Newbie question: How long to practice? And how often?

Uilleann Pipes
1

I just started on the pipes, and am wondering what the optimal amount of time to practice is, and how often? At least in the beginning?

I noticed that my practice session started out pretty well today, but then near the end was going downhill somewhat. Hitting missed notes, starting to hold the chanter tighter (not quite a “death grip”–maybe more of a “dying grip”), and so on. I also notice my shoulder is feeling the effects of the bellows.

I also know that I didn’t have time during the week to practice (or, rather, didn’t make the time), and so did the “catching up” today–probably by overdoing it.

It seems that “short and often” is the rule with the pipes (or maybe anything else, for that matter).

Thanks for any thoughts,

Baen

2

I’d say practice about 30 minutes each day. If things begin to hurt, stop, stretch and leave practicing for later. Between tunes or scales or whatever, take time to stretch your fingers.

When you’re just starting out, you’ll be using your muscles in a way that they’re not used to be using. Stretch well before beginning to practice.

And always be aware of how tightly you are holding the chanter… no death grips allowed!

3

Many thanks, those are really helpful guidelines! I practiced almost 2 hours today, after not doing it for several days–no wonder it all went to pot there at the end!

I also forgot about the aspect of stretching, although I’ve read past posts about how important it is, so I’m glad you brought it up. I have the book Stretching by Bob Anderson, so I’ll pull it out and look at it tonight. I took Aikido in college for a year, and remember we did a number of finger/hand stretching routines–so I’ll have to incorporate those into my practice sessions.


thanks again,
Baen

4

Aikido stretching would be of good value for piping hands.

5

30 minutes a day, every day is great if you can manage it. It’s much better than one 3 and a half hour practice once a week. You’ll progress much faster doing a little every day.

Personally, I feel it’s better to finish well. It certainly beats finishing badly. So try structure your practice so that you try new/difficult techniques at the start or middle of the practice and stuff you’re more comfortable with towards the end. This avoids getting demoralised and not wanting to practice the next day, which eventually leads to selling your set on eBay with the tag line “I couldn’t find the time to dedicate to this fine instrument”.

6

What PJ said and remember, you are in this for life, no need to rush things… especially the music. :smiley:

7

A few things that will help you out:

a) Play in front of a mirror, watching that your arms and hands are such that the tendons follow their normal path. It is a bad thing to have an upward or downward kink in your wrist as it puts a lot of strain on your tendons.

b) Take breaks and stretch. The aikido stretches work very well; I use them quite often.

c) Practice with your right thumb off the chanter from time-to-time – this forces you not to use the death grip. Note, that you have to put it back on for the low D.

d) Don’t press the chanter into your leg too hard, which is a natural tendency for new pipers.

e) Put a bit of hand cream on, as it seems to help seal the pipes a bit better if your hands are dry.

f) Take a dowel the thickness of your chanter, and make an exact copy of your chanter. Practice fingerings while you are watching TV and Movies. I have worked out so many problem areas in my playing by doing this, as it let’s your fingers figure things out without having to worry about pumping or pressure.

g) Relax - you will see in the mirror if you are not relaxed.

h) Whisper Reed - try playing a song blowing just enough air through the chanter to make a whisper, but not enough that the reed vibrates. This helps relax your grip on the chanter (and let’s you practice early in the morning).

i) Don’t develop the harder ornaments early (as we all want or wanted to), being triplets. Start with a legato scale, basic cuts, basic rolls and a cran.

j) Get support from other pipers. Patrick D’Arcy has put together a great support network for pipers in California. The more time you spend with them, the more inspired, humbled, skilled and realistic you will be ( http://www.uilleannobsession.com ).

l) Stick to it – it’s a long path you started walking down. Stick with it and you will be glad you did.

Best of luck!

Virgil

8

Baen is up in Northern California. The San Francisco club has a bunch of good people to support new pipers. And the So Cal tionol is in early October so come down for that!!.

9

Agreed. The more Tionols you can attend, the better your piping will become. IMHO, if you do not have an instructor near you, hit the all of the Tionols you can in your home state of California… they usually have the best in the business instructing classes.

10

what’s the secret to keeping your fingers straight. my big problems as a beginner are keeping my fingers straight, avoiding the death grip, and my right wrist moves about too much when I’m pumping the bellows, that it eventually moves my fingers to the wrong position. I know I need to relax. any tips on any or all of these?

11

Twentyone years I heard.

You dont have to keep your fingers straight, just make sure that the right parts of them are covering the right holes.

12

a) Your shoulders will get stronger over time, and you will learn to pump keeping your right wrist steady.

b) Your fingers should not be straight, but moderately curved. This is especially important later when you start playing the regulators, as having curved fingers helps keep the chanter closed while you reach for the regs.

c) The key to the death grip is thinking about it – you don’t have to hold the chanter hard to seal it.

Good luck!

Virgil

13

This is all a great help! Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and advice.


