Do you know if any pipe makers make left handed pipes? Is anyone left handed?
Most makers will make you a left handed set, no problem.
Willie Clancy was a left handed piper, Sean mcKiernan is. I played the Patsy Touhey chanter recently, that’s a lefthanded one (it’s the one McKiernan plays now)heaps of left handed pipers around anyway. look at the photograph of Al putcell and Joe Doyle on Pat D’Arcy’s site, Joe is left handed as well
http://www.concentric.net/~pdarcy/page5/page5e.shtml
[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2001-11-11 05:48 ]
Craig:
I’m lefthanded and haven’t found the need for lefthanded pipes. I started out on great highlands then to tinwhistle and uilleanns. I’ve always played the chanter/whistle with left hand on top. Actually, having the bag under my left arm feels more natural since my left is predominate and stronger. This (for me) makes control of the bag easier. If truth be known, I think it all started with the scissor conspiracy when I was a child and the forced adaptability has followed me into adulthood.
Teri
Don’t make it sound too easy: you may be adaptable not everybody is and a left handed set is sensible. How’s your regulator playing? (now that’s where you can get in trouble)
Craig:
Your best resource for this question would be Bruce and the Irish Piper’s Club here in Seattle. You may be able to try member’s right and lefthanded sets and see what works for you. If you haven’t joined the Club already, think about doing so. They’re very supportive.
Teri
Actually,
the reason I brought this up is in talking to my flute instructor (Bruce), he suggested I switch hands for the pipes. The reason is he mentioned that I didn’t need a half-set to start becouse the Irish Pipers Club could lend me a set to get on my feet, but I’m sure they don’t have any left-handed sets.
I’m more than happy to get my own practice set as soon as I save up all my nickels and dimes. I’m waiting on a response from Peter Noy on if he can do a lefty flute for me.
All these responses have been very re-assuring.
Thanks Teri and everyone,
Geesh…I’m not Seamus Eagan (Switch-hitter on Whistle and Flute) :roll:
[ This Message was edited by: CraigMc on 2001-11-10 11:14 ]
Craig, not to confuse the issue… being left-handed in a right handed world often has it’s drawbacks, especially with musicial instruments.
Until recent, I wasn’t able to purchase guitars off the rack at the music store, I had to special order them left-handed and wait for them to arrive. This also limited me when selling instruments.
I was never able to use someone elses guitar when sitting in at sessions, I was forced to carry my guitar around.
I was taught to play oboe right-handed. This means my left hand is above my right hand… Hmmmm, this is the same way I hold a baseball bat. Does this mean ‘conventional’ instruments are already left-handed ??
I play pipes and whistles the same way… left hand above the right hand.
If you’re at the turning point where you must decide to learn to play flute, whistle or pipes right-handed or left-handed, I suggest whatever you do, make it the same hand with all of them…
I’m afraid I am another left hander who plays “right” handed…it’s a misnomer really, since both hands are being used equally, so far as the chanter, bag and bellows are concerned. And I haven’t had a problem. Triplets with the left hand come easy !! [think positive]
Peter Laban has got me a bit worried about the regulators though…a problem, perhaps, if you have them…my regulators are imminently arriving, so that’s when I find out whether I’m ambidextrous or not.
In my father’s day, left handers were forced at school to change to write with their right hand…was that peculiar to this corner of the world or did that happen all over ?
My teachers left me alone. I think it worked out OK !!
Boyd.
I forgot to say…just to confuse the issue..I’ve got a friend who plays whistle left-handed and pipes right-handed…
…“That is illogical, Captain”.[Dr. Spock]
Boyd.
Boyd, look at it this way…
When you don’t have the opportunity to try something lefty and righty to decide a preference, you just deal with it as it is.
If lefties couldn’t adapt, they would be making left-handed pianos.
Right so, but if your right hand is on top (and we’ve come across someone in this situation recently who came to pick up his regs at the pipemaker’s) you just can’t physically reach your regulators when playing a righthanded set. No way you can adapt to that. So this is a serious consideration.
I appreciate everyone’s input. I have decided to go ahead and make the swap to Left hand on top(Right handed).
I’m not Left handed but Right handed and that’s why two years ago when I first picked up a whistle my Right hand went to the top instinctively. I’ve taught my kids the whistle and they are also Right handed and they first put their Right hand on top.
This I corrected so they are using the proper method.
My personal feeling are that whomever invented this whacked system was probably left-handed and decided to reap revenge upon all those unsuspecting right-handed people by purposing the proper method be that the weaker hand stabilizes the instrument and the stronger hand takes a subordinate position which worked out fine for him since his strong hand was his left.
