I had my first, and hopefully last, near death experience this weekend when I flatlined for a few micro seconds. I had just got back home from a trip down south during Easter, kids were a sleep, most of the luggage had been unpacked, dishwasher and washing machine comfortably humming in the background as I took the opportunity to take out my pipes and work on Banish misfortune.what doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger
Maybe it was the name of the tune but my scientific consciousness says; climate change. The weather had been typical for April around here, one day T-shirt and the next ski wear with a bit of rain in between. I should have known better but I guess I was too eager to get some piping practise to realize the consequences.
The first part went ok for a few rounds and I decided to move onto the next part with a few second octave notes in the first bar.
Just as I increased the pressure, maybe a bit too much, was when it all happened
With a big “pop” the entire mainstock with drones and all just catapulted out of the cup.
Before I even had realized what had happened, the whole thing was just hanging in mid air above our wooden floor. My heart had stopped, my legs frozen stiff and with my right armed strapped and chained to the bellows there was nothing I could do, but to close my eyes and wait for the sound of doomsday when the hollow mainstock was shattered against the floor and the drones cracked.
Even though the flatline condition probably only lasted for a few micro seconds I had time to see myself pick up all the pieces, the expression of billh’s face when I told about the incident and that was left of hundreds of his working hours was now just a bag of splintered wood.
It really is amazing how fast the brain can work, in the short time span between a happily sounding back d, high e, f and g, to total disaster I could clearly see my piping dreams go down the drain.
Then it was thunder.
I slowly opened my eyes and ears. -No, the kids were still asleep. The drones and stock was about a yard to my right, and looked intact. I unstrapped, put the chanter back in the box and kneeled beside the victim of my terrible mistake. It looked ok, it felt ok. No visible dents, the drones were in place, maybe …?
I gave it an overall palpation then put it carefully back in the cup, connected the bellows and gave it some air (first aid for bagpipes).
The bass was alive but way out of tune, the tenor gave a awful squeak but was working. I lowered my hand and placed my index finger above the bottom hole of the baritone drone, nothing.
-Oh please, noooooo!
But as I tapped my finger on the bottom hole a few times, it gave me a good cough and came back to life, rejoice!
I gave it a careful inspection under the kitchen lamp, and I could see no visual evidence of the accident. It was late so I did not dare to unplug the drones and check the guts of the stock for any internal damage, I will do that when I get home from work today. So far I haven’t been able to concentrate on work much today, but I have thought a lot about various safety devices to prevent this in the future. Any advice appreciated!
I'm glad my pipes survived, and when I recovered from the initial chock I realized one important thing about uilleann pipers.
I always thought of the uilleann pipes as a symbol of "the soul of the Irish". And the slightly crouched silhouette of a typical uilleann piper with his head bent down, was related to the collective sadness of the nation that he was carrying on his shoulders.
Here illustrated by Father D'Arcy:
Now I know better, they are all just really, really focused on the mainstock in their lap, makeing sure it’s not leaving the cup.
I hope you all had a good easter!
Cheers,
MarcusR
Good description! Scary, innit?
