Uilleann pipes and shoulder problems..

[ausdag]

What precisely is this "over-fill stretchy-bag" pressure technique??

It's the one I discovered I had to learn when I tried playing a set of my friend's GHB. I was using the usual semi-deflated bag associated with Uilleann pipes and found myself almost keeling over with hyper-ventilation and a sore arm - mind you he had what felt like extra strong reeds in there. My friend, familiar with Uillean piping bag technique, told me I had forget the UP verison of a full bag, and to learn to keep the bag full and solid, using more oompf from my lungs to do so, but being able to do so in a more regulated manner, thus keeping the reeds going but also alleviateing the hyper-ventilation but also relieving a lot of the muscle power required from my bag arm. Still couldn't stop wanting to pump a non-existent bellows every time I felt the bag going down though

The one persistent issue ive had in 25 years of playing the ghb is the fact that the 'bag-side' shoulder has to remain higher than the 'chanter-side' shoulder, causing all sorts of wonderful misalignments.

I see this quite a lot in Uilleann pipers too and I've heard physio therapists tell such pipers that if they keep that up, they going to have real problems further down the track. I once sustained a shoulder injury to my bag arm while practicing once which left me in much pain for a few weeks. To this day, it has left my upper hand ring finger somewhat non-compliant when it comes to doing rolled triplets on A. I have to use other techniques such as staccato pats and something akin to a backstitch (stacatto A-F#'-G-A) to compensate.

As a result now, I make a conscious effort to keep my bag shoulder down level with my right shoulder, and as you do, try to keep looking up, and relaxing as much as I can by trying to isolate the muscles in the arm and hands that at required to provide the piping actions, with those muscles that are not needed. That really helps. Methinks getting a Bass regulator with a Taylor-style wrap around bass bar will help as I find the straight bar makes me need to lift my should up too high to get into the correct position, such is the narrow girth of my mid-riff.

[Roger O'Keeffe]

The first piper I saw close up was Paddy Keenan. I used to listen to him and the family every week in the basement in Slattery's in Capel Street, Dublin.

He used to hold the chanter almost horizontal and sit crouched as if about to leap from starting blocks.

So when I got my first practice set from his Dad, I naturally imitated his posture. Bad mistake. I now look like quasimodo - especially when I'm playing.

I suspect that he was sitting like that because there was so much background noise that he wanted to be able to hear everything that was going on with the set to make sure it was perfectly in tune (this was long before he took up wearing a hat "for acoustic reasons" ). In youtube footage of him playing recently, he seems to sit quite upright.

I have just acquired a new B set, and am trying to school myself to improve my posture, but when I take up the concert set I find myself crouching again.

I would advise anyone who is starting to watch footage of Liam O'Flynn playing, and connect with your inner Ramses II.

[m4malious]

...interesting mention of Keenan in this context. I had a one-to-one with him a couple of years ago and the subject of injury / strain came up.

He mentioned that he'd had shoulder problems sometime in the past also. Wasn't too specific
on how bad it got, but he did highlight the low mainstock mounting on the bag and the near horizontal
resulting drones/regulators as having helped - in that the left arm only had to worry about bag pressure
and not trying to stop the body of the instrument sliding away so much. I guess he prefers that to another
strap over the shoulder...

He was also helpful on the point of keeping the back straight and kind of "leaning forward" from the waist, for posture.
MS

[ennischanter]

I've noticed today that my shoulder was a little sore today. But I can still play though.

[oliver]

One thing I was told when I took up the pipes years ago was to sit in front of a mirror so that I could see myself playing and correct mistakes in the posture, which has been very useful so far.

PS : nice to hear you finally got your B set, Roger. How does it feel ? Are you in Dublin now ? A change from Brussels I suppose.

[Roger O'Keeffe]

One thing I was told when I took up the pipes years ago was to sit in front of a mirror so that I could see myself playing and correct mistakes in the posture, which has been very useful so far.

PS : nice to hear you finally got your B set, Roger. How does it feel ? Are you in Dublin now ? A change from Brussels I suppose.

Yes indeed - to both points! Absolutely delighted with the B set. It was pictured on the cover of a recent issue of An Píobaire, being played by Kevin Rowsome.

Haven't been back in BXL since, but if you are planning to be in IRL any time soon, let me know.