…quite right. Those with experience can pull this off, and it is a very good thing to be able to do especially if you perform as a solo piper. It took me well into my second year of piping to figure this trick out, and I have been using it ever since.
With a set of Wygent reeds and the cannister bag, I just as in tune at the end of a solo gig as I was at the beginning. Very little mucking about needed. I can pick them up next day, and still have them in tune.
Marc
Yeah, I thinks it’s a silly name too. But I am still curious about the Warpipe event
I think someone mentioned this already, but “war” is an aglicization of the Gaelic “Mhor.” Piob Mhor. Peeob War. Big/Great Pipes. “Great” Highland Bagpipes.
…my god, what have I done?!
This topic has degenerated into a GHB thread, for which there are numerous forums already out there. I should have known better.
“Dale! How do you lock this crazy thing, Dale?” - G. Jetson
t
I have watched some top-notch GHB pipers compete and perform (Jack Lee, Alasdair Gillies, Roddy MacLeod, Stuart Liddell, etc.) and I have only seen “tuning as you play” done during tune-up, never during a performance.
GHB needs a fair bit of time to settle in before competing or performing. If I get about 20 minutes on my own that is just enough time to get my reeds settled. If I play often enough after that I find I need to do little or no re-tuning. Just as importantly it gives time for my blowing to settle and my bag-arm to get comfortable.
I play wet bags. I get the most stable and bright tone out of a sheepskin bag. It’s worked well for me in grade 1 solo and grade 2 band playing. Chanter reeds need some moisture to sound good. I would only play a cannister bag if it was required by a band.
The “Mhor” connection is a good point, Eric.
I’m probably responsible for turning this thread into GHB, Tommy. Sorry about that. 
Cheers,
Aaron
oleorezinator
oleorezinator
Joined: 29 Dec 2003
Posts: 124
Location: behind the anthracite curtain
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 2:18 am Post subject:
ignorance is bliss.
never teach pigs to sing…
I think someone mentioned this already, but “war” is an aglicization of the Gaelic “Mhor.” Piob Mhor. Peeob War. Big/Great Pipes. “Great” Highland Bagpipes…
…Eric your memory span must be very small.The ‘someone’ is me and it was only the 4th posting on this thread..hmmph :roll:
…my god, what have I done?!
This topic has degenerated into a GHB thread, for which there are numerous forums already out there. I should have known better.
[quote.tommykleen][quote=“tommykleen”]
Thanks, Uilliam. Lots of good info.…and you didn’t even call me a “git” >
>
t
[/quote]OK… Given the heading is GHBs at Irish Cultural Events wot did ye expect..soooh!..git,GIT..gitty git git ad infinitum >
Slan Go Foill
Uilliam
Okay, here’s the awful truth: We are a formerly secret cabal of Highland pipers infultrating uilleann and smallpipe forums and gently persuading people to play all the different pipes they can. We do it to destroy all former traditions and take over the world with our heretical hybrid playing styles. To the other members of our sacred cabal: Sorry guys, they were getting hip to us and had to know sooner or later. 
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am in it for the haggis!!! And perhaps, for the whiskey.
OK… Given the heading is GHBs at Irish Cultural Events wot did ye expect..soooh!..git,GIT..gitty git git ad infinitum
Slan Go Foill
Uilliam
bing!bing!bing!bing! Yes! Yes!Yes! I have finally activated Uilliam’s git-o-meter.
t
The sad reality of it is that most North Americans don’t know the difference between English, Irish, Scottish anymore than they do Portuguese from Spanish. Its all some distant place “over there”. Most Irish people I know who come here have no desire to have anything to do with their old culture, so there is little or nothing in the public’s eye here to say, “This is Irish”. Although France is actually the most bagpipe-crazy country in the world (with over 150 different types of bagpipes), over here in NA it is the Scottish garb and pipebands that are publicized the most, and have come to represent all “Celtic” culture, so any folk festival that calls itself Celtic or Irish almost inevitably turns into Scottish pipebands. I think perhaps this is what the initial post on this thread was bemoaning.
djm
Being one of the offending Great Pipe musicians hired to play at Irish Fair Minnesota, I suppose I should weigh in here. I have held off doing so to see where it would go.
