Long time Highland Piper, starting off on Uilleann adventure

[Coffee]

So... I should be getting my new chanter in the post today. I can't wait to start learning on it.
I have my Na Piobri Uilleann introduction to the uilleann pipes disc.
I'm good to go, right?

What major pitfalls await me on this new beast? Has my experience with the GH pipes prepared me well, or will I be basically starting from scratch?

[BigDavy]

Hi Coffee

Welcome to the dark side.

According to the friends I have that went through the process, The discipline required to learn GHB means that you will pick up the fingering quite quickly. If you play Border pipes/Smallpipes then the bag and bellows technique transfers over. The one thing that most of them remarked on was that the hardest part was stopping using GHB ornamentation instead of UP.

David

[magroibin]

What do you mean by "new chanter" exactly?

[PJ]

One major pitfall is the reed. If you can make your own reeds or have someone closeby who does, things will be a whole lot easier. I see you are in Alaska. The cold, dry winter air (even indoors) will be tough to deal with. Keep your pipes where the temperature and humidity are stable.

[razzmaster]

Good for you! I agree on with the comment on ornamentation. The fact that many things will translate quickly (basic scale, fingerings, bag/bellows technique) is both a blessing and a curse. I found that b/c I could make the switch and start playing almost immediately (or making sounds at least!) when I took up uilleann pipes, I was delinquent in really focusing on uilleann specific ornamentation. I was thrilled just to be playing and my made-up bagpipe/uilleann hybrid style of playing was good enough in my mind. Eventually I started forcing myself to do things right, but I wish someone had held my feet to the fire earlier!

[Coffee]

Magroibin, I've had a bag and bellows for a while, and have plugged one of my practice chanters in to work on that part of the technique. I should receive my uilleann chanter in the post today; it's a David Daye Leo Rowesome model.

Thanks for the information! Yeah, I've had "GDE" drilled so deeply into my head I'll probably unconsciously do my D-F triplets/cuts with those same fingers just for habit.

I won't be in Alaska much longer: I'm off to Korea in January, then San Antonio a year later. Whee!

[Calum]

Treat it like a new instrument. Some of it comes quite quickly, yes, but you'll find that there's a temptation to jump tricky bits to get to the next "easy" bit. Resist it.

Remember that all the pressure control comes from your bag arm, not the bellows.

Find someone local who can talk sense about reeds. It makes life so much easier.

[magroibin]

Magroibin, I've had a bag and bellows for a while, and have plugged one of my practice chanters in to work on that part of the technique. I should receive my uilleann chanter in the post today; it's a David Daye Leo Rowesome model.

Whew! That's a relief. Thought you may have fallen for one of these:

[Coffee]

Ah. Nah, not such a fool as that; it has bad idea written all over it... in Urdu.

[pancelticpiper]

I started off on Highland pipes too- 40 years ago- then got bit by the uilleann bug, and over the last 35 years I've given dozens of Highland pipers their first lessons on the uilleann pipes, and I see them doing the same things over and over.

It is extremely important- critically important- to have face-to-face lessons. There is absolutely no way around this. Why? Because on the uilleann chanter there are many problems that beginners have, that strangely enough can sound exactly the same whether the problem is something the beginner is doing wrong, or some problem with the chanter or reed itself.

At practically every lesson I have to plug the beginner's chanter into my pipes for a minute to find out the cause of some odd sound coming out of their chanter. I can find out if it's the chanter misbehaving, or something they're doing wrong. If I can simulate their issue I can discover the cause, be it a pressure thing or a finger-placement thing or a reed thing or a key-leaking thing or whatever. This is impossible over Skype, or with the beginner completely on his own.

Not having face-to-face lessons can ruin a beginner, it happens. A very good Highland piper here took up the uilleann pipes and declined help from me (I would give him some pointers for free, it wasn't a money thing). When I met him from time to time he would comment on how difficult he found the uilleann pipes to blow, but still declined help. Then a few months later he told me he had injured his shoulder, a pretty bad injury, he couldn't play pipes at all. Turns out his uilleann chanter reed was ridiculously strong, ten times stronger than ANY uilleann piper would ever try to play, strong enough to screw up his shoulder. (He finally had got together with an uilleann piper who immediately discovered the problem.) Had this guy started off with a teacher, the teacher would have tried his chanter in the first minute of the first lesson and fixed his reed so it played correctly from the get-go, and we might have another good uilleann piper in the world.

Anyhow, forget everything you think you know about piping, and approach the uilleann chanter with just as fresh an approach as you would if you were taking up clarinet. The hand-posture, approach to lifting the fingers, approach to blowing, fingering, ornaments, everything is utterly different than the Highland pipes.

[Coffee]

Pan...it's Chris Abernethy here. I know you from the other forum.

Yeah, slight problem; there are no Uilleann players in Alaska.
None.
I've looked.

That said, so far, it all seems strangely familiar...almost easy. Almost.
David Daye'a new chanters are quite nice.

[tommykleen]

There used to be (like, ten years ago) several uilleann pipers in Alaska. Good ones...and reedmakers to boot.

[Coffee]

I'll look again.

[pancelticpiper]

it all seems strangely familiar...

Ha! Then you must be doing something wrong!

When I took up the uilleann pipes everything felt awkward and alien and it should. The instrument, the music, the way the pipes are blown, the way the reed works, the fingerings, the finger-posture, as I said even something as basic as how you lift your fingers from the holes, is different.

[Coffee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaCksoq ... e=youtu.be


Oh, and anyone know what this tune is called?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJA_-G ... e=youtu.be