So, I have foolishly attempted to learn the Uilleann Pipes, I have a relatively inexpensive yet moderately decent set of learning pipes. I also have the only pipering tutorial book that I’ve seen available in the States. I know the tradition and the music well, just wondering if anyone had any helpful hints or tips to make my learning more pleasant and less of a duck slaughtering experience. Cheers
A far better bet than asking on this site (inhabited largely by fiddlers, fluters and assorted ne’er-do-wells + plus a few goat-whackers) would be to visit http://www.pipers.ie/.
Find another piper and keep a good reed.
Cheers for the advice, I’ll check that site and keep an eye out for other piperers in the area.
‘A far better bet than asking on this site (inhabited largely by fiddlers, fluters and assorted ne’er-do-wells + plus a few goat-whackers) would be to visit …’
Ne’er do wells- I like to call them banjo players!
Also, try a visit to the Uilleann piping forum at Chiff and Fipple.
Contact Ossian USA - they may have a few books and resources worthwhile for the deseprate and displaced as well.
If not, they will likely steer you right in finding them.
Good luck.
Is pipering like piping? Or is it like burglarize and burgle?
I’ve always been taught that in the tradition their are piperers and what they do is called pipering. The same for fluters and harpers as opposed to flautists and harpists. Simply the odd semantics that my bogtrotting family uses.
Good advice about Ossian, Rook, I do believe my tutorial book and CD is one of theirs but I’ll check out if they have more.
Chiff and Fipple is a great resource as well, I’ve used it for my whistling and fluting in the past. Cheers to all.
It’s more like jewelry and jewellery. Or sewage and sewerage.
I believe my swerage flows through pipering under my flat. If I rememberer correctly, it was placed there by piperers.
or piperingerers?
Good point, pipewatcher. I guess there is a lesson in this thread, don’t let the Kerryman bogtrotter near the computer.
in case you missed it on another thread
http://www.patricksky.com/Files/reedadjust.pdf
pat’s a very great resource and a swell guy too
To reply to the OP, there’s no substitute for getting together with another uilleann piper and have them check what you’re doing. If you’re doing something wrong they will spot it right away. It might be something simple that, without an experienced eye, you might keep on doing wrong for years.
There are so many ways to do wrong with the uilleann pipes. I’ve known quite a few players who got in trouble because they didn’t seek help.
For example there’s a guy here, a very good musician, who began learning the uilleann pipes on his own. His shoulder kept bothering him and ultimately he injured his shoulder and couldn’t play for a year. Why? His reed was ten times stronger than an uilleann reed should be so he had to strain his shoulder to play. An experienced player would have corrected the issue at his very first lesson.
Then there’s a guy who was playing a chanter that was horribly out of tune. He came over and all I had to do was move the bridle on his reed a tad and the whole gamut came perfectly into tune.
I’ve had people who were using bad bellows technique. People who were holding the chanter incorrectly. People who were playing ornaments all wrong. People using strange fingerings that would never work. People keeping the chanter off the leg the whole time. People trying to pulse the bag in time with the music. People not sealing the holes correctly. People with a leaking key on the chanter. People with leaking bellows, a leaking stock, a leaking drone shutoff switch. People with the bag at an odd place, or the bellows at an odd place.
All these things are instantly corrected by an experienced eye and ear.
In addition to getting together with an experinced piper, attend as many Tionoil as possible. You’ll find that each teacher has something different for you, a facet you wouldn’t pick up otherwise.