I agree there was too much Scottish pipeing at the Irish Fair. You will have to talk to the people booking the talent about hireing Scottish stage bands and pretenders to the Piob Mhor tradition that we are plagued with. And you will have to talk to the people that hire Irish bands and musicians to play at the Highland Games about cross cultural contamination. You also need to be more sensitive to the history of the Piob Mhor and it’s place in Irish culture localy and historicaly. Uilliean pipes owe their very existance to their grand progeneter by the way. And the festival is an outside event and so the outside pipes can have their day. I’m sorry the inside pipes felt overwhelmed.
What many in this area fail to understand is that Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band has been a big part of the development of the Irish culture in the Twin Cities since 1962. It has been the conduite into the culture for many and most of the greatest proponents of Irish culture here came from Piob Mhor or were greatly supported by the same.
I appreciate the education we have been given on the history of Piob Mhor. It has validated what I have believed for a while and I will correct my usage of the name. And I would like to invite anyone who would like to continue this discussion to join me at:
http://www.gaeliccrossings.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=e079281513c8c85336fb10e9a2cb6b81
Which I hope will become a less uptight forum where we can talk about Piob Mhor, it’s history, it’s place in the culture, it’s redevelopment, and it’s use in competition in the All Ireland Fladh, among other things.
The ‘fladh’? A relaxed conversation on formal competiton in traditional music? I’d better stay where I am then! 
It’s not the last tradition that was/ is being dressed up and reduced to easily palatable performance standards by those who ‘know best’ simply because they claim to ‘know what’s best’ the loudest and can prop it up with ill won political clout…(gasp, puff, pant etc.)
It’s never easy is it. 
Regards,
Harry.
Baglady, sorry if I hit a nerve. This is not the place to be if you’re going to get touchy. I was not specifically referring to your event (I’ve never been to Minnesota). It would be nice to see GHBs vindicated somehow as being part of the Irish cultural landscape, but how do you explain an Irish festival with a big pipe and drum corp thundering up to the main stands blazing out “Scotland the Brave”?
djm
From my experience, I recall the Brian Boru Pipe Band sticking to Irish tunes for the most part. The Minnesota Pipes and Drums, is a different story altogether.
djm, Minnesota is very much like your neck of the woods, except that they have much better beer. 
Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes Warpipes bwaahhahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa
(it’s a rainy day here).
Agony Bags! Agony Bags!
It’s raining here too!
Thanks for weighing in Baglady. I was hoping I would draw you out at some point. It’s true, the Brian Boru pipeband is woven into the warp and the woof of Irish culture in these parts…has been for as long as I can remember. Were I to actually listen to your repetoire I might gleen some Irish tunes out of it. I see a pipeband coming and , if I am not in the mood for a pipeband, I withdraw into my shell.
Follow up: So are kilts Irish too? I get the feeling that a big part of being in a pipeband is that you get to play dressup. Isn’t that what Renaissance Festivals are for?
t
I’m not sure if its the wool or the plaid, but they give me a terrible rash.
djm
A lot of “Irish” pipe bands either wear saffron kilts and green tunics with capes or green kilts with Aran wool jumpers. Caubeens are a given. The leinne (sp?) is supposedly the historical Irish kilt but there is no documentation of what it looked like. It is supposedly the progenitor of the saffron kilt.
Sadly the “dress-up” element is a big part for many bands, i.e. a lot of bands look better than they sound. I think it’s important for a pipe band to look good but at the end of the day it’s all about tone and tunes (for me it is at least).
Agony Bags… there are days when that is truer than ever.
Cheers,
Aaron