one’s musical journey should be something that brings peace and joy. while i have found the board a valuable source of information in the past, of late it has brought me neither of those two things.
while i fully intend to keep practicing, keep trying to find a tutor, and keep playing weddings and funerals as long as my customers are happy with me, I’m beginning to think the board has outlived its usefulness in my life, and at this point would serve only to discourage. I understand that this is due largely, if not entirely, to one person, but it isn’t worth aggravating myself over.
if any of you wish to continue thinking that the quality (read: lack thereof) and setup (read: lack thereof) that went into the recording you heard was indicative of my piping, despite my happy customers, then that is your own problem. I’m not saying they hear what you heard and don’t have a problem with it - I’m saying they get to hear something entirely different, and not just recording quality. they get to hear attentive, careful playing on a chanter and drones that were carefully tuned beforehand - all things I maintain I made no effort to do before making the recording.
any of you who wish to remain in touch via PM or email (save royce) are more than welcome to. any of you in my area that would like to, at some point, get together in person for piping related things are also more than welcome to contact me. I do hope to stay in touch with many of you.
but i’m going to make a concerted effort not to post anymore, and, to prevent myself from feeling the need to post, not read anymore either.
i wish you all (even royce) the best, and thank you for what help you have been to me in the past, and what help some of you may be to me in the future.
I don’t think you should leave. Was the comment harsh? Yes it was in a way but you need to read it in the context of what you were trying to do: encouraging beginners to buy an instrument that does not function well. At least that was my angle when responding.
Is this board useful, well I get some entertainment out of it and I think you should be able to glean a few things from it, being an isolated piper who (I am told) has hardly seen an actual piper play, who has no real access to more or less reliable piping information.
Learning the pipes is a lenghty process, working at it on your own (I have been there myself believe me) often involves taking a few wrong turns and when you find out when in contact with other, more experienced pipers, some home truths may hurt. But by the end of the day these experiences help you along the way, keep you on the straight and narrow if you like.
In short: I think you should hang on, get some perspective and pick up things again. I also think you should open your ears to your own playing and that of others and keep improving as much as you can. It’s dark and lonely work, but worth it once you manage to pull it off.
Antaine, do not let the assinine rantings of one (or more) joyless troll(s) run you off the boards… stand your ground and learn with and from the rest of the C&F community. If you have a legitimate complaint regarding personal attacks by another within this forum (…in this case I think that you have), take it to the board moderators and let them sort it out. In the meantime, continue to contribute to C&F… your postings do help those (like me) who cannot seem to think beyond the lines.
The above comments by Peter Laban are a prime example of the support and help one can get here… and Peter is someone whom I tend to ‘listen’ to… honest, to the point with an angle toward progress and not toward personal insult. He’s been around it for a good long while and has access to much that is not only vital but inspirational regarding this, the best of all possible instruments.
I deleted Royce’s posts. We have a policy about personal insults and attacks on this board.
Dale
Dale Wisely
So its save now, just ignore this fellow
I think its brave to let us hear your pipes even they are out of tune and
being a beginner like myself (3,5 year)
and I wonder how many of us really can play as well as they say
well, it doesn’t function exceedingly well (as would a new set carefully handmade from start to finish), and does require alot of work (hence my writeup of it), but can be made workable. not that you could tell that from the recording i made. don’t let what i had up there be the sole thing you use to judge their worth.
the point is moot, as tim may not be making them anymore anyway, but some of you have played those sets (royce’s posts where he said they were pretty good were deleted along with the rest, i think) - feel free to jump in with your assessment. even if you haven’t played them, many of you know tim and his attention to detail - it doesn’t make sense that he would allow something substandard out of his shop with his name attached. are they as good as the sets he makes from scratch? no, of course not - nobody ever claimed they were. but they can be made (despite what you heard) to play in tune (when the time is actually taken to set them up properly) and would be more than fine for learning and local gigs of the sort that i play.
it wasn’t the fact that he didn’t like what was on the recording - even I didn’t like what was on the recording - but it was the ad hominem way he chose to state that, rife with insults and personal attacks.
i know i have alot to learn, and i want to learn, and i am fully intent on pursuing both individual practice, external tuition, a better instrument someday &c &c.
