As some of you know, I’m very new to piping (like only 1 week or so). I have found it impossible to find good instructional material out there. I don’t have a teacher anywhere close (Arkansas) and self learning is how I have to learn.
As an example I did a search on Amazon for 5 instruments to see what I could come up with..Banjo..Violin..Guitar..Uilleann..and for an oddball comparison..Tuba. Here is what I came up with…
Tuba out did Uilleann, come now, how many Tuba players can there be?!?
Is there noone willing to share information via media or is it that the best pipers don’t know how to teach. I have the Madfortrad CD and I believe it’s awful. No basics, just some tunes, the teacher Sean Potts, although a wonderful player, doesn’t even speak except in the credits.
What is a new piper to do?
I also own The New Approach to Uilleann Pipes from Heather Clarke. But I’m a visual learner not good at reading while I play. And talk about flying through the lessons…the CD goes something like "Lesson one..play this…Lesson two…play this…Lesson three..play this…no theory, methods etc.
I’ve seen a heck of a lot more tuba players than UP players.
In addition to the Heather Clarke manual which is highly recommended, so also is this video put out by Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU):
The Art of Uilleann Piping, Volume 1
Gay McKeon & Nollaig Mac Carthaigh
Price: 25.50 euro (Members save 3.50 euro)
Video - Beginners’ guide with booklet. 85 minutes. From the very basic onwards - with Gay McKeon and Nollaig Mac Carthaigh. Available in PAL and NTSC Formats
In my experience, the CD’s that accompany instruction books are supplied so that one may hear what sounds one is aiming for. There would be little point to playing the tune over and over. You do that yourself by starting the CD again. So Lesson 1 may be short on the CD, but naturally you would expect to take a much longer time to achieve the result being demonstrated. Just because the lessons fly on the CD doesn’t mean you are expected to fly through them. As far as reading while you play, well I don’t think anyone can do that. You read and remember as best you can. And then you check the book again if you can’t remember what to do. I mean if there are no live teachers where you are then you have to make the best of it. Good luck!
What is a new piper to do?
Well ye can stop bleating for a start.
Ye have a good book in Heather Clarke how ye use it (or not) is up to yersel.
Compared to a few years back ye should consider yersel lucky to have any material at all.Like Cynth said get the NPU CD if ye want a good visual source.
Comparing the UP’s availability of instructional material with banjos/guitars/fidils is a completely pointless exercise(given the ratio of the instruments to each other worldwide) and is time that could be better spent getting some practice in.
Slán Agat
Uilliam
The Clarke tutor, NPU videos and madfortrad CD all have their good qualities. Can you read printed music? If so, you should have no trouble with these tutors, at least up to a certain point. If not, you simply have to learn to read music if you don’t have someone within a reasonable distance who can teach you, or if you’re not so brilliantly musical that can’t work out how to play the tunes by imitation and repetition.
The Sean Potts CD really isn’t for a complete beginner…I’d say its actually pretty good, but requires a player to have got a few basics…so hold on to it and when you’re ready for it, you’ll find it a great resource.
Maybe there are some very good reasons that there isn’t much by way of “teach yourself” stuff out there…!!!
this is not an instrument to easily learn in isolation…its just too pernickity…the reed alone will behave differently at the drop of a hat, and as a beginner you’ll prob not notice it’s “off”, or if you do notice, you won’t really know how to rectify it and make the instrument playable…or you’ll try to rectify it having read a little, and most likely end up having to send away for a new reed.
Listen to all of this if you will…I’m just sharing a few of my own mistakes!!
Might save you a fistful of dollars and quite a few tears.
Get to a tionol or two. Or three. Or more. Well worth any expense.
Find the nearest pipers to you and make contact. Then visit them bearing gifts…you NEED their help.
Get the Clarke tutor (and CD if you’re not good at reading music) and stick to it. Don’t go buying all the different tutors just to see if one is better than the other. That’ll just distract you from progressing through Clarke.
Get your ass to Irish music festivals, pipers gatherings, or tionols whenever you can. If there are no uilleann pipers in your area, try spend some time with someone who plays a wooden flute. Many of the basic ornamentations (rolls, crans, triplets) are the same or similar.
I have Clarke’s tutor and the NPU DVD vol. I. That’s probably your best bang for the buck. The NPU video gave me the visual clues I needed to go back and work better with the Clarke tutor. Even so, many months will pass with Miss Clarke at my side before I’m playing any of the tunes on the NPU vid.
The sad truth is that if you are looking for a Mel-Bay sort, learn-the-instrument-in-1-week type of tutor, you won’t find it. The NPU vid showed me that learning to play the UP is merely very difficult (as opposed to downright impossible).
Where in Arkansas are you? There a few of us north of you Kansas City who would be willing to work with you if you are ever in town.
I don’t like the Clarke tutor either, for me it is a great reference, but that’s it.
I like the MadforTrad CD better, but it does assume a basic level of piping already.
This is not a casual instrument - it is non-intuitive and awkward to learn. Unlilke other instruments, the start up period is longer. You can’t just learn a few cords and plunk out some tunes (like guitar). You must work at it, every day, without fail. It’ll come.
A few years ago we tried to figure out the total number of U. pipers in the world. The best estimate we could come up with was about 3000. There are far more tuba players than u-pipers.
Thanks for the tips guys. I guess I’m just frustrated at the gigantic learning curve needed for pipes. And I’m not looking for a “learn in a week” method or a “learn in a year” for that matter. It took me two years of practicing 2-4 hours a day, fingers bleeding and hurting before I got anymore close to proficient on banjo. I was just amazed at the lack of help for those without an instructor. I’ll definitely check out the NPU DVD and take a closer look at the Clarke book and CD.
Pipes is no different than any other endeavor. Having access to experience is critical. It can be difficult to make progress if your instrument is not right especially. Maintaining pipes (reeds!) is critical.
That’s application time, not learning time, though. If you can get grounded early with a good approach, the application time will work out for you.
I agree there. As a total beginner, the Clarke tutor taught me some important things and helped me to learn how to hold a note and use the bellows and all that. Once I was comfortable with the scales and a few tunes in that book I moved onto the NPU video and now I am learning the songs on there. I am on the fourth tune there and it really helps to hear them play it and practice quicker fingering.
Well ye can stop bleating for a start.
Ye have a good book in Heather Clarke how ye use it (or not) is up to yersel.
Im fawsed to respond to ya in my R’dylen/ Bahston accent. I agree with ya, it’s wicked hawd to play the pipes without a teachuh. Yah can bleat if you wanna. But the Heathuh Clawk book is good, just don spectit to sound like heh.
eedbjp or is it eejit?
ye are not “fawsed” to do anything! ye choose to do so and ye have chosen to make a quite unnecessary,and for a teacher,quite remarkable attack on my diction.The topic has been raised most boringly before by folks with quite frankly nothing better to write about. The term “ye” is grammatically correct although not used often nowadays .I do hope ye exercise far more tolerance toward the pupils in your care than ye seem to shew(again a spelling not used often but grammatically correct)toward the personal policy of this forum.
Your time would be far better spent on learning how to play the pipes and perhaps getting some lessons on the usage of English.
Slán Agat
Uilliam
