lads, you have GOT to check out a youtube called "Wedding - epic bagpipe malfunction "
Good Lord in heaven I couldn’t believe this…
warning GHB debacle contained herein
Hi rgouette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLIDnzHetKg
Jeez that sounds like my uilleann pipe playing it is that cringeworthy.
David
And let that be a lesson to all the future Brides out there…
Always hire an UILLEANN Piper!!! 
P.S. I’ve never even picked up a set of GHB’s - but I probably I could have played 10% better than this bloke!!! 
P.P.S. I’m glad nobody ever video taped MY worst piping experience.
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Nobody did..right?!? 
OMG! Cringe worthy is right. So awful… and it has nothing to do with his bass drone coming apart in the doorway. His playing is terrible, his tuning is terrible, his blowing is terrible. I’ve been playing GHB for 38 years and this ranks among the worst I’ve ever heard. Why would he think that someone would want him playing at their wedding? So wrong.
For those of us who are GHB impaired by choice … Aside from the temporary de-dronification, and the awful tuning … What is actually, specifically wrong with that high A? And the tuning of the G in the Wedding March? Just a bad reed? Bad fingering?
I didn’t laugh, for there but for the grace …
Added: OK, I laughed a little. 
There was the time I flew to London to give a video presentation, and started by setting the video projector on fire …
Amen!
I will say this, I played a wedding recessional with a set of Dunbar P3’s FAR ahead of when I should have.(I never had a lesson), but my perfectionist streak demands that I at least can play something reasonably well sounding, in such a public setting.
The impression one gets here is that the guy just can’t handle the pipes quite yet:
though also perhaps the drone snaffu just threw him so off, that he simply lost it..
Poor fellow.
That would make for an interesting thread: “who played in public before they should have…”
Probably part of it. You’re nervous and over your head, something goes wrong, you get flustered. Then everything else that can go wrong does go wrong. I wonder if he lost his kilt off-camera.
there were quite long thread of "the worst piping video "on Bob Dunsire GHB forum …there were many “not far away from terrible”
Couldn’t listen to more than half of that. Hurt my ears too much!!!
It sounded to me like there was a mouse running up and down the inside of the chanter.
Some of the notes just weren’t coming out, but his rhythm wasn’t too bad when he got back to the bits that did come out.
Poor guy.
Who hasn’t spent half an hour getting everything in perfect tune, only to find when you kick in the drones that they’ve decided to go awry? And you’re stuck because the bride is already walking?
Sounds like he has a leak somewhere, though it may be just really bad blowing. Can’t tell much about his fingering because he’s having so much trouble keeping the pipes going. Maybe the bass drone got partially knocked out of its stock or something.
Reminds me of a trip to Nova Scotia in 1973. I stopped to hear a boys’ pipe band practicing in a parking lot in Halifax and got to talking with another guy who was watching. He said his son had just had a very disappointing score in a competition and that if I was willing, he’d put me up in his guest house for a few days in exchange for some tutoring. Who could refuse an offer like that?
Next day, I sat down with the son, age 11, and he made a very respectable showing on the practice chanter. When he struck up his pipes, though, he sounded, not as bad as this guy, but terrible, nonetheless. When I tried his pipes, I found that they were leaking so badly that there was no hope of playing in tune, or really playing at all. An hour or so of rewraping all the tenons, reseating the reeds, adjusting the flapper valve and it was a completely different instrument.
I tagged along with the family to the Antigonish games a few days later, and when the son competed his score was something like 30 points higher than his previous effort. Good lesson for all concerned.
I wonder if the drone would have stayed in if the woman hadn’t pulled on it? 
Had a similar “flustering” instance a couple of years back playing the pipes for the opening of a curling tournament. Apparently ending up flat out on the ice in a kilt will throw you off your normal “A” game no matter how well everything worked out when warming up the pipes before hand. Haha
On a side note, definitely agree on the cringe-worthiness of the playing.
opening of a curling tournament
awesome!
…and ouch
In a word, poorly played and his chanter reed needed to be replaced and tested before the event.
I feel for the poor fellow.
His drones were out of tune, but the worst part was that his chanter reed was beyond repair. His high A was skirlling which was making that out of tune racket. You need to know when to replace a reed that is dying.
Oh…did I mention…DUCK!!! Bass drones smack into any low lying door frame, ceiling or tree branch. Ducking gracefully is an art for sure. Kinda like a courtsey.
Also, if you have a mishap at the beginning, as he did, you should stop, go outside, tune up, compose yourself, and then re-enter and start again. The audience will be patient and will surely appreciate the effort.
I always make sure that my pipes, and reeds, are perfect the week before I have to perform or play. I want no mistakes like this poor lad.
After all, you may be representing your instrument to an audience that has never heard one played live and you want to leave a good lasting impression. It is an honor, I believe, to be able to play a bagpipe and represent that culture.
I wonder if he got paid after all of that?
Cheers! Richard
all well said Rich.
Poor fellow apparently just wasn’t experienced, and the art
suffered a bit that day.
I also have always felt a sort of honor in playing the GHB, and as a fellow who ‘taught himself’, I was always quick to tell people that I was “not a real piper”, because pipers go through many hours of instruction/practice and learn tunes very precisely..
Rich
“aye, we have a piper doon…the piper is doon…it’s ok…he’s just pissed”
Dear oh Dear…the intolerance shewn by so many is telling.Fer all we know he could have been a relative just starting aff and asked tae play.Or he could have any amount of other problems, or it could have been a bit of a laff..we just don’t know.Tae presume otherwise is pure hokum.So many comments on the actual youtube page frae “experts”… so many fingers pointing..but remember when ye point yoor finger there are three more on the same hand pointing back at ye.
No matter what direction ye are coming frae 
shoot uilliam, you think we’re tough?
you oughtta read the youtube comments from the GHB community…