This is PIPERS' thread, only PIPERS are allowed to post actual opinions on this thread.
however, session members who play other IRISH WIND INSTRUMENTS may post short deferential remarks from time to time. If players of other instruments, such as bouzoukis, were to post to this thread, it just wouldn't sound as good; therefore, such persons are permitted to read the thread only.
Piano accordion players, singers, and non-musician hangers-on, such as BODHRAN players, should stand 10' away from the screen, in an abject attitude, when reading the thread.
PUNTERS are allowed to make polite inquiries about the thread to Jeremy, our bartender, by registered mail. Such persons are under NO circumstances to read the thread; and NO, the thread is NOT about DANNY BOY.
Certainly not! Is a fiddle an "IRISH WIND INSTRUMENT"? --I dont think so! Is it a Rowsome set of pipes? Hardly! Is it a Coyne set of pipes? Not at all!
I notice however that you neither 1. expressed an actual opinion nor 2. made a "short, deferential remark." Instead, you asked a question. I am happy to report that I have sent a telegram to Na Píobairí Uilleann, who inform me that you have made use of THE FIDDLER's LOOPHOLE, a long-standing tradition in pipers' threads.
Henceforward, each fiddler will be permitted to ask one concise question, seeking factual information only. This loophole is also open to anyone who plays a bodhran with a penknife.
How can someone whose name is SECOND fiddle start a thread on Piping. I think there may be a message here.
Hey everyone, please note he has just two tunes in his tunebook and they are both Polkas!!
On a Psychoanalytical level, I think 2ndFiddle is suffering from a personality disorder as a result of being put down too often by pipers. He has now turned this around and tried to do it to us.
BTW guitar Power Chords and Drones mix beautifully.
Actually do you know what sounds really great is guitar flatpicking with a pipes accompaniment on drones and regulator !
How's that for relevance to the thread.
And what are we supposed to do with this PIPERs' thread?
I'll share some anti-inferior instrument anecdotes if you want:
Michael Flannagan was an old time Dublin piper - his playing of Castle Kelly was the first ever transcription of that tune (in the Joyce collection). When he was young a great piper, Tim Ennis, came to town. The piper was given a warm welcome by a local fiddler, who, however, soon regretted doing so; one night he was playing a reel, Fisher's Fancy, with Tim, when the big village blacksmith came up, put a brawny hand on his shoulder, and said "Put up that washstaff avic and let the man play the pipes."
The Pipers' Club of Dublin wouldn't allow accordion players as members or even hangers-on for quite a long time, Leo Rowsome didn't want them around. Leo's greatest sucessor, Denis Brooks, founder of the American Pipers' Club, laid down similar laws when he was in Seattle - one Piper's Review from around 1986 mentions an accordionist who somehow worked up the nerve to hang around the tionol, enduring a vertiable avalanche of slags in the process.
There is the story of Seamus Ennis declaring that the only way to play a bodhran is with an open penknife. (Seamus was being accompanied onstage by the sound of his own foot tapping, echoing against the back of the hall and rebounding to the stage, quite off-beat)
Accordionist Tony MacMahon has said that there isin't a pit big enough for all the accordions in Ireland. Apparently his greatest regret is that he didn't take up the pipes when he was young. Lame-O! Bill Ochs taught an old duffer who started up on the practice set when he was 72 or something. To the woodshed with you, Tony!
Francis O'Neill barely mentions accordions, and only with the greatest scorn. No players mentioned by name, although when he was writing his books on Irish music (1910, 1913) they were around. The musical clubs of the time only have pipers, fluters, fiddlers.
OK- so here's a starter- Mike Smyth gave a great concert at the So Cal Uilleann Pipers club last Saturday nite. Everyone was amazed at the way he played (and played is an understatement) the regs. Very nice nite. Played "the downfall of Paris"- need to learn that as well. Michael Eskin has an mp3 of Mikie on his web site. My regret is that I couldn't go for lessons during Saturday.
Remeber, it was no less person than Jesus Christ--a carpenter, like Willie Clancy, who said at his own American wake, "Pipes is my farewell to you, my pipes is my gift to you."
No thank you, 2ndFiddle, I'll stick with the english concertina, the aeolian harp, and the kazoo, if I want to play wind.
PS is it true the the original irish musicians only played on the pipes, the flute and the fiddle because they had never actually HEARD any other instruments ?
Discuss in 2000 words and have with me by Friday.
