I ask this because I have no musical heritage that I know of, in fact I don’t know of any of my extended family that plays a musical instrument . I have always as far as I can remember been trying to play some sort of musical instrument but I never really gained any proficiency on any of them. Would I have been a better piper if my family were more musical ?
What is your own musical heritage and do you think it has made a difference to the level at which you play the pipes?
RORY
No.
I say no…I am a guitarist, a singer, & I dabble in piano, tin whistle, & harmonica. (By dabble I mean I should really stop playing video games and learn to play them well.) NONE of my family for generations past had any musical inclinations. If it is within you, and you love it, then follow that.
I will say my heritage is heavily Irish…so that combined with falling in love with the pipes the 1st time I heard them explains my overwhelming itch to start in uilleann piping…
Hey Rory!!!
by heritage do you mean “whether your ancestors played music” or do you mean something more cultural or environmental?
I don’t suppose it matters too much if a relative played but you never really were exposed to him or her.
But those that grow up with music are definitely at an advantage
It sorta becomes “assumed” that the young ones will play
And maybe the standards expected and achieved are different
I am thinking of a few specific families there…the Mulcahies?
Or Mick O’Brien’s family…both the one he grew up in and the one he has himself produced.
The Potts family.
The McSherry family.
The Brownes
Lotsa musical siblings in that lot…you have probably only heard of the famous ones.
I’m afraid the rest of us will navigate the music by a different route, and with a lot less access to the sort of knowledge and understanding and contacts that a musical family will have.
Sean Potts has spoken to me about what it was like to grow up with Paddy Moloney and the boys jamming in the front room on a weekly basis, year in, year out…and what sort of influence his fiddle playing uncle had on him, or the family tradition of piping.
so don’t tell me that sorta experience and culture/mindset/heritage doesnt make a difference, lol!!
Boyd
(I always thought I had no musical heritage to speak of…recently discovered that wasnt exactly true
but there was no music in the house when I was growing up , so… 
)
Rory ye belong to the greatly extended musical and not quite so musical family of Uilleann Pipers 
Noo stop asking fecking stupid questions and get on wi yer practice 
Love and Peace to the World and all that… 
Uilliam
But if I dont ask stupid questions who will ?
By musical heritage I mean the desire or talent to play music that you may have inherited from your parents or grandparents. I was just thinking in my own case that I have had a life long desire to play music but I dont think I have the talent to back it up.
One reason could be that not having parents who play music I was never encouraged to take lessons on any of the instruments that I was messing around with at any time and if I had taken lessons it might have made a difference.
RORY
For me it’s certainly not in the family. No one in my family has any musical talent, other than my sister who played piano and sang when she was young, but quite before she turned 20. Although, I’ve been surrounded by music my whole life, my father having worked in a record store in the early 70’s, and when I wanted to start, they supported me fully, even with my endeavours in death metal drumming and the likes.
I suppose I could… eh… for a little while.
There is that popular expression:
“Nurture, not nature.”
…Says it all!
In my case it was very important. My mother´s father was Franconian and played “Zither” (sort of dulcimer (with dronestrings!)). He moved here (North) cause there was work here after WWI, married and stayed for good. He gave up the “Zither”, cause the North has no musical tradition, but - unusual over here for a “working class person” - he bought a piano and organized lessons for my mother.
On a wider (off topic) level the “family-nucleus” seems to supply you with a sort of “open ear” for the traditions of your region, which I find a very important counter to the “umph…umph…umph - globalisation”. Whats the use of travelling abroad? All the (inner) bigger citys (already meanwhile) look exactly the same and exactly play the same “umph…umph”.
As my brother & I came into our teens, it became apparent that there was certainly a musical gene floating around in the DNA, as we both seem to have come with the built-in ability to
play by ear with no training. (guitar at the time)
It greatly helped launch me into other instruments, and I’m humbly thankful to God for the gift.
It seems to be mainly my mom who has the musical gene, though on the fathers’ side comes the Scottish/Irish connection a few generations back & that’s where I claim my love for things Celtic…as it were.
Hi Rory,
There’s a great book that delves into why people play music, and what makes some better than others. It’s called This is Your Brain on Music. It’s written by studio guitarist, record producer, and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin.
Mr. Levitin says “music runs in families the same way that French does.” That is, if you play a musical instrument (or speak French) you are more likely to pass that skill on to your children than someone who doesn’t. But if you look at children who are separated from their parents at birth, there is no evidence to support the notion of DNA playing an important role.
I have no musical heritage on my father’s side. My mother played violin in high school, which I found out later in life, as I never heard her play. My brothers and I were, however, encouraged to play instruments, and practice daily to improve our playing. This was the ticket we needed to become better musicians. In a “musical” household, a young musician might emulate the playing and practicing of their parents, but I believe that good playing comes from the playing itself.
In my experience, there are those who have a natural gift to play an instrument (genetics?), others do not. I have seen those musicians who have that gift and never apply themselves, and are terrible musicians. I have also seen those who have little or no natural talent, but work their butts off and become excellent musicians, and very successful.
So the question if musical heritage is important - yes, if that’s what motivates you to play. But if you love the instrument, you will probably play anyway. A non-musician, or person from a non-musical family, just needs to know that this is a lifestyle. You can’t pick the pipes up once in a blue moon and think that you will become Seamus Ennis, because even for a player with a natural ability, it ain’t happening.
The next step, if you are not in a musical family where musical information is not readily available, is to find a teacher. My own experience with piping is you cannot teach yourself. Videos and books with CDs help, but are no substitute for a real teacher. …but that’s another topic.
You can’t pick the pipes up once in a blue moon and think that you will become Seamus Ennis, because even for a player with a natural ability, it ain’t happening.
Well said there , I think
You can’t pick up anything once in a bluemoon and become “anyone” other than a dabbler.
Patsy Touhy, Ennis, all the greats were all…lets say…“no so great” to put it very delicately, at one point. Just like anyone who became great, they all put in the mandatory 1000s of hrs. pushing to perfecting their craft.
That is a good book. One of the most interesting things about it to me is that Dr. Levitin theorizes that music ability predates language ability in humans and offers some suggestions as to why this may be. I think the most plausible one is that it provides a courtship advantage to people. I have little reason to doubt it when I think back about how many musicians I’ve known with otherwise “out-of-their-league” mates.
“out-of-their-league” mates
oooh boy, there goes the thread!
Exactly! It’s the practice that makes you good.
Here’s one observation on this subject (especially applicable to pipers)> practice is repetitive. You really need to live in the details. The intonation, the fingering, the reeds, etc. Not to mention learning to play the tunes. Some people might not be able to stay focused and attend to the details. Maybe that’s what “talent” is: borderline OCD. Obsessing on the details and feeling compelled to work them out.
Think of it as an incentive to practice more!
So does this mean I can no longer blame my parents that I cant play the pipes ?
RORY