Also one more detail besides a book and a video to teach myself the DD kit is pretty much all I’ll be able to afford. I look forward to your answers and thanks in advance.
First off (to preempt Joseph), read the FAQ as it answers LOTS of these questions. And you don’t want us repeating ourselves, do you?
You can learn on a half-set. In fact, most people learn on a practice set which is kind of a 1/4 set really. I made that up, but most people do learn on a practice set which is just bag, bellows and chanter. You wouldn’t fire up the drones for some time after you started learning.
As for the Daye stuff, use our mighty search engine - there are tons of threads on the pros and cons of his work. Never played one so I won’t add anything to that debate.
-Patrick
Hi profesorfrink986—After you click on “Search” (see search function at upper right corner of screen) you’ll go to another screen. At the lower left hand corner you will see "Display results as: Posts or Topics. Be sure to choose Posts. Otherwise you just get billions of threads that you have to search through yourself to find where someone mentioned what you are looking for. I just did it using “Daye” and many posts came up.
I own a Daye starter set. Very easy to build, so you shouldn’t have much problem there. As for my experience with it, it’s a great set to start out with and easy to play.
Andreas
Good morning John, and good afternoon…I assume you’ll be reading this while noon passes, so the code is entirely accurate. 
Where do you live? You don’t really know for sure that there are no teachers or other pipers around you. Someone here may surprise you. I know of at least one dudelsacker here that thought he knew everything and everyone in this business…yet to his surprise–after posting here–found out that another piper with lots of uilleann pipes lived within a city block of himself! In fact, they both posted here for quite a while before finally meeting!
- what lorenzo said. for many reasons, we can help you more if we know where you are. proximity of makers and reed stability in addition to proximity of teachers.
- you should spend hours reading this forum almost at randon- the FAQ has only a small fraction of the wisdom available here.
- you should (if you have not) spend hours listening to different pipers on CDs. that wil give you a good idea of the different ways good piping can sound. its just easier to talk piping with others when you have done lots of listening.
- if money is tight, certainly go for a pratice set. if you tell us how much you can spend, we will give you several options for new pipes- david day will almost certainly be one.
meir
First off don’t buy a rubbish practice set because
1 when you decide to get rid of it you’ll lose your money and
2 its a piece of crap from day one on which you neither learn to play NOR ever manage to make a reed for it!
Instead go out and get the best you can afford then you’ll both start right and stay right!, and when you get to selling or trading the value will still be there.
Profesorfrink,
Lots of us had to learn by ourselves without a teacher (including myself). It is difficult when you start out to know whether you are the problem or if the reed is the problem so it is always good to at least get some confirmation from an experienced piper that your chanter and reed are working well together.
I found that the best way to learn by yourself is to play along to CDs (you’ll need to find some slow tunes). This will only work in your favour if your chanter is tuned to the same pitch as the one on the CD, otherwise it will just sound wrong.
Another tip - make sure your fingering is correct from the start. I played with my finger tips for a year before meeting my first piper, who pointed out my mistake, requiring me to re-learn it.