I have no uilleann pipe experience. But I have heard and read from several people that it takes a period of time on the order of several decades to get fairly good at the pipes. Whereas with the fiddle I think it takes more like 5-10 years to get pretty good. Obviously there are many factors and variables to consider but at a basic level I suspect the pipes are somewhat harder.
I'm a fiddler who regularly plays with a piper ... the pipes sure look harder to me.
Fiddle's basically got two things going on; moving the fingers, moving the bow.
The piper's got to be pumping the bag full o' air, squeezing the bag AND working the fingers ... and, if they've got a full set of pipes, working the regulators, too!
A friend of mine plays the fiddle and her sister playes the pipes but they make them both look easy. I hate that.
Still i play the beermat drums like its no-ones business.
uillean pipes!!more strength to be put into the pipes and you have to work a bellis and push the bag t seperate times and also play from the heart at the same time!!but,thats my opinion!!
I vote for Northumbrian smallpipes (cos I have tried to play them and concluded my brain can't handle that much at once). I guess the Uillian pipes are harder to get your head around, but the fiddle requires loads of practice to get a good sound out of. Although I don't play either (I've tried fiddle & NSP briefly), so I don't think my opinion's worth a great deal.
I don't play either but I have tried a fiddle. Even though I'm a banjo and mandolin player, I can't get the hang of the fiddle at all. My brother plays a bit of fiddle but he was natural. He just picked it up and could bow and finger from day 1. I was struggling. Now, I wasn't expecting to be good on my first try but I still found the instrument annoying awkward to play.
The pipes, to me, would just "seem" easier but I'm sure if I had a go at them, I would look back on saying this and laugh.
On the grounds that PaddyCmusic's brother was able to pick up a fiddle and bow and finger from day one, I would say the pipes are a lot harder to play. I cannot envisage anyone just lifting a set of pipes and getting something out of them on day one.
I'd say the pipes are much harder. The fiddle is fairly simple. You can look at it and figure it out eventually. Pipes have a lot more going on. Besides, have you ever watched a piper play? Just look at his/her face.
OK, what is *the most difficult* ITM instrument...
WIthout a doubt, it is the penny whistle. I almost never hear a truly gifted player at a session -- a lot of hacks choose it as a first instrument, but those who play it at a level worth listening to are few and far between. There is one decent whistler for each 20 decent fiddlers or pipers.
This is not idle talk. To play a penny whistle correctly takes god's talent.
The sad reason why there are so few good whistle players, more's the pity, is because they all graduate to the flute. Which really is a shame.
Incidently, with the exception of my multi-talented exceptional son, I have never seen anyone just lift a bodhran and begin playing it anywhere near correctly on day one.
Llig Leahcim plays a fiddle, does he not? That explains a lot.
My vote is for the fiddle. The reason is you have to do more yourself with the fiddle: no frets (or holes like with pipes), so you have to find the pitch yourself, then there is working the bow, which has to be moved with great precision back and forward with perfect timing while moving between the strings.
I have very little experience with the pipes, never touched Irish pipes, but I didn't find it too hard to play a simple tune on Northumbrian pipes when I tried. There is a certain amount of "patting your head and rubbing your belly" sort of learning involved with the bellows and bag, but it is pretty mechanical and unvarying, not like bowing the fiddle.
It seems that when it comes to the mechanisms of the instruments themselves, the pipes are more temperamental, and it may be more difficult to find a set of pipes that have the capacity to sound reasonable. But given playable instruments, I think the fiddle is more demanding of the player.
I play Uilleann pipes and fiddle- I vote for pipes- you have to worry about reeds, leaks, tunning issues and humidity and then try to play. At least with the fiddle you can figure out how to make it work in a short time
It depends - people can have an affinty with certain instruments. There are people who play the fiddle for 30 years and still sound crap, and people with a lot less experience on the pipes who sound awesome - its not as straight cut as Fiddle is easier and therefore you will sound good in 5-10 years because that is just not always true.
Also I dont know about anyone else on this board - but I'll never be good enough for me, no matter how long I have played for and how good I get - it'll never be good enough. Thank god - where would the fun in that be? So personally I think its a struggle to play the fiddle. I had a go on the pipes at one stage - and They just werent for me, I also had a go on the flute and found that very difficult - The fiddle just seamt more natural for me for some reason.
Heres what I would say:
All musical instruments are somewhat difficult to play, and different instruments happen to be easier for differerent people than others sometimes.