Maybe I’ll stick around, but a break is definitely in order
I supose there’s something to be said for “nolite te bastardes carborundorum”
Your article clearly states you have a perfectly servicable set, giving prospective buyers the impression they will be able to play away. From your clip, and what you say in your subsequent posts it is very obvious this is not true. You admit it will take a great amount of work, despite the fact you say in your article everything is hunky dory. Antaine, it obviously is not. ANd that is my whole point. Maybe the reworked sets can work, but there is no way of telling if you have to base an opinion on the one you have.
After I asked you to record I received a PM from someone who had, in real life, heard you (try) play the instrument in question, information transmitted there and in following messages was taken into account when I responded to your recording. So I don’t think I was being unfair to you. It’s great you think you’re doing well, but do go see other pipers, listen, exchange information and get some perspective on what piping really involves.
i’m pretty sure i know who you’re talking about. yeas, we spent the time combing thru it for problems, and found plenty. and we didn’t even get to really finish. i know he played it to try it out, and said that air loss through leaks was a big problem and that the reg reeds would have to be replaced with good ones. I don’t recall playing anything myself while I was over there, we spent most of the time rebuilding the bellows intake valve.
but one can tackle problems one by one to improve the thing.
seal this leak, replace that valve, adjust those springs, rereed that, etc.
i didn’t mean to give the impression with the writeup that one should just indiscriminately order the thing, make a few adjustments for a half hour and play away - rather to serve as a starting point for “the first ten things to fix, and how to find them, if you truly can’t afford anything else”
I know I need a better instrument, and I’m saving my pennies. But all the same it is nice to have something to play for the next eight years or so before it will be a genuine possibility (the way it looks right now).
i know i need real one-on-one help - stylistically, repertoire-wise etc. I’m working on that, but the only person I know of in my area is very busy and hasn’t much time to help me. understandable, but still an obstacle.
The trouble with forums from a linguistic point of view is that comments and responses tend to come over a lot ‘harsher’ than if the same discussion was ecountered in a ‘live’ setting around a card table with drinks and pretzels. My observations and my own experience leads me to believe that we tend to become a lot more defensive when recieiving responses, and perhaps a lot more ‘tactless’ when giving responses - a bit like the anonnymity afforded us whn behind the wheel of our tin can motor vehicles allowing us to become more aggressive they would otherwise be the case in physical face-to-face settings.
I wager that if one were to re-read the Pakistany pipes thread once again but imagining it to be a conversation amongst us all in a pub, that it would take on a far less confronting atmosphere.
we actually studied the “automobile effect” in psych class…i’ve always been fascinated by it. i’ve heard that it has to do with the ability to send and receive signals through eye contact.
Royce is just a troll..
You just happened to be in the line of fire when he, probably, got bored again.
If Royce is the reason you are leaving, that’s sad..
If, on the other hand, you are leaving because this place is crawling with people that know everything and are not afraid to use it, then i can understand..
I’ve not seen the post which seems to be the cause of all this, but if it’s bad enough to justify it being deleted by the forum administrators, then it must have crossed the line.
If I listened to every criticism ever voiced of my piping and let it get to me, I’d have given up a week after I started (then again, if I’d listened to some of that criticism, I’d probably play a lot better than I play today).
Don’t let the mealy mouthed begrudgers get you down.
Don’t let Royce get to you, Antaine. From what I’ve read here for the past couple years, no one can stand the guy and few ever listen to him anyway. As for Peter L., I believe he’s truly trying to help. Why don’t you just make a new recording and take a bit of time to tune/balance things first? Maybe even leave the regs out for a tune.
As you know, I have the Brittonized drones and chanter, and think they’re A-OK, but I’m fully aware that my playing won’t do them justice yet. I believe they serve a very useful purpose in that they do allow us “poor folk” to get started, and are a perfectly viable stepping-stone on the path to.. …pipingness??? I, for one, would not be playing at all if it weren’t for them, and would not be coveting new parts to aquire in the future.
I’ve noticed that if you picture Royce with a piece of spaghetti hanging out of his mouth and a fleck of foam at one corner, his posts tend to be more amusing while you’re reading them..