Seamus Ennis appeared on the TV series "Bringing it all Back Home" playing his pipes and being well out of tune. Forgivable in a live setting, absolutely no excuse when it's a recording, I think. Would have been an enjoyable listen, otherwise.
I thought it was Sean O'Riada who made the bodhran / penknife remark? Was it really Mr Ennis?
How were Na Fili, not the group but the original ones, running about playing music centuries before pipes, flutes and fiddles were invented? Obviously they were playing simple hand crafted whistles and certainly bodhrans, so when exactly did these johnny come lately pipers arrive?
I had no idea that Seamus Ennis was that old. Must have been nearly 3 thousand years old when he died.
I once smoked the pipes, but people complained about the smell. I always thought it was a nice homely smell, it reminded me of my Uncle John. At that time loads of people smoked pipes, but you don't see much of it now. Now everyone seems to smoke some foul-smelling stuff called Skunk. Not only does it smell nine and a half times worse than Erinmore Ready-Rubbed Flake, it does something horrible to your head. It's a bit like being shot between the eyes with a shotgun. That can't be very good for you, can it? No wonder I can't remember any tunes any more, or what my name is.
Is the minute up yet?
I agree with you Bliss…so what are the tunes? I'm just trying to upturn the roots so I can see them for myself.
I’d imagine the pipes to be a 'very late' instrument (relatively speaking)…that’s one reason why I was never talking about instrument hierarchy here...rather I've been spreaking of sounds.
Hey...make it sound the way you want...that's what I'm goona do.
No ottery, the minute is NOT up. Since you have broken the "short, deferential remark" rule, you now have to make another, more substantial post, that in some way furthers the piping cause.
Sean O'Riada loved the bodhran, played it himself, taught Mr. Bliss everything he knows, even whistle-snapping. I'm surprised you didn't know this basic fact about our site's great celebrity. When his movie comes out, all will be revealed. There will be a prologue in which the Goat with the Golden Fleece, one of the two that pulled Thor's chariot, is killed and skinned with a penknife, by Brian, son of Turenn, who makes the first bodhran from the skin. Then, a dramatic scene change: Sean O'Riada sternly instructing the incorrigible Master Bliss in the mysteries of the craft....
Pete D, you are permitted to post actual opinions because of your demonstrated intent to swell the glory of the piping cause. You will be considered a Proleptic Piper for the purposes of this discussion.
Ah, Guernsey Pete! You do not know how much you sadden me. When I taught my reperatoire to Wille Clancy's father, who was a fit bearer because he played an IRISH WIND INSTRUMENT, it was not only for Willie; it was FOR YOU. Do you not see that I come to you in the guise of a Franciscan Friar, wearing the 5 stigmata of the bodhran, the spoons, the bones, the digeridoo, and the piano accordion? Do not be modest, my child. Look into your heart. You were born to the pipes; they are your destiny. Afraid you must not be. A piper you are, yes, yes. Play them you will. THere is no "try."
Curlew, you must indeed inhabit remote places if you have never been offered a skunk to smoke. You don't have to catch your own - I believe it's all laid on by a team of Dutchmen. (Are female Nederlanders called Dutchesses? I wonder at this point). But even worse than the Skunk is the fiendish Scuff, which is a sort of green gunk scraped from the walls of a centrifuge into which a Skunk has been put and whirled. The non-sticky bits are left in a pile at the bottom, and anything resinous sticks to the walls. This is probably very cruel to dumb animals, and smoking this sort of equipage is probably as bad as chasing the dragon down the local 'Chinese Laundry', if you catch my drift.
As a flute player, you probably won't improve your technique by indulging in any of these degenrate vices. You must find other degenerate vices which are more appropriate.
Seeing as both my concertina and accordion both have bellows and reeds and work on wind (much the same as pipes do), can I join in this subjectless thread as well?
Clearly pipers need to be told what to talk about. Maybe you should talk about reeds or something, and then nobody else will want to join in anyway. I had a go on a set of pipes once so I'm allowed to have said that, thanks.
This Wind Instruments Only rule may be one of the only times when someone who plays the lowly tin whistle would be given a status preferential to a fiddler. Oddly enough, instead of being honored, I feel vaguely uneasy, wondering if I buy into this, will the wheels of Karma will then come around and grind me back into my place? Kind of like knowing that the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything is 42, without knowing exactly what the question is.
Since my post must apparently be deferential, I will just state that I prefer the pipes to screaming, highly distorted electric guitars.
You'd need some sort of snorkel to get air into the bellows as well. The sound would carry differently underwater, and might attract whales in season, or spawnning pike maybe, which could be disturbing for the less broad-minded piper.
