I learned Colonel Fraser,The Bucks...and now for you on eBAY

Jim McGuire · Post by **Jim McGuire** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:19 pm

I've noticed that the rate of change for people coming in and departing the uilleann pipe scene seems to be accelerating, certainly from the time that I started in 1976. Online resources like this forum, as well as much larger demand, has made it possible to buy and sell 'easily'. The time on this set is almost irreduceable!

This is from a current listing on eBAY:
"For auction a like new set of Uilleann Practice pipes made by Bagpipes Galore. This set has a poly chanter, bellows and green velvet covered vinyl bag. I bought this with the intentions of learning to play them but they have been sitting in the closet for months. So it is time to reduce the inventory. They sell new for somewhere around 230-250 dollars. This set has about two minutes of my time on them."

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 45934&rd=1

djm · Post by **djm** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:41 pm

I'm always a bit uneasy about people complaining about the time they have to wait for a set (a real set). I hate to see someone turn away from UPs because they are discouraged by the wait. But when I think of how much time and effort goes into learning to play, its easy to see how someone like this punter would be in and out in no time. But was it because this junk set was too hard to play, or was it because its so difficult to learn to play even with a good set?

I suppose its a good thing that the less than serious weekend warriors come and go quickly, and don't tie up a pipemaker's time or a good set of pipes, but how can we tell if a potentially really good player has been lost versus someone who wasn't ever up to it? Do these cheapo sets do more harm than good, or are they just keeping the real pipemakers free to concentrate on sets for serious students?

djm

ausdag · Post by **ausdag** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:57 pm

djm wrote: but how can we tell if a potentially really good player has been lost versus someone who wasn't ever up to it?djm

My guess would be that to be a potentially really ggod player one needs to start with the sort of enthusiasm for the instrument that would prompt him or her to thoroughy research the piping scene and a potential source of pipes and then put up with the wait, whilst at the same time perhaps taking the time to find a 2nd hand practice set to start out on. If you don't have that sort of determination to get into the scene, then you probably don't have the fundamental qualities required to become a really good player. With mobile phones, the internet and everything else that promises 'instant' gratification, the world of uilleann piping is one area that cannot deliver instant anything. Thinking you can cut corners by going to 'Barbeques Gallore'..ooops...sorry...'Bagpipes Galore' to get a playable set quickly suggets that one has the wrong idea in the first place.

Cheers,

DavidG

tompipes · Post by **tompipes** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 5:05 pm

This set has about two minutes of my time on them.

I can imagine. It would take about 2 minutes to figure out that they're shight and they probably don't work.
Tommy

meemtp · Post by **meemtp** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 5:50 pm

Of course the flip side of it is that people like me who love ITM, love the pipes etc. are put off for a while. I'd probably be pretty decent by now if I'd gotten a set when I first started playing ITM and wanted to do pipes. I've loved them since I was about 6 and I'm 31 now. The wait and price put me off. One is OK, but both are a little daunting. So, I took up flute and a little later, fiddle. With the effort I've put into getting good at those, I could have been a decent piper. I guess where I'm going with this is that if you want to start playing the fiddle, you can go buy a fiddle. The pipes are already intimidating enough without having to worry about not being able to afford your set when it's ready because some crisis happened along the way. If you could buy one immediately when you have the money, it might be different. Am I making sense? I feel like I'm babbling!

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 6:22 pm

Don't worry, you're making perfect babling.

ausdag · Post by **ausdag** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 6:44 pm

meemtp wrote: With the effort I've put into getting good at those, I could have been a decent piper. I guess where I'm going with this is that if you want to start playing the fiddle, you can go buy a fiddle. The pipes are already intimidating enough without having to worry about not being able to afford your set when it's ready because some crisis happened along the way. If you could buy one immediately when you have the money, it might be different. Am I making sense? I feel like I'm babbling!

Perfect sense, please don't get take me the wrong way. I'm not trying to say that people who give up on the idea of buying pipes because they are put off by price etc would be bad players. Not my point at all. What I AM saying is that people who think they can cut corners, buy cheap sets from K-Mart or wherever probably aren't as serious as those who pursue piping through the more reputable avenues. It was these cheap pipes that was the subject of my response, rather than expensive pipes.

Or else I'm just speaking through my......farty sounding blow pipe with the leaking valve....

