Why are there so few female pipers ?

[Uilliam]

Wait a mo,I recogniseth the return o Royce Black Rose ....
Tom ye can add Sheila Friel and Emily Donaho both Scotland both fine pipers both betterer than a lot o men, to the list ...
Uilliam

[Steampacket]

Thanks Liam, will do. Good that the lassies are coming up . I hope your leg gets sorted out and that you get better soon. Mick Coyne, Ennis, is also in hospital and missed Willie Week. Also going through the wars I afraid. According to Radio Clare's "West wind" program Ronan Browne was at Miltown without his pipes. I don't know yet which other pipers were missing from the madness. Emily was there at least. We'll be off to France to Tocane des St. Apres later this week, no idea what to expect as regards music or craic, never been to France. Could be some female pipers there? All the best

[BigDavy]

Hi Steampacket

There is also Antonia Dusa Wernig from Austria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_lVBlVYrWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaoOrwtuFm8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxG6MSVuTgU

David

[CelticHarpie]

Well, I wouldn't call myself a piper yet, but I'm two weeks in and haven't been scared off

[jon1908]

Well, I wouldn't call myself a piper yet, but I'm two weeks in and haven't been scared off

You're not trying hard enough then!

Jon

[Brazenkane]

I were at least 5 young women ranging from ages 14 to 21 that I saw in Miltown. There are more male guitarists then female guitarists.

As Larry said (and I paraphrase) '....who cares?????'

[Ceann Cromtha]

I think the solution you're looking for is to create a Department of Instrumental Equality, make it part of the Affirmative Action legislation, and both pay women to take up pipes, while at the same time restricting males from taking them up. Seems that would even it out for you. I mean, the Achems Razor notion that women just don't seem to like pipes isn't going to convince you with or without an acoustical line of reasoning to back it up.

But I have a known personality problem that goes immediately to sarcasm when trying to provide answers to people who ask questions and then refuse to listen to answers apart from the ones they obviously had in mind anyway. I think you already have your own ideas and I'm just getting in your way here. If I've been impatient with you I apologize from the heart of my bottom. I mean bottom of my heart. It's all just a bit of fun anyway eh? There that's better.

That's a great idea! I agree with the point originally made by No E and reinforced by others since his post. It's not like people are stopping women from taking up the uilleann pipes. My (poorly cloaked) sarcasm attempted to show that any kind of argument might be used to support the difference in numbers, but the real factors are probably too numerous and diverse impossible to take into account.

Hey Black Rose: that version of "White Rabbit" is funny as hell! Great stuff!

[Mockingbird]

I'm no piper, nor am I associated with piping other than listening... but I would say complexity would turn me off...certainly not because I'm incapable of dealing with complexity, but because I already have more than enough of it in all other areas of life. It's a question of priorities. Whistle has to do. Cost, secondarily, would also turn me off because of family priorities.

Women are generally pretty good multi-taskers, so I would guess any woman with the time to give it the necessary focused attention would do well at it.

Black Rose, that made me chuckle...

[rorybbellows]

My answer to the original question is "Who cares?"

I do. I'd love to see loads more girls playing the pipes and why you dont care ,I dont understand.

RORY

[Uilliam]

Ah but he does care really coz if'n he did not then he wouldnae have bothered reading the post and then commenting on it.So he be a closet carer but doesnae want us to think he is.In fact he probably cares more than anyone else on this forum about this subject with the exception o course of yersel.
Uilliam

[mike spencer]

Men become obsessed with Uilleann Pipes whereas ladies do not, so there are more male pipers.To quote an acquaintance of mine who is a professional piper,"Playing the Uilleann Pipes is like being married to a hooker".'Nuff said.

[TheSilverSpear]

Huh??

[Patrick D'Arcy]

It's true! My pipes are always inviting people to squeeze them and touch them and finger them... and they don't even have to say anything! Drives me crazy! But I'll manage

Pat's.

[Nanohedron]

Men become obsessed with Uilleann Pipes whereas ladies do not, so there are more male pipers.To quote an acquaintance of mine who is a professional piper,"Playing the Uilleann Pipes is like being married to a hooker".'Nuff said.

I don't know if you're suggesting that obsessing is what guys do and women don't (if so, you should think about that one for a bit); and if you're suggesting that sentence B is an illustration of sentence A, I'm not getting your drift.

As for sentence B itself, I think the analogy makes no sense for anything. If I could get other people to pay my pipes to perform with all the readiness of a hooker, that would be da shiznit. Think of it: the set might even be faking it, but the john - pardon me: "client" - probably doesn't care so long as its noises are convincing enough, and the main thing is that, headache or no, all it takes is some money and like a pro at least the damned thing puts out. Of course, that would make me a pimp, but it would solve my problems. And you can bet that yer piper friend isn't so lucky as to have such a magic, if venal, set.

[bensdad]

Oh, that kind of hooker.
I thought you meant the little guy crushed between the two hulking great props in a rugby scrum.
Couldn't quite follow the ramifications of that metaphor either...
(except the pain in the shoulders)