I think it's time that an Extreme Piping Club was established, along the lines of Extreme Ironing (Here's a link to a picture of Adie Hooper, one of our caving friends, ironing in Alum Pot, for anyone who might be interested):
As well as Underwater Piping, we could have categories for Cave-Piping, Piping whilst Base-Jumping, Piping on the high-Wire, Piping Whilst Skiing/boarding/Ice-skating, Bobsleigh Piping, Mountain-Top Piping, Abseil-piping, Bog-Piping, Bungee-piping, Piping in Pits full of Scorpions/Anacondas/Rattlesnakes/Tigers/Slugs/Eels/Tarantulas/ShakeyEgg players/ etc etc - the list goes on for ever.
It appears that, on careful review, the category of IRISH WIND INSTRUMENTS, as originally dafted, is overbroad. Although it was our intention to encourage lowly whistle players by sorting them (in principle) above certain stringed instruments, hierarchically speaking, so as to teach them to aspire to that greatest of instruments, viz., the PIPES, it was hardly our desire to plant unfounded fantasies in the minds of upstart box-players, tin sandwich, kazoo, and comb players. On orders from Na Píobairí Uilleann, I hereby amend the category of IRISH WIND INSTRUMENTS to the smaller category of WOODEN FLUTES, BOEHME SYSTEM FLUTES, and and LOWLY TIN WHISTLES. Do not weep, lowly whistlers. Do not despair. Only by progressing in the WAY OF THE WIND can you fully manifest your destiny. Just as a baby must crawl before it can walk, and walk before it can run, so too the lowly whistle player may aspire to play the flute, perhaps by way of a vertical flute or flageolet, so as not too greatly to disturb the mentual faculties; gradual steps must be taken when acclimating to the rarified air of the highest peaks; but the boldest and most daring aspirants will at once don the "Cuban Heels," so to speak (ho! ho! ho!), "fart like a duck," (to adapt a quaint simile) (even as a duckling, or rather an infant, must fart before it can pass stool, and pass stool before it may fling it at passersby, etc.), "don the Cuban heels," I say, to be brief, and elevate themselves to the UNION or UILLEANN (ELBOW) PIPES. Can it surprise anyone, scatological analogies aside--do not misintrepet! careful exegesis is required!--that such an august, such a distinguished, such a select group--membership of which is attained by years of apprenticeship, of duckfarting, so to say (in the metaphore of brother Conán), of crawling (in a manner of speaking), toddling, passing stool, running, flinging etc.-- can it amaze anyone that figurative wearers of the "Cuban Heels," etc., can it startle anyone that the HEROES OF THE UNION, UILLEAN (ELBOW) PIPES, &c. desire more ELBOW ROOM, at the various "sessions, parties, chance musical meetings, un-fee' d impromptu Terpsichorean gatherings (Terpsichorean in factum or in potentia--distinctions must always be made, a jolly-boat not in the water is still a jolly-boat, etc.) (etc & &c.)--that such masters of music should desire "ELBOW ROOM," I say, (to turn a quaint phrase, te he, te he) on the six permanently inhabited continents and myriad islands of the globe! Surely it cannot; such a thing were scarce to be credited.
Ah, now I feel the whistle player is back in the proper place on the heirarchy--that of a lowly lungfish who has just heaved herself out of the primordial ooze in order to start the slow march toward mammalhood, intelligence, and finally the development of double reed instruments that sound uncannily like the first wheezing breaths she takes upon reaching dry land while blowing the plegm out of her respiratory system, thus fulfilling what in a Disney movie would be called "The Circle of Life."
2nd Fiddler. I would draw your attention to that doyen of Irish traditional things, i.e. Rod 'the lad' Stewart. And I would particularly draw it to that sean nos masterpiece 'Mandolin Wind'.
Aha!
So much for your febrile posturings on the categories of instruments! If the mandolin is, in fact, a wind instrument, the floodgates are not so much open as ripped off their hinges and swept away like so much matchwood in the ensuing torrent.
And, Julia, you may get a frisson of elicit excitement from typing the word 'bellows' but please desist.
This is a PIPERs' thread--
This is a PIPERs' thread--
This is PIPERS' thread, only PIPERS are allowed to post actual opinions on this thread.
however, session members who play other IRISH WIND INSTRUMENTS may post short deferential remarks from time to time. If players of other instruments, such as bouzoukis, were to post to this thread, it just wouldn't sound as good; therefore, such persons are permitted to read the thread only.
