When I first started taking lessons for the pipes my teacher at the time was Steve Scales who is an brilliant piper and an equally brilliant teacher . He is very precise in the way he teaches, taking you through a tune step by step .He seems to understand or he remembers what it is like to be a complete beginner .
The thing I also remember about Steve is that he was Absolutely adamant that as a student of the pipes and then also a student of Irish music that you should only listen to Irish music and nothing else !
I can understand his point of view as Steve Scales is totally deicated to the pipes but it would be hard not to listen to all the other musicI love !
If asked of you would you only listen to Irish Music Or maybe you already do !
Go listen to Erik Satie or Saint Saens…you’ll definitely learn more about music there.
Why restrict ones listening? There is so much to be learned by keeping an open mind. What matters is that you listen to “good” music…music with good structure and form, music that is played well.
I Trad is great stuff but so is the folk music of other cultures. If you like folk music and want to improve your listening and musicality try some Hardanger fiddle music from the Scandinavian countries, or some of the music from Northumberland, or some good old-fashioned Bluegrass.
I was not at all familiar with Irish Trad music when I started playing the whistle and now pipes, and I think it’s not necessarily a bad idea. Without really thinking about it too much, I find myself listening almost exclusively to Irish trad recordings. What better way to get all those tunes and rhythms into my head? If you’ve been brought up listening to the music, then I’m sure it’s not necessary, but it seems like a good idea for a beginner like me to spend a few years doing this. I wouldn’t like a teacher to tell me it is required, though!
I do not think that listening exclusively to ITM is necessary, but I do think that for learning the Uilleann Pipes it is necessary to immerse yourself totally into piping music… recorded and live. Doing such puts one in the right frame of mind and makes concentrating on piping easier. But for the sake of sanity, it is OK to come up for air every now and then and throw on a little Iron Maiden, Led Zepplin, Rolling Stones or perhaps a little Spike Jones…just to clear the head.
Iron Butterfly, please or The Kaleidoscope (if you know who The Kaleidoscope is, then we’ve bumped into each other when the Santa Monica Freeway was still clear…)
I find listening to other types of music can be intrusive (in other words, I’m easily distracted). Listening only to ITM helps keep it running through my head all the time. For me, your teacher’s advice is just what I need, but perhaps that is not necessarily so for everyone.
I tend to have ITM on in my car (mainly piper’s). It’s great to watch people walk in jig time
That frees me to listen to what ever at home, maybe a little Troy etc better not go there again
Hmm. Interesting. Steve Scales was also a percussionist with Parliament/Funkadelic and the “expanded” Talking Heads.
The thing I also remember about Steve is that he was Absolutely adamant that as a student of the pipes and then also a student of Irish music that you should only listen to Irish music and nothing else !
Oh, no, no, no! Don’t do that! Especially if you’re an impressionable youth. Then, when you do hear something non-ITM, it’ll be too much for you to take and you’ll suddenly be compelled to try and “innovate” the tradition and play everything with syncopation and synthesisers and you’ll think what you’re doing is the Future of Irish Traditional Music, when it is in fact utter crap.
Mr. Scales’ argument is completely at odds with the Irish musical tradition itself. O’Carolan was much taken with the music of Corelli and Vivaldi; Tommy Potts listened to everything; lately I’ve been thinking that some of the melodic ideas of [New Order guitarist] Bernard Sumner have been showing up in my variations on tunes.
When I started playing ITM, I listened to very little else but ITM for the first couple of years. Drove my girlfriend at the time to the brink of insanity. After a while, everything else crept back in again, which was just as well, because there are very few recordings of ITM being released these days that I feel like I could sit through, let alone want to spend money on.
If you like Irish music, then listen to it. But don’t feel like you have to listen to it. That’s no fun.
better not go there again 
