pipers comic

that hurts

learning from a teacher vs. teaching yourself

Most people who decide to take up an instrument choose to go to a teacher. Although some people can go along without a teacher and learn the instrument decently well, I advise to anyone interested in playing the bagpipes to try to find a teacher. Almost everyone has heard the expression "practice makes perfect" but a teacher once told me "perfect practice makes perfect". He didn't actually mean that I had to practice perfectly, but he was trying to tell me to play the correct way. Since the bagpipes are such a complex and difficult instrument, it is easy to practice wrong. Since it takes so long to perfect bagpipe movements and tunes it is easier and less time consuming to play correctly the first time. If a person plays it incorrectly, it will take three times as long to learn as if they had just learned it correctly, first to learn it incorrectly then twice more to break the habit and learn it correctly again. A teacher can prevent someone from getting into bad habits and help to speed a piper on their path to becoming better. Going to a teacher helps to have your progress reviewed and to get tips and help from another perspective.

Construction of Bagpipes

To actually play the bagpipe you must first blow air into the mouth piece until you fill the bag, then hoist the drones onto your shoulder into a comfortable position. After you fill the bag to an appropriate pressure so that  the airflow into the canter is correct and playable, you must tune all three drones, (or get some more experienced person to tune it for you until you can to it independently). After all of that, you are ready to play!

Traditional Tunes and Modern Tunes

The more traditional tune of a bagpipe are marches, airs, dances, and piobaireachds. For the march, there are three sub categories, a 2/4 march, a 4/4 march, and a 6/8 march. Airs are sadder tunes and consist of slow airs and retreats. Dance tunes are hornpipes, jigs, reels, and strathspeys which are lively tunes, usually danced to. The piobaireachds are uncommon and people that don't play or know a lot about the bagpipes probably have never heard of one before. A piobaireachd has no steady rhythm and is very expressive and can take up to 10 or even 20 minutes to play. 

                                                    A March

Although traditional tunes are usually played, more modern tunes can be play as well, for example:

The bagpipe

The exact date of the conception of the bagpipe is unknown but it is thought to have originated around 1000 B.C., but no one really knows for sure. All that I know for sure is that the bagpipe is an extremely difficult instrument to play. It is usually used for ceremonies of grief, during funerals, but they can also be used for celebratory gatherings like a wedding. A traditional highland bagpipe produces a loud, robust sound when played that can be quite deafening. When a bagpipe is played incorrectly, it sounds completely horrible, but when played correctly, the pipes can bring tears to anyone's  eyes. Becoming a bagpiper is pretty expensive, the average bagpipe cost about $1500 and then getting lessons is even more, but if anyone is interested I strongly recommend at least giving it a try.