bagpipe torture

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:56 am

So I'm out having a pint at the local jazz club and this guy is singing and playing saxophone. Having talked to him at a previous gig I knew that he was learning the pipes. Well, he decided to bring them this time.

First thing I notice is the bright plaid bag cover. The second thing I notice is his poor playing. Death by Pakistani-pipes!

I've grown up around pipes and my dad being a competition piper who plays a fabulous set of antique Hardies. To hear bagpipes played poorly is absolute torture!

The Sporting Pitchfork · Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:46 pm

What a terrible story.

Was this guy a decent singer or sax player?

I always find it extremely odd when people who posess genuine talent on one instrument are seemingly oblivious to their inept playing on another.

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 7:53 pm

Great sax player...decent singer.

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:25 am

When a talented musician makes a bagpipe faux pas it makes you wonder what elements of piping and/or its obscurity are at play.

I think this is a case of the popular concept of piping being near polar opposite to the standard among pipers (or those with strong ties to it). I'm sure if he had heard an analogous saxophone performance he would have had the same "nail on a chalkboard" reaction.

As a friend your responsibility is to offer guidance. Perhaps some good quality, but non-traditional piping?

There are the classics like Rare Air or Hamish Moore and Dick Lee.

More recently you have some innovative piping coming out of Vancouver. There is Michael O'Neill's project Mearingstone and one of the collaborators (and SFUPB member) Andrew Douglas.

The technical quality is good i.e. technique and tuning but the content is experimental.

Cheers,
Aaron

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 12:04 pm

He was trying to play traditional tunes. I've never heard Amazing Grace sound so disgraceful!

I have some limited experience with piping and I was actually playing the proper doublings and crans with my hands(think air guitar).

The other tune he tried to play I couldn't even discern due to his sloppy playing. Perhaps I will try to offer him some guidance...possibly loan him my College of Piping Tutors.(I'm not letting him borrow my Dunbar chanter though!)

Sadly, I'm afraid he might have the pipes simply as a novelty.

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:04 pm

Flogging Jason wrote:Sadly, I'm afraid he might have the pipes simply as a novelty.

Oh, I see. One of those that looks at the pipes as a sound effect, not a musical instrument.

Well maybe if he heard pipes playing non-traditional music he'd gain a new perception of the instrument. For me it was hearing pipes out of the context of skirling parade bands that turned me onto the instrument. From there I got into traditional piping.

pancelticpiper · Post by **pancelticpiper** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:40 am

I HATE this kind of thing!!! I know a guy who is a decent trumpet player who decided to take up the pipes. He has become simply the worst piper I've ever heard. How his musical ear, which is in evidence when he plays trumpet, could go missing when he picks up the pipes is astounding. His pipes are outrageously out of tune. When I offered to tune his drones, he sharply replied "they don't need adjusting! I tuned them before I left home!" He seriously believes that he needs only to tune his drones to an electronic tuner once in a while, and that they never need to be altered at a gig, regardelss of how flat or sharp his chanter goes while he's playing. Oh, and he doesn't know any of the correct fingerings. He just fingers by whim, and of course the scale is out of tune, and there are no ornaments.
I encountered this guy when the two of us were hired to do a series of gigs together. Beyond his horrible playing, I found out that his repertoire only consisted of Amazing Grace and a couple other hokey tunes he had hacked-up versions of. I said, "I brought some music to some tunes we could play" and his response was "I can't read pipe music". So I say, "I can teach you some tunes by ear then" to which he said "I can't learn by ear". After the first rehearsal (luckily there was a rehearsal budgeted in) I phoned the agent and told him that he needed to get a real piper. The agent said, "I hire that guy all the time!" I told him that the guy 1) didn't know the fingerings 2) didn't know how to tune 3) didn't know any tunes 4) could not learn from written music and 5) could not learn by ear, so that we had no music to play at these gigs beyond Amazing Grace and a hacked-up Danny Boy. Finally the agent agreed to hire a real piper. This guy, by the way, does more gigs in this area than any other piper.

Flogging Jason · Post by **Flogging Jason** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 7:06 am

That's a real tragedy there. There's nothing worse than someone who convinces others they can do the job when the reality is that they're horribly inept.(kinda sounds like my last kitchen manager...lol)

You should ask his agent if he's ever HEARD the guy play and take steps from there to prove that he's no good. People like that should be blacklisted.

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 11:17 am

pancelticpiper wrote:This guy, by the way, does more gigs in this area than any other piper.

Is Eric Rigler really that bad?

pancelticpiper · Post by **pancelticpiper** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 11:34 pm

This guy, last I heard, was doing two or three funerals a day. I WISH those eejits would hire Eric instead of this hack.

CHasR · Post by **CHasR** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:55 am

pancelticpiper wrote: I HATE this kind of thing!!! I know a guy who is a decent trumpet player who decided to take up the pipes. He has become simply the worst piper I've ever heard. How his musical ear, which is in evidence when he plays trumpet, could go missing when he picks up the pipes is astounding. His pipes are outrageously out of tune. When I offered to tune his drones, he sharply replied "they don't need adjusting! I tuned them before I left home!" He seriously believes that he needs only to tune his drones to an electronic tuner once in a while, and that they never need to be altered at a gig, regardelss of how flat or sharp his chanter goes while he's playing. Oh, and he doesn't know any of the correct fingerings. He just fingers by whim, and of course the scale is out of tune, and there are no ornaments.
This guy, last I heard, was doing two or three funerals a day.

ooohhhh, I hear ya Richard!!!!

these pretenders are EVERYWHERE

and they charge pennies....

grrrrr.....wot can be done?

Bagpipe torture