I play both and I'd say pipes
Here's why.
Unless you have a heap of shight of a fiddle, you can't blame the instrument for not doing what you want to so. Finding the notes on the fingerboard is tricky but with practice you'll get it. Dedication, guidance and practice will work for you.
Of course fiddle has a much greater range than pipes and it takes another whole level of skill to get up to that 3rd octave and double stop in mid-flow.
Problem with pipes is that the instrument can let you down. There are so many factors like leakey bags and bellows, out of tune reeds etc. A novice sitting down to do an hours practice can waste half of that valuable time fixing and tuning the thing.
A lot of your time learning the instrument is spent learning how to properly maintain the parts on the instrument when your peers are learing new tunes and technique.
When you start to learn fiddle, you get one and a bow. Thats it. Afew years into your practice set of pipes you'll get your drones. It's like starting all over again. You have to re-learn how to balance your pumping and then a few years after that you'll get some regulators. You have to learn to press levers, in time, with your wrist! And know which ones harmonise. It's also 6 more reeds to tune and balalnce and 13 more keys to keep leakproof and god knows how many connecting tubes to keep leakproof too!! Nightmare!! Oh yeah, you have to learn tunes too!!
Mind you there are plenty of pipers out there who will try to blame the pipes on their own shortcomings too. They are there alright.
Also, to all the pipers out there who turn up to sessions and ruin a half an hour dicking around with reeds...DO THAT AT HOME!!!!
Don't even bother to open the case if you have reason to think that they might be out of tune.
Just play the whistle or have a pint and enjoy the tunes!
Tommy Martin
All that talk about pipes problems is very dramatic, but that's not what I was talking about.
My question was which instrument is more difficult to PLAY well, given that the instrument is in good playing conditions.
Some people think the fiddle is very straight forward, you just have to draw the bow on the strings and that's it, yeah right. Sure many people thing they can play it, when they really can't.
I play galician pipes also, and after playing the whistle it took me few days to get used to the bag, and I could play the pipes. I'm sure the uilleann pipes are a bit more difficult than the galician, but I gave them a try and my feeling was that when you get used to the bellows it becomes mechanical, and then you just have to worry about the chanter, which by all means is far easier than fingering the notes in tune on a fiddle. And let's not talk about the bow...
Many people think the pipes are very difficult because they think that you have to concentrate on the chanter, bag and bellows, when the truth is that with some practice the bag and bellows become conciuosless. As for the regulators, I don't think they are really more difficult than say, playing on unusual keys on the fiddle, or in high positions, or playing double stops in tune...
There's just more to the fiddle than there is to the pipes, if you want to bring it to a very high level.
UP's are a lot harder to play then other types of pipes, and I'm not talking about the maintenance factor (On that account they win, hands down).
One reason is that UP's can play in two octaves - but at a price. You have to maintain the pressure such that the chanter is in tune with itself when switching octaves, but also in tune with the drones at all times. This is tough to do - if I understand correctly, you have to vary the pressure precisely and within a very small range to get an octave flip. Getting yourself and the instrument to be capable of this is no mean feat.
I don't know that fingering notes on a chanter is "far easier than on a fiddle" - both because of the octave switch/pressure issue mentioned above and also because of the uniqueness of the fingering system - the ability to shut off the chanter and used the closed scale, and then go to an open scale, and go back and forth. There are many subtleties in that that are not obvious. But you can hear them in the playing of somebody like David Power.
Again, I myself don't play either instrument, but my sense is that people underestimate the skill involved in piping (well) by a long shot.
Ok, I may have over dramatised the whole leaky bag and regulators thing. But I still say pipes are harder.
Playing in unusual keys on the fiddle is not hard at all. Your just moving finger tips a half an inch away from where they just were. It’s a chromatic instrument that is meant to be played in every key anyway.
If you practice your Eb scales enough it wont be long before you can play the bucks in Eb. That’s not difficult.
If you look at the greats of each instrument,
Take Sean McGuire. I'm just using him as an example because I believe his style to be the most "difficult" to replicate of most fiddle players that come to mind just now.
He not only incorporated the typical techniques of Irish fiddle playing, but he brought in techniques from Scottish, Shetland, Cape Breton, Classical, Jazz, and more. In fact Yehudi Menhuin publicly stated that he thought McGuire to be the finest violinist he ever saw/heard in the 1st position.
