Well, My uilleann practice set arrived yesterday. As a Highland piper I’m finding that it to be a WHOLE NUTHER ANIMAL working with a bellows but with practice, I’ll be on my way in no time. I’m going to have a local uillean piper check out the setup and the reed to make sure that all is in order.
I can make the chanter sound but will obviousely need lots of practice time to get them going nice an smooth and make the second octave. It might be a little more difficult as the chanter has 3 keys. I also ordered Davy Spillane’s Uilleann Pipe Tutor to start me in the right direction. Any suggestions from you here are certainly welcome and anticipated. I’m looking forward to joing the ranks.
Cheers
Mike
Congratulations Mike
It is a very different beasty than the Highland pipes. I never thought that much about maintaining proper reed pressure from my GHP’s, it is easier to keep the pressure just right when you are blowing into it. I also didn’t think as much about the bag sqeezing. As well as the second octive adding to the difficulties.
The bellows at first will preoccupy you the most, but the use of the bag is the real trick in my opinion, from my limited experience.
I keep kicking myself for not tacking up the UP’s twenty years ago.
Mike;
First suggestion, please let us know where you are . . . folks could then direct you to the nearest pipers / pipemakers / teachers etc etc. All valuable resources to have when first starting out.
Second suggestion, Conventional Wisdom on this board is that the Spillane tutor is “not the best available.” I personally got a lot of mileage out of the Heather Clarke tutor, which is readily available. The BEST resource for a beginner, especially if you don’t live near other pipers, is the volume 1 NPU instructional video. Nothing like seeing it, hearing it, and reading it for learning.
I agree. As a novice to the UP’s I got the Spillane book about four months ago and was surprised at how little practical info it gave me. I just got NPU’s video, The Art of Uilleann Piping, Volume 1, last week in the mail. Much better. Although mine did not come with a book and I thought it would.
One word of warning about the NPU vids - they are booooring! LOL I don’t think that the instructors even breathed once in the first two (haven’t seen vol. 3 yet)! 
Still, the instruction is a very good baseline to work from - especially if there aren’t many (or any) good instructors near you. Vol. 1 should keep you busy for several months at the least if you’re practicing from it and really working to catch the nuance of the concepts they’re teaching.
I have the Spillane tutor. Get the NPU tutors instead if you don’t have access to someone local to help you get started.
The key is being able to see someone play the pipes. Reading about it isn’t as effective. To that end, make it a priority to get to a Tionol near you when you can do so.
There are lots of summer schools available, too.
The Sean Potts CD tutor from MadForTrad.com is good, too.
All the best.
Ear training time!
To get used to bag/bellows coordination, find a cork that fits the chanter stock, bore a hole in it that takes about the same amount of air as playing an A does, then strap-em-on during watching a movie or something else that doesen’t require the use of arms and just practice finding out “when” to make the pump.
It takes about 4 pumps of my bellows to fill the bag fully, so I would squeeze the bag until I think one full pump of the bellows will just top the bag off without overpressuring (it’s hard to get out of the octave when the bag air pressure is too high).
Never play using the bellows to control the air pressure, your bag arm does that. The bellows fills the bag to within a gnat’s whisker of being completely full.
Welcome to the dark side…
I found and bought the Heather Clarke tutor from amazon just now. I do have a uilleann piper close to me that I have been in contact with and will be meeting up with him for instruction. After playing Highland pipes for a while, I understand the value of one on one instruction and am looking forward to working with him. Oh, I’m in Crystal Lake, IL and John Gaffney is the fellow I’m reffering to.
Thanks and cheers
Mike
I have the Heather Clarke tutor, too.
The NPU tutors are a better choice.
There is a rotating banner at the top of this page:
http://www.uilleannobsession.com
… it has a good few nice links to new material on uilleann pipes such as CD’s, book’s and tutor’s. There is a more comprehensive list of what I have linked to Amazon on this page:
http://www.uilleannobsession.com/shop.html
Hope you make use of this.. it helps to fund the existence of the www.UilleannObsession.com website.
Slán,
Patrick.