[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Uill, Ian- > I just want to let you know that I had the same question, so thank you for > posting it. After placing an order for headphones and Prozac, my husband (he > can't believe that he did this) ordered me a set of pipes for Christmas. I > will have Gibson smallpipes within a week. The people at Gibson told me that > it will come with information on how to use them, so I guess the first thing > that I will do is read the booklet or whatever, and bumble around. I'm not > very encouraged to hear that it is hard to learn how to play them, but I am > patient and persistent. I will save your e-mail address, and if I find > anything useful for us beginners, I will be sure to let you know. > Cairistiona > California
I think that it's not that it's so hard to learn to play pipes (although obviously they have their challenges), but that it's difficult or impossible to learn to play them correctly without someone guiding you! A friend of mine is learning Highland pipes from a good piping teacher here and from what she tells me, apart from learning how to play the actual music there's a ton of fiddly little things to adjust to make them work right; for instance they spent about a year working through different combinations of drone reeds before they found a set that worked well with her pipes. She assumed she was doing something wrong and that's why the set was so hard to play, but when they finally got it sorted out she was surprised how much easier it was to make them sound. That's the kind of stuff you need an experienced piper to help you with. Good luck in your learning, Cairistiona! -Steve -- Steve Wyrick -- Concord, California Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