What really made McGuire the master that he was, was his imagination.
His ability to absorb these ideas into an Irish fiddle situation was genius.
But was it difficult? What he did wasn't easy but not impossible to reproduce.
The physical element of reproducing that level of fiddle playing is a lot less strenuous than what you would have to do to recreate Johnny Doran’s level of piping. Again it was Doran’s imagination that led him to create his great versions of tunes but what he did, physically, to achieve this was very difficult indeed.
The level of hand-eye co-ordination is far greater on the pipes.
With fiddle you’re only ever watching the bow on the strings and your fingers, which you shouldn’t really have to watch. Then I’m sure the odd time you’ll switch to some pizzicato stuff.
With pipes, again you shouldn’t have to look at the fingers, but you have to watch how you play the notes to make sure your hand is positioned correctly to hit the regulator keys. Then you must constantly adjust the angle of your fingers on the chanter while moving chords while constantly monitoring pressure to make sure you don’t over blow or under blow for drones and chanter. All the while playing the tune and conjuring up ideas to make the tune itself decorative.
If you have a well set up set of pipes they are not anymore difficult to play than any other instrument. It's difficult to play any instrument really well. Some instruments are relatively easy to knock a tune out of at first, some take a bit longer. The pipes take a bit longer. The really finer points of any instrument though want dedication. As a piper of 27 years playing I find the fiddle harder, much harder, but that's in fairness probably because I hardly spend time on it. The fiddle can do more and has more nuances and subtleties though.
For whats its worth I gave up on the fiddle after four months and have always had a much easier time playing any variety of pipes. Though I have only been at the Irish pipes for six years and don't play my regulators in public, which would be considerably stressfull. Someone asked my about this once and I stated that I would have prospered more on the fiddle if it n had just one string.
Even though it was not the question I do feel that keepin the Irish pipes going is a giant pain in the pass and I am rather jealous of folks who can get in tune by turning strings (or whatever the process is if I over simplified it ).
Lets be honest here - there are hardly any Fiddle players who really rate. Yes anyone can play the fiddle with a little practice but most dont and never will rate. Its very hard to get to that kind of level, eg, Tommy, Siobhan, Declan Folan etc - The way people go on about it here - you'd think everyone was a fiddle genius.....and what gets my goat the worst - is people who obviously have no clue about fiddle or how to play it, making blanket statements about how mucvh harder the pipes are. The reason I know that these people have no idea about trad fiddle is the way that they slip in 'classical' talk when describing why its easier to play fiddle - I would be very suprised if said persons could play. Am i making sense? NO....is this thread making sense? NO! As I said before people find different instruments easier. Simple as that.
Playing any instrument well is a pretty big achievement and takes an emormous amount of practice. Which is why I'm now going to close my browser down and rosin my bow.
What is more difficult?
What is more difficult?
I know there'll be different opinions...
The question is: What is more difficult to play, the fiddle or the uilleann pipes?
I vote for the fiddle.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Beheader
Re: What is more difficult?
Not having any experience with either, and therefore being thoroughly qualified, I vote pipes.
The pain-in-the-butt factor of keeping a good set of reeds going should be taken into account.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by wormdiet
Re: What is more difficult?
(This is my slightly informed opinion)
I have no uilleann pipe experience. But I have heard and read from several people that it takes a period of time on the order of several decades to get fairly good at the pipes. Whereas with the fiddle I think it takes more like 5-10 years to get pretty good. Obviously there are many factors and variables to consider but at a basic level I suspect the pipes are somewhat harder.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by timmy!
Re: What is more difficult?
they're both ea doddle
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by ...
Re: What is more difficult?
(easier than typing anyway)
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by ...
Re: What is more difficult?
I'm a fiddler who regularly plays with a piper ... the pipes sure look harder to me.
Fiddle's basically got two things going on; moving the fingers, moving the bow.
The piper's got to be pumping the bag full o' air, squeezing the bag AND working the fingers ... and, if they've got a full set of pipes, working the regulators, too!
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by KeepFiddlin'
Re: What is more difficult?
A friend of mine plays the fiddle and her sister playes the pipes but they make them both look easy. I hate that.
Still i play the beermat drums like its no-ones business.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by session savage
Re: What is more difficult?
I do play fiddle, but I don't play pipes, so I'd say pipes.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Martin Milner
Re: What is more difficult?