Piano accordion players, singers, and non-musician hangers-on, such as BODHRAN players, should stand 10' away from the screen, in an abject attitude, when reading the thread.
PUNTERS are allowed to make polite inquiries about the thread to Jeremy, our bartender, by registered mail. Such persons are under NO circumstances to read the thread; and NO, the thread is NOT about DANNY BOY.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Hell yes.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Why Bother?
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
what about fiddlers?
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by daiv
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Certainly not! Is a fiddle an "IRISH WIND INSTRUMENT"? --I dont think so! Is it a Rowsome set of pipes? Hardly! Is it a Coyne set of pipes? Not at all!
I notice however that you neither 1. expressed an actual opinion nor 2. made a "short, deferential remark." Instead, you asked a question. I am happy to report that I have sent a telegram to Na Píobairí Uilleann, who inform me that you have made use of THE FIDDLER's LOOPHOLE, a long-standing tradition in pipers' threads.
Henceforward, each fiddler will be permitted to ask one concise question, seeking factual information only. This loophole is also open to anyone who plays a bodhran with a penknife.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
How can someone whose name is SECOND fiddle start a thread on Piping. I think there may be a message here.
Hey everyone, please note he has just two tunes in his tunebook and they are both Polkas!!
On a Psychoanalytical level, I think 2ndFiddle is suffering from a personality disorder as a result of being put down too often by pipers. He has now turned this around and tried to do it to us.
BTW guitar Power Chords and Drones mix beautifully.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Donough
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Actually do you know what sounds really great is guitar flatpicking with a pipes accompaniment on drones and regulator !
How's that for relevance to the thread.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Donough
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Much better are pipes playing drones and regulator to a didjeridoo solo.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by EastPole
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
And what are we supposed to do with this PIPERs' thread?
I'll share some anti-inferior instrument anecdotes if you want:
Michael Flannagan was an old time Dublin piper - his playing of Castle Kelly was the first ever transcription of that tune (in the Joyce collection). When he was young a great piper, Tim Ennis, came to town. The piper was given a warm welcome by a local fiddler, who, however, soon regretted doing so; one night he was playing a reel, Fisher's Fancy, with Tim, when the big village blacksmith came up, put a brawny hand on his shoulder, and said "Put up that washstaff avic and let the man play the pipes."
The Pipers' Club of Dublin wouldn't allow accordion players as members or even hangers-on for quite a long time, Leo Rowsome didn't want them around. Leo's greatest sucessor, Denis Brooks, founder of the American Pipers' Club, laid down similar laws when he was in Seattle - one Piper's Review from around 1986 mentions an accordionist who somehow worked up the nerve to hang around the tionol, enduring a vertiable avalanche of slags in the process.
There is the story of Seamus Ennis declaring that the only way to play a bodhran is with an open penknife. (Seamus was being accompanied onstage by the sound of his own foot tapping, echoing against the back of the hall and rebounding to the stage, quite off-beat)
Accordionist Tony MacMahon has said that there isin't a pit big enough for all the accordions in Ireland. Apparently his greatest regret is that he didn't take up the pipes when he was young. Lame-O! Bill Ochs taught an old duffer who started up on the practice set when he was 72 or something. To the woodshed with you, Tony!
Francis O'Neill barely mentions accordions, and only with the greatest scorn. No players mentioned by name, although when he was writing his books on Irish music (1910, 1913) they were around. The musical clubs of the time only have pipers, fluters, fiddlers.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Kevin Rietmann
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
May players of Scottish Bagpipes contribute to this thread?
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by gummidge
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Er, what's the question again?
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by maxF
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
This is a LOCAL shop, for LOCAL people !
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Guernsey Pete
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
PS I'm a bouzouki-player.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Guernsey Pete
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
OK- so here's a starter- Mike Smyth gave a great concert at the So Cal Uilleann Pipers club last Saturday nite. Everyone was amazed at the way he played (and played is an understatement) the regs. Very nice nite. Played "the downfall of Paris"- need to learn that as well. Michael Eskin has an mp3 of Mikie on his web site. My regret is that I couldn't go for lessons during Saturday.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by I_Fel
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Woops somehow I thought this was going to be plumbing related.
My short deferential remark:
"Stick that in your pipe and smoke it."
Though since I am also a piper, and therefore entitled to launch my opinions upon you all I will say this:
"Geeaaahhhhh"
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by _Steph_
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Psychological disorder? (Ahem) I've been hired as a factotum by Na Píobairí Uilleann to police this site and bring it into line with our expectations
The two polkas are a DISGUISE I am actually the ghost of Garrett Barry, risen from the dead.
