Sadly, I had a relapse (i.e. lack of practice time), and still haven’t got the pipes themselves. I’m now feeling much more confident on the chanter, and am looking into the pipes. (My nickname isn’t deceptive, just hopeful
)
Reuben, I’ve been working on the chanter for two years. I can play the recorder, and have dabbled with the penny whistle, so I thought the chanter would be easy.
I was wrong.
Maybe it’s my own lack of talent, but I found the fingering for the chanter very difficult to learn. The main difference is that the recorder and the penny whistle just play the melody notes, but the chanter uses the “grace notes” - those little trills and pops that you don’t hear unless you’re really listening for, but are actually the epitome of piping skill.
The simple grace notes are singles, doubles, throws, stops, and burls. Then there are the more complex ones, like tachoms, grips, truluaths, and crunluaths. You can’t play the pipes without the grace notes, so just being able to play scales, like on the recorder or the pennywhistle, doesn’t get you very far. My instructor insists that it’s the grace notes that make a piper.
On the positive side, once you get past the hump and feel confident about the grace notes, it’s fun! I’ve recently been practising more, because I enjoy it more. I wouldn’t say I’m a good sight reader, but that too has improved, because the grace notes are coming almost automatically.
Other difficulty about the pipes is that you have to memorise all the pieces. There’s no little clip-on easel with all your music, like there is with marching brass bands. There’s a lot of repetition in a piece as a result, but ultimately it comes down to memory. However, I’ve been feeling much better about that as well.
I applaud those like bagkitty and kilt-wearin’ man for trying to learn on their own. All I can say is that it didn’t work for me. (Again, maybe that lack of talent thing
) If you’re interested, I would try to find an instructor. If you’re not aware of any pipe bands in your area, phoning up your local police, curiously, might be the quickest way to find an instructor - pipes and police have a pretty strong connexion, as the Master noted in this column.
Best of luck, and Cha Geill!