What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
- daveboling
- Posts: 4961
- Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Huntsville, AL
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
Busking on the street and hearing people try to pronounce the name to each other
(you can't call them "union" pipes in the southern U.S., people will think they are crossing a picket line....)
dave boling
(you can't call them "union" pipes in the southern U.S., people will think they are crossing a picket line....)
dave boling
I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg.
-- Douglas Adams
'Bundinn er bátlaus maðu'.
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg.
-- Douglas Adams
'Bundinn er bátlaus maðu'.
-
- Posts: 142
- Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:36 pm
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
The C natural!
- Murk
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:18 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Minneapolis, MN
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
A High E bent up from a Ghost D.
And BCD Triplets.
And BCD Triplets.
"When I was young I told myself I wanted to be somebody.
Now I realize I should have been more specific."
Now I realize I should have been more specific."
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
The buzz, and the buzz you get from playing them!
-
- Posts: 5146
- Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: I used to play pipes about 20 years ago and suddenly abducted by aliens.
Not sure why... but it's 2022 and I'm mysteriously baack... - Location: Surlyville
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
The best thing about Uilleann pipes is you don't have to take a hit in price should you be forced to sell pipes made by a reputable maker !!
- pancelticpiper
- Posts: 5336
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format. - Location: WV to the OC
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
Seriously, for somebody like me coming from the Highland pipes the best thing about the uilleann pipes is the greater musical capability.
We Highland pipers get asked all the time to play tunes that just don't work the Highland chanter. I don't know what other Highland pipers do when asked, but what I do is tell the client that yes I can play their request, but on a different sort of bagpipe.
Tune requests cause me to bring both types to many of the gigs I do.
I do warn clients, when they request tunes that only fit on the uilleann pipes, that the sound and sight isn't what they have in mind. I tell them the difference is that when you come marching into the room playing the Highland pipes in full Highland Dress the public reaction is "Yay! Here's the bagpiper!" but when you sit in the corner playing the uilleann pipes the public reaction is "What is that thing?"
The vast majority of the time when I play uilleann pipes at a gig it's because of tune requests. The clients would prefer that the tunes could be played on the big pipes. Rare is the call where the client is specifically asking for uilleann pipes ("YOO-lee-un" pipes actually).
There are times when the greatly lower volume of the uilleann pipes is a good thing, many other times when it's a bad thing, at gigs.
Also of course the uilleann pipes opens up a vast Irish traditional repertoire, little of which can be correctly played on the big pipes.
We Highland pipers get asked all the time to play tunes that just don't work the Highland chanter. I don't know what other Highland pipers do when asked, but what I do is tell the client that yes I can play their request, but on a different sort of bagpipe.
Tune requests cause me to bring both types to many of the gigs I do.
I do warn clients, when they request tunes that only fit on the uilleann pipes, that the sound and sight isn't what they have in mind. I tell them the difference is that when you come marching into the room playing the Highland pipes in full Highland Dress the public reaction is "Yay! Here's the bagpiper!" but when you sit in the corner playing the uilleann pipes the public reaction is "What is that thing?"
The vast majority of the time when I play uilleann pipes at a gig it's because of tune requests. The clients would prefer that the tunes could be played on the big pipes. Rare is the call where the client is specifically asking for uilleann pipes ("YOO-lee-un" pipes actually).
There are times when the greatly lower volume of the uilleann pipes is a good thing, many other times when it's a bad thing, at gigs.
Also of course the uilleann pipes opens up a vast Irish traditional repertoire, little of which can be correctly played on the big pipes.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
This weekend I saw the Willis Clan at an Irish festival in Pittsburgh. They said the best thing about playing at Irish festivals is that they don't have to explain what uillean pipes are.daveboling wrote:Busking on the street and hearing people try to pronounce the name to each other
(you can't call them "union" pipes in the southern U.S., people will think they are crossing a picket line....)
dave boling
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur. (Anything is more impressive if you say it in Latin)
- Cathy Wilde
- Posts: 5591
- Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2003 4:17 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Somewhere Off-Topic, probably
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
Pipers!!!!
