Hi, Redwolf directed me here when I wanted to know about learning the UPs. I want to learn UPs for a major project that we have at my school. The only problem is that I am living on a teenager’s budget and will only have about 6 months. I fully realise that I will not be able to play UPs very well in 6 months, but I want to learn as much as I can. Redwolf suggested just getting a chanter and using it. I do want to continue playing after this project, but I have no idea what I could accomplish in 6 months. Does anyone have any suggestions about the cheapest and best way to do this?
Bearing in mind that I don’t know if you can learn on a practice chanter for uillean pipes as you can for highland pipes, but I figured this was the best possible place for paidin to get the answers he needs.
Redwolf (from the whistle board)
You can’t use a practice chanter it doesn’t exist you start on a Practice set which is Bag, Bellows, and Chanter your best bet would probably be one of David Daye’s sets http://daye1.com/pennychanter.html or Patrick Syk’s sets http://www.patricksky.com/ I have heard (from other members of this site) these are the good budget sets take my advice with a grain of salt I don’t actually play yet but have researched this in depth. 
try Tim Britton’s rebuilt pakistani pipes…they should be gotten to you in your budget/timeframe. start with a practice set for the cheapest route, but if you KNOW you will continue and will one day purchase a full set, you might want to spend the extra dough and get the full rebuilt set. even though you won’t be using the drones or regs yet you’ll get used to having them there and they’ll look real cool on your lap 
in addition, you can send me a private message and i’ll send you my email address…i can help you tweak the full set once you get it (it will need further tweaking, but nothing major…just some BluTak, superglue, and clear nailpolish in places…
or, check out these two threads… no waiting time 
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=24614
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=24843
$600 and $700 respectively
Páidín,Can ye not get the school to buy a practice set,Ye can then do your project(for the school) get to try the pipes,either buy them from or hire them from the school and at a later date the school can pass them on to someone else to hire …that way it is low cost to yourself,the school benefits and hopefully other students will benefit!!
Slán Go Foill
Uilliam
I highly doubt the school will buy a practice set, schools don’t want to spend extra money on any thing and I think Pipes would be smoewhere near the end of their list but it would be really cool if they would.
Yet a local high school of mine has invested over a hundred thousand a year in football :roll: And not a dime in rugby to add. 
priorities are priorities I guess.
Or a penny on teaching aides or pay packets either I bet… seems to be a popularity contest to me 
Anyway… back to it,
PD.
where are you located; there maybe a piper or club with a spare practice set.
As to Pat D’Arcy’s comments on teacher aides and all; don’t get me started; my wife is a former (retired) grade school teacher and I could rattle on and on and on but I won’t, HAH!!
Hope this helps
I’m in Western North Carolina. My school will hardly give enough money to the band as it is, much less my a set of UPs that will probably never be used again. :roll:
In my opinin, be sure your reason for learning is correct. To learn because you want to learn is one thing, but to learn because it seems to be a unique project is quite another. Having taught Highland pipes for several years, those who have a real interest will sometimes stick with them long enough to learn. Those who seek novelty usually give it up after a couple of weeks. I find that the UP’s are completely unique and about the only skills that translate from other intruments are the ability to read music and the ability to train your fingers to do something different.
Someone on this net once wrote that you must go through a perod of ‘obsession’ in order to learn the pipes well. The pipes are wonderful, but not exactly the easiest instrument to learn. Plan on a minimum of a couple of hours per day to play acceptably in six months. An instructor would be nice if you can find one. A budget of several hundred dollars would also be necessary.
Go for it, but don’t fool yourself. It will be a lot of work, but you will have a life skill when you’ve finished. I only wish I had started when I was your age.
Rick
When I went to the “Festival of Nations” at Dollywood (Dolly Parton’s themepark in Eastern Tennessee), there was a band from the Aran Islands who had a Uilleann Piper. I immediately fell in love with the sound and the instrument, but when I went to search the Internet, I discovered how much they cost. I said that one day when I had enough money or a definite reason to start then I would. For this project I have enough money (not a tremendous amount, but enough) and a definite reason. I needed the reason for my parents sake (i.e. they wouldn’t let me buy UPs unless it was for some reason). I play the piano, trumpet, and tin whistle and am fully aware that it takes a long time to learn any instrument, but I definitely want to learn.
When I found that my piano teacher knew a man that plays Highlands, it suddenly clicked that I could do UPs for the project. One of the requirements for the project is that we have a mentor, and even though a Highlands piper couldn’t teach me UPs (I don’t think), he could still be my mentor because both instruments are bagpipes.
If you’re in NC you should be close enough to get in contact with Patrick Sky, both for an inexpensive starter set and some instruction.
djm
I thought the same thing, but he’s in Chapel Hill which is about 6 hours away.
Paidin,
I’d like to suggest that you should perhaps hire a piper for this project.
Let’s face some realities here:
a) You say you don’t have the money;
b) 6 months is way too short a time;
Perhaps another instrument is in order, then? Why not just buy a tin whistle ($10 - $12) and base your project on that? A tin whistle is every bit as traditional as the pipes, and I think that if you practice diligently, you’ll have a fair number of tunes to play in six months’ time.
Well, I have a whistle, but I don’t think that the Senior Project Board would approve of somthing that appears to be that easy. Of course, it’s not, but the hicks here don’t know anything at all.
Perhaps they should prove to themselves just how easy the whistle isn’t.
(And these people dare call themselves educators)?
Great to see you both Páidín and Redwolf!