So much for my lame conspiracy theory. :roll:
The main reason I’m doing this is for my posterity, I’m teaching my kids the right way and now that I’m making future plans on purchases on instruments liked Keyed flutes, and Uillean Pipes I want them to be instruments that when passed on will get some use.
The only thing it will set me back is on the whistle playing(I’m still working on embouchure on the flute), this won’t be too bad since all the tunes I learned are from ear so it’s just a matter of rewiring my muscles to the new notes.
My kids will also be starting their lessons this year in Guitar and Violin so it won’t detour my main goal of doing this as a family since we will all be learning and progressing together.
Thanks again for all the input
[ This Message was edited by: CraigMc on 2001-11-12 23:03 ]
Ok..now I’m confused. I am left handed and started playing the whistle a few months ago. I play with my right hand on top, left on the bottom.
Ultimately, I would like to learn to play the UPs..should I switch hands and put the left on top?
If I’m going to change, now is the time before I get too far along.
Thanks,
Gary
As you slide down the Bannister of Life, May the Splinters never point the wrong way!
YES!..YESSS!!!
Left hand on top, don’t make the same mistake I did and suffer my same fate! 
Change before it’s too late, remember the words of a doomed soul!
Hang on a minute.
What’s all this nonsense about telling left-handed people to adapt to right-handed ways?
I’m left-handed (My username - pronounced kithougue - is the Irish word for our honourable minority - 10 per cent of the population with a higher percentage among artists and musicians).
I kick with my left, sight with my left eye, and play whistle and pipes in the mirror-image of a right-handed person, and don’t try and tell me that I would be better off bending to right-handed ways.
I strongly urge anybody who has the same body orientation as myself not to be bullied or persuaded by semi-ciotogs to ‘adapt’ to a method of playing that is not wholly comfortable.
Apart from the prospect of being ‘outed’ by the Ciotog Liberation Front, your music will suffer.
Ciotog, everyone is different. I could not force myself to learn to play guitar right-handed but have no problem with right handed pipes.
To my advantage, I can use a calculator with my right hand while writing with my left… something many of my co-workers can’t do as they have to stop writing to use their right hand on a calculator.
“IF” it makes no difference to a beginner which hand they learn to play pipes, wouldn’t it be easier to learn right-handed and have access to more instruments ?
[ This Message was edited by: Tony on 2001-11-13 13:25 ]
Holy Smokes!,
Wow, never before have I lite the fuse of Irish passion in anyone like I did this email. Geeeeeesh!
Well I don’t want to tell anyone how to play it’s just this right-handed left-handed stuff is a bunch of none-sense. Like I said, I’m as right-handed as it gets but when I pick up the whistle my strong hand (Right-hand) wants to be on top thereby playing it Left-Handed. When I play the flute I want to hold the flute to my mouth with my strong hand. For me it only makes sense. I wish I was truly left handed, then I could be as passionate about it as you are, but since I’m not I’m just an idiot who picked up the whistle the wrong way and it was only until I couldn’t make a sound out of an Olwell Bamboo Flute I ordered, that Patrick kindly told me I was holding it the wrong way…how embarrassing!
Anyway I’ve stated the reasons why I’m switching and in only a day I’ve got two songs down pretty good with my Right Hand on top.
For you of the “honorable minority” ..like I posted earlier…I think the system in place gives you the advantage of having your strong hand where it is used more for stabilizing the whistle when you play the Right handed way (Left on top). Read Teri’s posts
Well, since I seem to have added fuel to the fire, let me see if I can summarize..and perhaps somewhat quench the left vs. right controversy.
I don’t expect anyone to make the choice for me, but here are the pros & cons as I understand them (from a Left handed point of view) 
- Playing left handed (right hand on top) feels more natural for me. I just tried it the other way, and it doesn’t feel right.
- By choosing (?) to play left handed, this will cause me to either buy left handed pipes, or figure out how to play a right handed set.
- Playing a left handed set, means that there will likely be fewer people from whom I can buy/borrow/swap with.
Thanks for the posts, I had never considered that there might be a such thing as a left vs. right handed issue and could have headed down a path trying to play a right handed set with a left handed orientation.
While, I don’t consider myself ambidextrious, I do a few things rightie, mostly as a survival tactic (scissors for example).
Regards,
Gary
Okay I’m not a piper but I think I read somewhere that Paddy Maloney picked up the pipes as a main instrument because when he started playing the whistle, he did it right hands tops. Its probably on the C&F interview. I’m told its easier to change your habit if you changed to another instrument.
Doesn’t the unmentionable Davy person play left handed too? 
Brian Ducks!