Some time when I look at the waiting list for uilleann pipes I think to myself I might not live long enough to get a new set of pipes. (I’m 62), and I also wonder if I’ll live long enough to be a good piper. I like the uilleann pipes, I just wish I’d started sooner. If it takes 10 or 12 years to be a good piper, I’ll be 72. Ha. that’ll be something to see. But I’m determined to learn all the tunes on my videos “The Art of uilleann piping” vol.1,2 and 3 if I can find vol.3. (working on “The Rambling Pitchfork”) Any older new pipers than me out there? (I’m learning as fast as I can)
Hey, old piper, don’t worry about it. I’ll be 60 in September, so you’re really not that far ahead (or behind.) I started about this time last year, and had never played anything. It has been slow going, having to get these unlikely fingers to do what they’ve never done before.
But, I’ll tell you this, i hardly ever miss a day practicing, and it is such an incredible feeling when you start to get a tune going, that sounds even a little like a tune… it’s hard to compare it to anything.
If you enjoy it, keep at it.
I’m 43 and just starting. My thought is that if I DONT start now, in 10 years, I’ll be 10 years older and wont have even started learning to play the pipes.
There’s a saying in golf, if you want to be a better golfer, go back to when you were a kid and start practicing. Obviously, that’s not possible…but what you can do is practice now. I think the same applies to pipes, it takes time and practice.
Keep at it…we’re all in this together!
-gary
the saying is “7 years learning, 7 years practicing and 7 years playing before your a piper” Good luck and keep at it I say. Try and get out to a session and make some piping friends, you’ll learn an awfull lot faster. Do you actually have some pipes to practice on ? There are makers out there who can get you playing very quickly
my saying: “As long as you have fun, who cares about sayings!?” 
my advice, at least the advice i followed after a fashion and worked pretty well for me, was this:
1)get the best chanter you can afford for your practice set, and don’t skimp on things like keys (always regretted only getting two). For me, this was a Bruce Childress chanter that i play whenever i can.
2)when looking to upgrade, remember - regs make no noise and take no air until you use them on purpose, so why buy a practice set, to buy a half set, to try to sell it and buy a full set, when you can just get the whole damn thing and have it in your lap the day you’re ready to use it. I would have loved to have had Bruce make the rest of my set, and, God willing, someday I will have him do just that, but until then I found an inexpensive (as pipes go) and timely alternative:
Tim Britton rebuilds paki sets. it takes about 3 mos and costs $2600 for a full set including 3-key chanter (but if you already have a good chanter you’ll prolly want to use that). it doesn’t look half bad, being (as I recently discovered) an imitation of Kirk Lynch’s sets, and while it may not be something Davy Spillane would be caught dead with, it is in tune, reliable, and sounds right (i’ve never had a complaint about the sound from brides or families or people in a small room with me while i’m playing). If you are really thinking about your first full set and waiting a year and a half or more is a problem, I recommend the rebuilt set. The other chanter you can either keep as a spare or ebay to make back some $$. Personally, I’ve never sold any of my piping components and have a practice set, full set and third chanter (tho to be honest the full set is really all that gets any use).
James Connelly (I love that name…James Connolly is a personal hero of mine)… forget how old you are. Just play the damn pipes. I felt the same way when I started at the age of 50. One of the advantages us old dogs have is that we are already familiar with the genre. You simply have to free your mind, so your hands can follow. You can do this thing, and if you are as willing to practice as it seems you are, you can advance at a very fast clip. I remember reading about one of the wunderkind here on the C&F who had a very involved practice schedule. He was from the Toronto area, I believe. I instituted many of his ideas for myself and it bears fruit. Squeeze the bag, son, finger the chanter…and forget your age. You will live longer.
If playing them is a pleasure for you, damn all else.
:roll: I’ve never seen damn written so often in a list… they must truly be the devils instrument…
Hail Mary full of grace…
Patrick.
I was thinking the same thing Patrick. I have ment to ask you if you know anything about the Jim Daly UPs. They do seem odd, but that doesn’t mean there bad.
P.S. I noticed a few days ago, on your web site, that you have Belgian Ale links. I am a home brewer and I brought some belgain ale to Gabriels on our last meeting. I only got around to drinking a homebrew stout wial I was there. If you would like I can bring some next time. I am a particular fan of Trappist and Abbey Ales.
Hi Douglas,
Beer… ah yes… the old trappist stuff is wonderful! I have to admit I have a very unnerving penchant for Belgian beers. The more obscure the better. Tripple’s are my favourite’s… just incase you have some yeast you’re trying to get rid of
I won’t be at the next meeting on the 1st of Feb but will surely be at the one after that in March. I’d love to sample your brews. Our local brew house has started serving Belgian beers now. They have them crazily overpriced though. Their own beers aren’t so bad so I just stick with them for half the price. The place has Guinness with the right tap too. I got fed up trying to explain to the bar staff how to pour a proper pint… they used to use a bent spoon to stop it from overflowing… they’d go all the way to the top of the glass in one foul swoop nocking any bit of fizz out of it!!! So now, as they say, I’ve moved on I’m not big into chocolatey stouts either… it’s a very foreign taste to my pallette.
Anyway… what were we talking about?
Patrick.
I got my half set at 55.5 so play on. Pass the Belgian Ale-how about a lambic? Anyone,anyone??? or a Flandrian Red???
Don’t forget us peoples ok? 
http://www.brouwerijhetij.nl/eng/index.html
not much on that site yet but i advice you to go and have a beer there if you are ever in the neighbourhood.
It’s funny James, I went through the same thoughts as you four years ago when I was 54 and I purchased a practice set from Al Purcell. I had just gotten married and couldn’t faithly devote THAT much time to the pipes.
Alas I sold them a year later and have since taught myself to play the flute. Some regret but time and thinking of age and committment the whole desire wasn’t there.
All the best to you and your piping! I just think the flute a chanter without all the amentities of the UP
MarkB
I got my practice set at age 54-1/2 and my drones a year later, my current age, I just turned 64 (darn, almost 10 years! Tempus fugit, doesn’t it?).
Now I gotta play the damn things in public because my eldest son married a harper that wanted to start a band 
I am a very slow tune learner and I play fairly plain style so I don’t have a big rep, but I do get complements on being dead on tempo from other members of the band.
I tend to take complements with a grain of salt, though, because I know the difference between what it sounded like and what I wish it had sounded like…
The mark of a true musician,in my books!
I turned 45 in november,and wished that I’d discovered the pipes earlier (of course,I’d heard D.S. with Moving Hearts years ago,and P. Maloney,but had not the slightest idea of how you’d get your hands on a set!).
Still better late than never.Forget all this age stuff,some of the greatest musicians in all walks of music are over 50.AS Charlie Parker used to say,“If you haven’t lived it,it won’t come out of your horn.”
I thought I knew the Valley- just where do they have Belgian beers???
Long way for a good beer, but cycling is upon us- have a triple with frites on top of the oud kwaremont for me-if not for me, have one for yourself
In my minds eye I can still see a beatiful girl running thru a field of flowers, looking behind her. She’s not looking for me, but some young man. but I can play the music they run to and they will hear my music and think I am a young person too, and I will be too, in my minds eye. If I can get my chanter in tune and remember to pump the bellows!!! Old man young heart
The uilleann pipes were designed for (and by) older people, the chair being the mandatory guiding factor. When’s the last time you saw a GHP doing what Seamus Ennis did best at his age? And besides, James, when the fingers and arm no longer no longer take their orders, you’ll have uilleann pipe poetry to write to keep you busy.