Newbie question: bag seems too long for my reach?

Uilleann Pipes
1

Hello, I have played irish flute for over 30 years and I just bought my first practice set of uilleann pipes– by Patkos– from a private seller here in Denmark. I am a small to medium sized woman and my first impression of this instrument is that the bag seems a bit big for my reach– I can’t seem to extend it out enough from my body to allow for a clean exit of the air from the bag to the chanter. Is it ever a thing to trim the length of the bag a few centimeters to improve the ergonometry of the setup? Like, if I cut the neck of the bag about 4 centimeters shorter? Is this a thing? :thinking: Or do I just need to experiment with angles / find my own way of holding it and it will sort itself?

Sorry if this has been covered already– tried to find a discussion in the archive but couldn’t, or I didn’t know what terms to search for. Thanks in advance for any advice :blush:

2

A good, personalised, ergonomic fit is important for your comfort of playing but this really is an issue that is hard to diagnose from a forum post.
The bag may well be too long but the issue can equally be caused by posture, position of the bag, length of the blow pipe etc. So before you start cutting the bag, you are best advised to seek an in person opinion from, ideally, a decent pipemaker or an experienced piper.