Playing multiple pipes...just for the archives

Uilleann Pipes
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I’m not really looking for a comment from anyone on this. I’m really just posting this for the archives – it was something I was looking for in vain some time ago and now that I think I have an answer, I thought I’d post it so someone else could find it one day…

Anyway, I’m answering my own question here… Too bad I couldn’t beam this back to myself a few years ago, when I put off starting this wonderful instrument because I thought it would screw up my GHB playing.

Q: After playing GHB for 10 years, I want to learn UP. Of course, I want to continue playing GHB. Will learning the different fingering on UP hurt my GHB playing?

A: Not if you continue to practice both. UP fingering will appear in GHB every so often: just notice it and correct it. The reverse is also true. The holes are farther apart on the UP, so your taorluath and B grips may suffer because your fingers fall a little off the holes. Do a few scales before practice or performance and the brain remembers both patterns. Just like learning several languages: the brain storess them differently. Remember to keep two fingers down to play G on UP and only the pinky down when playing D on GHB. These and other similar fingerings are the only problems I have found so far.

Currently, I have a hypothesis that playing both increases performance on both because the fingers become strong and one becomes much more conscious of control on the UP, given the variety of possible fingerings. On GHB, everything is so rigid and automatic: one tries to practice to the point where one doesn’t have to think much. On UP, it seems as though one has to be able to be flexible and make changes depending on the chanter, the humidity, the arrangement of constellations, you name it…

OK, that’s my dissertation for today- way longer than I thought…
Dve

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Currently, I have a hypothesis that playing both increases performance on both because the fingers become strong and one becomes much more conscious of control on the UP, given the variety of possible fingerings. On GHB, everything is so rigid and automatic: one tries to practice to the point where one doesn’t have to think much.

Couldn’t agree more. I played GHB for years, then I took up Scottish smallpipes, then Northumbrian, then finally took the plunge and got a Uilleann practice set. It’s been terrific fun and I reckon that my mighland piping is better than it was when I started the journey.

But it’s not just the mechanical aspects of finger strength or even of understanding gracings more thoroughly - there are musical aspects too. A lot of the tunes come from a common cultural background; the musical language is similar; but the traditions have diverged just enough since the seventeenth century that you get two different points of view, a kind of musical binocular vision.

I reckon that all pipers should try another instrument. Hey, it’s normal for guys playing things like flutes or pianos to have to study a second instrument at the conservatory. Why should we be different?

Ross

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Pipers playing both highland and uilleann pipes has been part of the tradition for 250 years. They certainly don’t overlap in usage.