Anyone who can play an octopus has my undying admiration
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by breandan
Re: What is more difficult?
uillean pipes!!more strength to be put into the pipes and you have to work a bellis and push the bag t seperate times and also play from the heart at the same time!!but,thats my opinion!!
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Conzer
Re: What is more difficult?
"Push the bag to separate times"? Can you explain that better?
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Beheader
Re: What is more difficult?
I vote for Northumbrian smallpipes (cos I have tried to play them and concluded my brain can't handle that much at once). I guess the Uillian pipes are harder to get your head around, but the fiddle requires loads of practice to get a good sound out of. Although I don't play either (I've tried fiddle & NSP briefly), so I don't think my opinion's worth a great deal.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Andy V
Re: What is more difficult?
I don't play either but I have tried a fiddle. Even though I'm a banjo and mandolin player, I can't get the hang of the fiddle at all. My brother plays a bit of fiddle but he was natural. He just picked it up and could bow and finger from day 1. I was struggling. Now, I wasn't expecting to be good on my first try but I still found the instrument annoying awkward to play.
The pipes, to me, would just "seem" easier but I'm sure if I had a go at them, I would look back on saying this and laugh.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by 52Paddy
Re: What is more difficult?
On the grounds that PaddyCmusic's brother was able to pick up a fiddle and bow and finger from day one, I would say the pipes are a lot harder to play. I cannot envisage anyone just lifting a set of pipes and getting something out of them on day one.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by bodhran bliss
Re: What is more difficult?
I would have liked to hear PaddyCmusic's brother that first day. Could he not be exaggerating just a little tiny bit?
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Beheader
Re: What is more difficult?
Playing pipes is a cinch, it pulling the faces that takes years!
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Backer
Re: What is more difficult?
As a player of both, theres nothing too difficult about either. As with any instrument, it all becomes second nature after a while.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Sean Clery
Re: What is more difficult?
sclery, assuming you are decently proficient on both, did one of them take longer than the other for you to reach the "decently proficient" stage on?
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by timmy!
Re: What is more difficult?
I vote for "all of the above!"
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: What is more difficult?
I'd say the pipes are much harder. The fiddle is fairly simple. You can look at it and figure it out eventually. Pipes have a lot more going on. Besides, have you ever watched a piper play? Just look at his/her face.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by fiddleK
Re: What is more difficult?
OK, what is *the most difficult* ITM instrument...
WIthout a doubt, it is the penny whistle. I almost never hear a truly gifted player at a session -- a lot of hacks choose it as a first instrument, but those who play it at a level worth listening to are few and far between. There is one decent whistler for each 20 decent fiddlers or pipers.
This is not idle talk. To play a penny whistle correctly takes god's talent.
And I'm an Athiest!
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Eliot
Re: What is more difficult?
The sad reason why there are so few good whistle players, more's the pity, is because they all graduate to the flute. Which really is a shame.
Incidently, with the exception of my multi-talented exceptional son, I have never seen anyone just lift a bodhran and begin playing it anywhere near correctly on day one.
Llig Leahcim plays a fiddle, does he not? That explains a lot.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by bodhran bliss
Re: What is more difficult?
And I really enjoyed your "easier than typing" bit earlier.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by bodhran bliss
Re: What is more difficult?
Playing any instrument while monitoring 'The Session'.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Ger the Rigger
Re: What is more difficult?
My vote is for the fiddle. The reason is you have to do more yourself with the fiddle: no frets (or holes like with pipes), so you have to find the pitch yourself, then there is working the bow, which has to be moved with great precision back and forward with perfect timing while moving between the strings.
I have very little experience with the pipes, never touched Irish pipes, but I didn't find it too hard to play a simple tune on Northumbrian pipes when I tried. There is a certain amount of "patting your head and rubbing your belly" sort of learning involved with the bellows and bag, but it is pretty mechanical and unvarying, not like bowing the fiddle.
It seems that when it comes to the mechanisms of the instruments themselves, the pipes are more temperamental, and it may be more difficult to find a set of pipes that have the capacity to sound reasonable. But given playable instruments, I think the fiddle is more demanding of the player.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by Bernie 29
Re: What is more difficult?
I play Uilleann pipes and fiddle- I vote for pipes- you have to worry about reeds, leaks, tunning issues and humidity and then try to play. At least with the fiddle you can figure out how to make it work in a short time
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by I_Fel
Re: What is more difficult?
