I actually went and got a therapeutic massage on my bag shoulder after about 4 months of playing, but it made a huge difference and untied a knot that had been getting steadily worse. I’d definitely consider the professional shoulder massage every six months or so to loosen up those muscles that get worked really hard.
Strangely, the only problem I’m having these days is with my right knee–since that leg is cocked back at an angle. Every 20 minutes or so I have to straighten out my right leg and massage my kneecap a little. Not sure if any other pipers here have had any discomfort there.
Congrats on getting started. It’s amazing how many problems work themselves out without you realizing it. It’s a great feeling when the hand movements become natural and comfortably second-nature. Keep at it!
Learn to sit ‘normally’, ie with your right leg (I’m assuming you’re right handed and that’s leg you rest the chanter on) straight in front of you with you. I’m astounded sometimes at just how low and far back some pipers think they need to position their knee - like they’re getting ready for a 100m sprint. For me, the most comfy position is with both legs level, both feet flat on the floor and both knees at the same level. Occasionally I will extend my lower right leg forward a tad (like in the video I posted a week or two back)- rather than under and back - but not out straight so people walking past aren’t in danger of being tripped up.
I used to sit with both knees level but at the Atlanta Tionol I was told–in no uncertain terms–by an instructor that I needed to adopt a more piperly pose and bend the right knee under me. I guess in the end it really is just a preference thing but he definitely made me feel like I might as well have been wearing a skirt and sitting with my legs ajar.
Well, that was less than sound instruction then. The more unnatural the position for playing, the more likely you are to suffer an injury - as you yourself attestify. There’s a photo of Sean Potts in a recent issue of An Piobaire I think where he is sitting very normal indeed and whatsmore, his regs lie perfectly flat.
At the West Coast Tionol 4 years ago in San Francisco, Brian Macnamara gave a class, and he included bending the right knee quite substantially, to make the right sort of angle both for Regulator playing -and- chanter closure on the leg. I think the Bass reg moves the regulators into a position where if you dont drop them with the right leg, you want be able to reach the farther notes. Also, the flatter the angle of the leg, the more the regs will want to move back, towards the bellows, maybe.
Having a 3/4 set or a set with a bent bass reg would make it easier to play sitting flat knee-like, but I’ve seen plenty of players, including Mick Obrien, play with a rather bent knee. I’d say its an anomaly to play a full set with flat knees, from what little ive seen.
I admit I can’t speak from experience with bass regs because I have no regs. I can only go from photos of other pipers with regs and the way they sit.
However, the way some people cock their right leg back and under it looks as though if they had regs they’d be sliding off onto ground before them.
I prefer the sort of posture Liam O’Flynn seems to adopt - both legs slightly lowered with feet positoned back slightly under the chair. At least he did when I saw him on tv playing at the Sydney opera House, I think.
One thing I’ve never satisfactorily done is playing with legs crossed like the picture of Paddy Coneely the Galway Piper in my Dictionary of music.
what a knee-slapper