Now, I’m off to stretch. My shoulders are as sore as can be today–that 2 1/2 hour session yesterday was way too much, and now I’m paying the price. Going to have to take a couple of days off until the soreness passes. I can practice the whistle in the meantime…


Baen

14

Yep you have to be careful with the shoulders Baen. I was practicing an hour a day and the pain on my bag arm shoulder got so bad I had to stop for about 4 weeks. Even when just sitting at my desk at work my shoulder would be killing me (and driving a manual wasn’t fun either). I was even in the process of finding some physio when it started to get better. Although after playing for half an hour the other day it started to come back so I think it needs much more time. Its quite frustrating and depressing really-you just start noticing progress then you get set back by four weeks. This seems to be more common with UPs as I have never really heard about it happening with GHB’s (it certainly never happened to me anyway).

Hamish

15

I was told a horror story about a piper in N CA. He practised for hours every day, and was making incredible progress until his tendonitus became so bad that he had to give up the pipes and will not be able to play them for several years.

16

Make a conscious effort to keep from hunching your shoulders when playing… this can go a long way to preventing muscle injury. Relax 'dem hands, relax 'dem shoulders and when starting out, moderation is the key. Eventually you will work your way up to longer practice sessions, but in due time.

17

when I started out I got some advice from a GHB player. he said that he visualised his hands being seperate from his arm which was operating the bag. He was able to focus on the different parts of his arms and hands doing their seperate jobs without intefering with each other. He said he imagined his hands floating in space playing the chanter, with a soft touch, while the rest of him operated the rest of the pipes.

I know, sounds kind of surreal but it helped for me when I was trying to get the flapping arms to stop intefering with holding and playing the chanter.

(try imagining that your hands are working like Robbie Hannan’s)

Another thing that will help your grip is to try and play the chanter without the thumb of your bottom hand touching the chanter, it’s hard at first but helps with getting rid of the death grip and will also come in handy when you start mucking about with regulators.

g’luck

18

The tendonitis-type problems (especially shoulder problems) seem to be made much worse by hard reeds. I would advise starters to insist on starting with light/easy reeds.

If you want to work your way up to hard reeds once you have more experience, that’s your decision; some people have strong opinions about how light a reed is best, tonally. (Even so, I think it depends a lot on the chanter and the reedmaker…). Also, one person’s “light” can be another person’s “hard”. But shoulder pain or pressure (as opposed to just neck stiffness, which can be a result of poor posture) would suggest that the reed is too hard - unfortunately by the time your shoulder complains, you may already have inflamed it)

Bill

19

I know I’ve been quoted here before as being a supporter of strong setup wrt reeds, and that is an over simplistic representation -

In general, hard blowing reeds are not good for sound or more importantly for your person.

It is true that the setup of my C set is very tough, it’s a very personal thing, connected to a sound that I’m after, they’re so tough to blow, most people are not able to blow them, and sometimes it hurts me to play them.

I love the idea of an easy blowing D set of pipes, sweet, not too loud, and I’m working on getting my D pipes set up optimally like that at the moment.

I do also believe that a tougher (note: tougher, not tough) reed setup is beneficial when playing in a climate that changes wrt humidity and temperature as regularly as it seems to in North America.

Jesus I’m looking forward to returning to the temperate south east coast of Ireland in October!

David P.

20

I’ve had a suspicion, for myself, that tension is the great destroyer. I try to be able to squeeze sound out easily enough to keep my fingers relaxed, not just “relaxed” but 2 beer warm finger relaxed. If I practice, ever, with -any- tension, than I’m practicing and reinforcing not just the notes I’m playing, but the tension I play them with.

I think the reason us “old” people dont progress at the same speed as the youngsters is that we incorporate our adult stress and tension into our physical movements, especially when we frantically try to develop our muscle memory practicing as long as possible…

I find that If I play it slowly, Really slowly, I can focus more easily on relaxing. (and it has to be perfect, the space in between the notes has to be right. It has to be clean.) Youve gotta play it slowly, with a metronome. Rythm is the most important thing isnt it? I guarantee if you put in time playing it slowly with a metronome you’ll progress -way- faster than forcing as many notes out as you can for as long as possible.

I think a chanter needs to be as easy as possible in the beginning stages. As soon as I’m out of them I’ll let you know what I think then. Anything to eliminate tension from the fundamental development of finger motion. How many flailing stressed struggling fighting-with-stallion-chanter beginners have we seen? It isnt always possible, but I think that should be the goal.

And what about excessive motion? You only need to lift your finger an eighth of an inch (or so) from the hole to sound the note cleanly. Wouldnt Excess motion be another manifestation of tension? Willie Clancy was extremely economical in his fingerwork, it would be an extra step, to spend time learning to move as little as absolutely nessecary -easily- relaxed like, but I think its crucial. On the other Hand, David Power flails his fingers, his pinkies especially, and sometimes it looks like thier trying to tear themselves off! And his music is spectacular! And he’s way faster than i’ll ever be, so… I’m probably wrong.