It depends - people can have an affinty with certain instruments. There are people who play the fiddle for 30 years and still sound crap, and people with a lot less experience on the pipes who sound awesome - its not as straight cut as Fiddle is easier and therefore you will sound good in 5-10 years because that is just not always true.
Also I dont know about anyone else on this board - but I'll never be good enough for me, no matter how long I have played for and how good I get - it'll never be good enough. Thank god - where would the fun in that be? So personally I think its a struggle to play the fiddle. I had a go on the pipes at one stage - and They just werent for me, I also had a go on the flute and found that very difficult - The fiddle just seamt more natural for me for some reason.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by bb
Re: What is more difficult?
Heres what I would say:
All musical instruments are somewhat difficult to play, and different instruments happen to be easier for differerent people than others sometimes.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by irishfluteplayer
Re: What is more difficult?
I play both and I'd say pipes
Here's why.
Unless you have a heap of shight of a fiddle, you can't blame the instrument for not doing what you want to so. Finding the notes on the fingerboard is tricky but with practice you'll get it. Dedication, guidance and practice will work for you.
Of course fiddle has a much greater range than pipes and it takes another whole level of skill to get up to that 3rd octave and double stop in mid-flow.
Problem with pipes is that the instrument can let you down. There are so many factors like leakey bags and bellows, out of tune reeds etc. A novice sitting down to do an hours practice can waste half of that valuable time fixing and tuning the thing.
A lot of your time learning the instrument is spent learning how to properly maintain the parts on the instrument when your peers are learing new tunes and technique.
When you start to learn fiddle, you get one and a bow. Thats it. Afew years into your practice set of pipes you'll get your drones. It's like starting all over again. You have to re-learn how to balance your pumping and then a few years after that you'll get some regulators. You have to learn to press levers, in time, with your wrist! And know which ones harmonise. It's also 6 more reeds to tune and balalnce and 13 more keys to keep leakproof and god knows how many connecting tubes to keep leakproof too!! Nightmare!! Oh yeah, you have to learn tunes too!!
Mind you there are plenty of pipers out there who will try to blame the pipes on their own shortcomings too. They are there alright.
Also, to all the pipers out there who turn up to sessions and ruin a half an hour dicking around with reeds...DO THAT AT HOME!!!!
Don't even bother to open the case if you have reason to think that they might be out of tune.
Just play the whistle or have a pint and enjoy the tunes!
Tommy Martin
www.tompipes.com
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by tompipes
Re: What is more difficult?
Amen to what Tom said!
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by I_Fel
Re: What is more difficult?
All that talk about pipes problems is very dramatic, but that's not what I was talking about.
My question was which instrument is more difficult to PLAY well, given that the instrument is in good playing conditions.
Some people think the fiddle is very straight forward, you just have to draw the bow on the strings and that's it, yeah right. Sure many people thing they can play it, when they really can't.
I play galician pipes also, and after playing the whistle it took me few days to get used to the bag, and I could play the pipes. I'm sure the uilleann pipes are a bit more difficult than the galician, but I gave them a try and my feeling was that when you get used to the bellows it becomes mechanical, and then you just have to worry about the chanter, which by all means is far easier than fingering the notes in tune on a fiddle. And let's not talk about the bow...
Many people think the pipes are very difficult because they think that you have to concentrate on the chanter, bag and bellows, when the truth is that with some practice the bag and bellows become conciuosless. As for the regulators, I don't think they are really more difficult than say, playing on unusual keys on the fiddle, or in high positions, or playing double stops in tune...
There's just more to the fiddle than there is to the pipes, if you want to bring it to a very high level.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by Beheader
Re: What is more difficult?
"As for the regulators, I don't think they are really more difficult than say, playing unusual keys on the fiddle, or in high positions..."
Maybe if you taped a second bow to your elbow and tried playing with both at the same time.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by IrishJim
Re: What is more difficult?
UP's are a lot harder to play then other types of pipes, and I'm not talking about the maintenance factor (On that account they win, hands down).
One reason is that UP's can play in two octaves - but at a price. You have to maintain the pressure such that the chanter is in tune with itself when switching octaves, but also in tune with the drones at all times. This is tough to do - if I understand correctly, you have to vary the pressure precisely and within a very small range to get an octave flip. Getting yourself and the instrument to be capable of this is no mean feat.
