For quite a while now I’ve been interested in learning the pipes, but don’t know where to start really. I’ve read about practice chanters and the like, but I play the whistle so it kind of invalidates that since the uilleann pipes you dont blow into.
Any recommendations on what to start off with? A set that’s easy on the pocket book but isn’t ‘crap’? Not that I can afford any of this stuff now, but it’d be nice to know for the future.
Nick
Is that Olympia, Greece?
It helps to be able to meet someone for face-to-face tuition, help with reeds etc.
The whistle is an excellent apprenticeship for the pipes as the fingering differences between the two instruments are relatively unimportant, and anything that you learn on the whistle can be applied to the pipes.
There are a few tutors available, some with companion recordings, including one issued by Na Píobairí Uilleann, but I don’t know enough about any of them.
If it’s olympia, WA, there’s a piping club in Seattle (and Brad Angus is down in Vancouver). You’ll want to contact Wally Charm for the Seattle club.
Dionys
I have used the NPU video tutors and found them very valuable, but they do not offer any kind of tuition on tinkering with pipes or reeds or advice on buying a set. If you’re planning on spending less than $1000 for a practice set, you should do two things: 1) Seriously assess your commitment to learning the instrument. It would be a shame to waste your hard-earned money on a set that nobody would have a fair chance at learning on. In addition, cheaper sets typically have a very high depreciation rate, while good sets have almost none. 2) Educate yourself as thoroughly as possible. Play as many sets as you can, find experienced pipers and drill them with questions, read everything you can get your hands on. You should and will do this anyway if you get the bug, but it’s especially important if you’re on a tight budget to be an informed buyer.
That said, I’ll offer the little first-hand testimony I can. I play a half set made by Ian Mackenzie of Blackheath, NSW, Australia and really like it. I also really like dealing with Ian, which, because it’s fairly well unheard of to buy a set and not need post-sales service/consultation, is nearly as valuable as the quality of the set itself. I have played sets by others, but don’t feel qualified to judge them due to the fact that I really didn’t have the time I needed to get to know the set and figure out the difference between the shortcomings in my own approach to the set ended and the shortcomings of the set itself began. In one case, I played a set by a well-known maker here in the U.S. that I wasn’t crazy about, but he made another of his sets sound very nice–so who knows what my feelings would have been if I had a whole day to get used to the instrument? It’s a lot of work, but you must try to play as many sets as you can for as long as you can before you decide. I didn’t do this and now realize that I got very lucky in choosing as I did. Optimally, go visit a pipemaker for as long as your welcome extends and bring along pad and pencil or a tape recorder. Be honest about what you want and don’t want. This community is full of highly spirited, highly opinionated and very knowledgeable and generous people. You won’t be sorry you came along.
Good luck.
Olympia, WA is a good place to be for Irish, piping, etc.. As Dionys mentioned, Wally is a good contact and will introduce you to the right person near you. His email is: charm @ seanet.com (w/o gaps)
It is Olympia, WA. Thanks for the tips, I’ll write that all down and when I can afford pipes I’ll see what I can do!
Nick
Nick…you must be the one that sent me your Copeland D whistle. -Larry
[Seductive voices of the damned, luring new innocents to their doom:]
Don’t wait till you can afford it or you’ll never get started. Keep pegging away on the whistle, but also start turning up and lurking physically in piping circles. That way you’ll start picking up some knowledge and maybe someone who sees that you’re really interested will help to get you fixed up with a practice set at less cost than you would have to pay on the open market.
Afterthought:
If you’re really committed you could take a novel approach by learning reedmaking before playing: if you make a go of that you could probably finance a practice set out of the proceeds, as the world will beat a path to the door of a good reedmaker
But then, the old chicken vs egg situation, how do you test if the reed’s any good if you can’t play the thing. Which should bring us to some pipemakers out there with MP3s on the net that make you wonder how they can make the thing without being able to play it prperly, but don’t get me started on that.
I agree Peter! But… The first person to teach me (after a couple o’ years with Dave Hegarty’s “Reekmaking (sic) made Easy”)was a fellow called Mick Gill ( his son Emmett is a piper)but I don’t remember Mick being a player. He gave me a way good start.
Cheers
Alan
Last time I was in Seattle at the tionol, there was a young women piper from Olympia (she might have been 12-14 maybe ) who was really good! I don’t know her name, but Olympia is a small enough town that I bet you could track her down.
t
Last time I was in Seattle at the tionol, there was a young women piper from Olympia (she might have been 12-14 maybe ) who was really good! I don’t know her name, but Olympia is a small enough town that I bet you could track her down.
t
tommykleen,
Ah, her name is Audra, don’t know her last name. I believe she is actually 16 but looks younger. She sometimes shows up at a session I go to at the Urban Onion cafe in Olympia. She’s a great musician, plays the flute just as good.
Nick
Lorenzo,
Indeed. Did Copeland fix the tuning for you?
Nick
On 2003-01-25 04:58, Tantus wrote:
tommykleen,Ah, her name is Audra, don’t know her last name. I believe she is actually 16 but looks younger. She sometimes shows up at a session I go to at the Urban Onion cafe in Olympia. She’s a great musician, plays the flute just as good.
Nick
It’s so encouraging to see kids taking to the pipes and playing well at a young age.
Nick…I think I was wrong about the Copeland whistle being sharp in the 2nd octave. I was so use to another brand that I had to change my embouchure over several days of playing. Now I can get the 2nd octave even a little flat.
But Copeland was very responsive and would have fixed it for free if I really had a problem. He said he’s only seen a couple that were sharp, and it was the upper A and G.
Larry,
I should have mentioned that the copeland can be beast to play at first. Lots of air requirement… When I first played it I look at the guy who was selling it like ‘you must be kidding’. Just takes getting used it.