Cheers,

DavidG

meemtp · Post by **meemtp** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 6:51 pm

I gotcha David. I was actually responding to djm's post. Though I may have been preaching to the choir since he did wonder how many potentially good players were lost due to the factors mentioned. I kick myself everyday for not finding a way to do it years ago. Not that I expect gratification, but knowing where I might be now. As fun as the fiddle is, I haven't reached Nirvana yet. Flute is close, but the pipes are burned into my ITM psyche. When I was a kid, in rural New Hampshire of all places, one of my father's friends got a set of pipes. He became quite good rather quickly. Surprising, since that area had no other pipers. I fell in love with them immediately at the first house session he brought them to.

benwalker · Post by **benwalker** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 8:06 pm

sell everything you can and buy a decent set of UP's
There will be many times that you wish you hadn't but for the times you glad you did will be worth it.
Come on.......... you know it makes sense

ausdag · Post by **ausdag** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 9:20 pm

I was thinking of selling my chanter to buy a regulator

(You know, in the "he-sold-his-TV-to-buy-a-video-player" sense) ....okay.... :roll:

Cheers,

DavidG

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 9:29 pm

Ah, the irony in all this.

The seller of the "foot-pump-bellows-and-plastic-bag-pipes" is in Burlington, Iowa.

Burlington is exactly 45 miles from Fairfield, Iowa, home of Tim Britton.

:roll:

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 10:14 pm

meemtp wrote:Of course the flip side of it is that people like me who love ITM, love the pipes etc. are put off for a while. I'd probably be pretty decent by now if I'd gotten a set when I first started playing ITM and wanted to do pipes. I've loved them since I was about 6 and I'm 31 now. The wait and price put me off. One is OK, but both are a little daunting. So, I took up flute and a little later, fiddle. With the effort I've put into getting good at those, I could have been a decent piper.

Wow, your life story sounds amazingly similar to my own. (I'm 31 also). I started out on whistle and then ended up getting a practice set of pipes when I was about 16. I ended up getting discouraged by the difficulty, though, and decided to try to learn fiddle. After years of trying to get decent on the fiddle and failing, I finally realized that, not only do the uilleann pipes sound better, they are actually easier to me than fiddle. Like you, I wish I would have stuck with it when I was younger and then I'd be decent by now!!

So I've returned to putting my efforts into learning the superior instrument.

I guess I'm lucky enough, now, to live in an area where there are lots of more experienced pipers to help me with the mechanical difficulties and the general feeling of discouragement that comes from time to time...We have our own piping support group now to encourage us to keep going and reassure us that it's all worth it. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm glad I didn't sell my practice set years ago even though I wasn't playing it!

J.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 5:52 am

brianc wrote:Ah, the irony in all this.

The seller of the "foot-pump-bellows-and-plastic-bag-pipes" is in Burlington, Iowa.

Burlington is exactly 45 miles from Fairfield, Iowa, home of Tim Britton.

:roll:

....now you're starting to frighten me.

DMQuinn · Post by **DMQuinn** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 6:34 am

I was recently reminded of a program I heard a few months back on NPR having to do with attempts made to rehabilitate folks with various antisocial behaviors using aversion therapy. The details of the story were pretty icky. Perhaps some of you also heard it: noxious fumes associated with... well, perhaps it’s better not to revisit the particulars.

After hearing that program, it dawned upon me that there was indeed a use for those abominable injection moulded “Uilleann Bagpipes Practice Set Bagpipes” such as the one currently on offer at ebay. One very much like it, if not the same item itself, sold a few months ago for $162.50 on ebay. Hard to believe, but such are the wonders of a free market economy.

If your spouse, s.o., neighbor or friend mentions that he or she is interested in taking up the uilleann pipes, and you would prefer that he/she didn’t, such an item would be the perfect gift. A couple weeks struggling with the thing and he/she will lose all interest in the pipes, and forever after associate them with dreadful noise and soul-crushing frustration. I have to admit that this idea has changed my view of these devices. I had thought that they were absolutely useless, and that they even did more harm than good. Now I see that there is indeed a use for them, after all. They are just the thing for putting someone off the pipes for the rest of his/her life. There’s a time and place for that sort of thing, and now there’s also a low-cost means of doing it.

meemtp · Post by **meemtp** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:15 am

I suppose I should look at it this way: If I'd taken up the UPs at the time I started the fiddle, I'd have been more isolated than I am now. There wasn't as much WWW activity, and I didn't know any pipers here, or as much about the technical aspects of the instrument. Now I have two friends who are both excellent pipers who have agreed to help me get started and will be a valuable resource for help and support along the way. I've also, though not able to put it to practice, picked up a wealth of info. I still kick myself though. I'm not getting any younger! Not that I haven't enjoyed playing ITM and the fiddle so far.