I don't know that fingering notes on a chanter is "far easier than on a fiddle" - both because of the octave switch/pressure issue mentioned above and also because of the uniqueness of the fingering system - the ability to shut off the chanter and used the closed scale, and then go to an open scale, and go back and forth. There are many subtleties in that that are not obvious. But you can hear them in the playing of somebody like David Power.
Again, I myself don't play either instrument, but my sense is that people underestimate the skill involved in piping (well) by a long shot.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by wormdiet
Re: What is more difficult?
Ok, I may have over dramatised the whole leaky bag and regulators thing. But I still say pipes are harder.
Playing in unusual keys on the fiddle is not hard at all. Your just moving finger tips a half an inch away from where they just were. It’s a chromatic instrument that is meant to be played in every key anyway.
If you practice your Eb scales enough it wont be long before you can play the bucks in Eb. That’s not difficult.
If you look at the greats of each instrument,
Take Sean McGuire. I'm just using him as an example because I believe his style to be the most "difficult" to replicate of most fiddle players that come to mind just now.
He not only incorporated the typical techniques of Irish fiddle playing, but he brought in techniques from Scottish, Shetland, Cape Breton, Classical, Jazz, and more. In fact Yehudi Menhuin publicly stated that he thought McGuire to be the finest violinist he ever saw/heard in the 1st position.
What really made McGuire the master that he was, was his imagination.
His ability to absorb these ideas into an Irish fiddle situation was genius.
But was it difficult? What he did wasn't easy but not impossible to reproduce.
The physical element of reproducing that level of fiddle playing is a lot less strenuous than what you would have to do to recreate Johnny Doran’s level of piping. Again it was Doran’s imagination that led him to create his great versions of tunes but what he did, physically, to achieve this was very difficult indeed.
The level of hand-eye co-ordination is far greater on the pipes.
With fiddle you’re only ever watching the bow on the strings and your fingers, which you shouldn’t really have to watch. Then I’m sure the odd time you’ll switch to some pizzicato stuff.
With pipes, again you shouldn’t have to look at the fingers, but you have to watch how you play the notes to make sure your hand is positioned correctly to hit the regulator keys. Then you must constantly adjust the angle of your fingers on the chanter while moving chords while constantly monitoring pressure to make sure you don’t over blow or under blow for drones and chanter. All the while playing the tune and conjuring up ideas to make the tune itself decorative.
Pipes it is, for me anyway.
Tommy
www.tompipes.com
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by tompipes
Re: What is more difficult?
If you have a well set up set of pipes they are not anymore difficult to play than any other instrument. It's difficult to play any instrument really well. Some instruments are relatively easy to knock a tune out of at first, some take a bit longer. The pipes take a bit longer. The really finer points of any instrument though want dedication. As a piper of 27 years playing I find the fiddle harder, much harder, but that's in fairness probably because I hardly spend time on it. The fiddle can do more and has more nuances and subtleties though.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: What is more difficult?
For whats its worth I gave up on the fiddle after four months and have always had a much easier time playing any variety of pipes. Though I have only been at the Irish pipes for six years and don't play my regulators in public, which would be considerably stressfull. Someone asked my about this once and I stated that I would have prospered more on the fiddle if it n had just one string.
Even though it was not the question I do feel that keepin the Irish pipes going is a giant pain in the pass and I am rather jealous of folks who can get in tune by turning strings (or whatever the process is if I over simplified it ).
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by Colin E.
Re: What is more difficult?
Lets be honest here - there are hardly any Fiddle players who really rate. Yes anyone can play the fiddle with a little practice but most dont and never will rate. Its very hard to get to that kind of level, eg, Tommy, Siobhan, Declan Folan etc - The way people go on about it here - you'd think everyone was a fiddle genius.....and what gets my goat the worst - is people who obviously have no clue about fiddle or how to play it, making blanket statements about how mucvh harder the pipes are. The reason I know that these people have no idea about trad fiddle is the way that they slip in 'classical' talk when describing why its easier to play fiddle - I would be very suprised if said persons could play. Am i making sense? NO....is this thread making sense? NO! As I said before people find different instruments easier. Simple as that.
# Posted on September 30th 2006 by bb
Re: What is more difficult?
Playing any instrument well is a pretty big achievement and takes an emormous amount of practice. Which is why I'm now going to close my browser down and rosin my bow.
# Posted on September 30th 2006 by Ger the Rigger
Re: What is more difficult?
yes u are making sense,bb!
# Posted on September 30th 2006 by biggus dave