Deja Fu: The sense that somewhere, somehow, you've been kicked in the head exactly like this before.
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
As Tommy Canavan once said to me,
'tis the company.
'tis the company.
- Coffee
- Posts: 1699
- Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:41 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Anchorage, AK
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
Thank you all for the replies, both the humorous ones, such as what I started out with, and the honest and thought-provoking ones.
Between band and everything else, I find the hardest thing is keeping uilleann fingering on the uilleann chanter, and the highland fingering (and grace notes) on the highland chanter.
Between band and everything else, I find the hardest thing is keeping uilleann fingering on the uilleann chanter, and the highland fingering (and grace notes) on the highland chanter.
"Yes... yes. This is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land."
- pancelticpiper
- Posts: 5336
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format. - Location: WV to the OC
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
For whatever reason that never bothered me. At one point I was regularly playing Highland pipes, uilleann pipes, Bulgarian Gaida, Spanish Gaita, Northumbrian smallpipes, Irish flute, Boehm flute, Bulgarian Kaval, and Bolivian Kena, each of which has a different fingering system, and never has the fingering of one instrument intruded on another.Coffee wrote: I find the hardest thing is keeping uilleann fingering on the uilleann chanter, and the highland fingering (and grace notes) on the highland chanter.
On the other hand, there's something that many people have no problem with that my brain can't handle, and that is playing bellows-blown Scottish pipes. One would think that someone who plays both uilleann pipes and Highland pipes could pick up a set of bellows-blown Scottish pipes and take to them like a duck to water. But alas, for whatever reason Scottish fingering is connected to mouth-blowing in my brain, uilleann fingering with bellows-blowing. It was a rude awakening, after decades of playing Highland pipes and uilleann pipes, for somebody out at some festival to let me try their bellows-blown Scottish Smallpipes. I strapped them on, blew up the bag, put my fingers on the chanter... and couldn't play a note.
So, all of the Scottish Smallpipes and Scottish "Border" pipes I've had have been mouth-blown.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
- Coffee
- Posts: 1699
- Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:41 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Anchorage, AK
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
Oh, but I do so love the reed stability inherent with bellows blown.
In my case though, I did both highland and smallpipes, the latter bellows blown.
I find it helps if I always play smallpipes and borderpipes standing up, rather than seated.
In my case though, I did both highland and smallpipes, the latter bellows blown.
I find it helps if I always play smallpipes and borderpipes standing up, rather than seated.
"Yes... yes. This is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... This Land."
-
- Posts: 781
- Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2013 8:49 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: If you flush your toilet 7 times whilst lilting "The Bucks of Oranmore", an apparition of one of the great pipers of old will appear in the mirror, you will be blessed with good reeds, but cursed with bad bags and bellows.
- Location: Alberta Canada
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
pancelticpiper wrote:Coffee wrote:
On the other hand, there's something that many people have no problem with that my brain can't handle, and that is playing bellows-blown Scottish pipes. One would think that someone who plays both uilleann pipes and Highland pipes could pick up a set of bellows-blown Scottish pipes and take to them like a duck to water. But alas, for whatever reason Scottish fingering is connected to mouth-blowing in my brain, uilleann fingering with bellows-blowing. It was a rude awakening, after decades of playing Highland pipes and uilleann pipes, for somebody out at some festival to let me try their bellows-blown Scottish Smallpipes. I strapped them on, blew up the bag, put my fingers on the chanter... and couldn't play a note.
Interesting how we all have our own Idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses,
We musicians are enemies by disposition, so treat every musician you happen to meet, accordingly.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of the flame.
Tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of the flame.
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
I sometimes find myself flapping me arm on some phantom bellows when playing sackpipa (Swedish pipes) despite them being mouthblown.
Irish Piccolo Page:
http://irishpiccolo.blogspot.co.uk/?m=0
http://irishpiccolo.blogspot.co.uk/?m=0
- PJ
- Posts: 5889
- Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:23 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Tell us something.: ......................................................................................................
- Location: Baychimo
Re: What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?
I can't believe that nobody has replied "They don't smell".
PJ