Pete, you poor, misguided ... bouzouki player! Kevin's parable about Tony MacMahon was meant for YOU. It's not too late.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
As a KAZOO (wind instrument) virtuoso I welcome this thread, and division into an elite sect.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by bodhran bliss
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Remeber, it was no less person than Jesus Christ--a carpenter, like Willie Clancy, who said at his own American wake, "Pipes is my farewell to you, my pipes is my gift to you."
Pipes be with you, Mr. Bliss!
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
No thank you, 2ndFiddle, I'll stick with the english concertina, the aeolian harp, and the kazoo, if I want to play wind.
PS is it true the the original irish musicians only played on the pipes, the flute and the fiddle because they had never actually HEARD any other instruments ?
Discuss in 2000 words and have with me by Friday.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Guernsey Pete
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Seamus Ennis appeared on the TV series "Bringing it all Back Home" playing his pipes and being well out of tune. Forgivable in a live setting, absolutely no excuse when it's a recording, I think. Would have been an enjoyable listen, otherwise.
I thought it was Sean O'Riada who made the bodhran / penknife remark? Was it really Mr Ennis?
Jim
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Worldfiddler
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
i only have a chanter (a scottish one at that)...does that count?
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Pete D
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
& 2nd fiddle...about december timeframe I get my set.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Pete D
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
How were Na Fili, not the group but the original ones, running about playing music centuries before pipes, flutes and fiddles were invented? Obviously they were playing simple hand crafted whistles and certainly bodhrans, so when exactly did these johnny come lately pipers arrive?
I had no idea that Seamus Ennis was that old. Must have been nearly 3 thousand years old when he died.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by bodhran bliss
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
I once smoked the pipes, but people complained about the smell. I always thought it was a nice homely smell, it reminded me of my Uncle John. At that time loads of people smoked pipes, but you don't see much of it now. Now everyone seems to smoke some foul-smelling stuff called Skunk. Not only does it smell nine and a half times worse than Erinmore Ready-Rubbed Flake, it does something horrible to your head. It's a bit like being shot between the eyes with a shotgun. That can't be very good for you, can it? No wonder I can't remember any tunes any more, or what my name is.
Is the minute up yet?
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Ottery
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
I agree with you Bliss…so what are the tunes? I'm just trying to upturn the roots so I can see them for myself.
I’d imagine the pipes to be a 'very late' instrument (relatively speaking)…that’s one reason why I was never talking about instrument hierarchy here...rather I've been spreaking of sounds.
Hey...make it sound the way you want...that's what I'm goona do.
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by Pete D
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
No ottery, the minute is NOT up. Since you have broken the "short, deferential remark" rule, you now have to make another, more substantial post, that in some way furthers the piping cause.
Sean O'Riada loved the bodhran, played it himself, taught Mr. Bliss everything he knows, even whistle-snapping. I'm surprised you didn't know this basic fact about our site's great celebrity. When his movie comes out, all will be revealed. There will be a prologue in which the Goat with the Golden Fleece, one of the two that pulled Thor's chariot, is killed and skinned with a penknife, by Brian, son of Turenn, who makes the first bodhran from the skin. Then, a dramatic scene change: Sean O'Riada sternly instructing the incorrigible Master Bliss in the mysteries of the craft....
Pete D, you are permitted to post actual opinions because of your demonstrated intent to swell the glory of the piping cause. You will be considered a Proleptic Piper for the purposes of this discussion.
Ah, Guernsey Pete! You do not know how much you sadden me. When I taught my reperatoire to Wille Clancy's father, who was a fit bearer because he played an IRISH WIND INSTRUMENT, it was not only for Willie; it was FOR YOU. Do you not see that I come to you in the guise of a Franciscan Friar, wearing the 5 stigmata of the bodhran, the spoons, the bones, the digeridoo, and the piano accordion? Do not be modest, my child. Look into your heart. You were born to the pipes; they are your destiny. Afraid you must not be. A piper you are, yes, yes. Play them you will. THere is no "try."
May the pipes be with you!
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
"I thought this was going to be plumbing related."
It is.
KFG
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by KFG
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
As a flute player I am exercising my right to post.
Firstly, how to you smoke a skunk?
Secondly, and more to the point, how do you catch one?
# Posted on May 30th 2005 by curlew
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Curlew, you must indeed inhabit remote places if you have never been offered a skunk to smoke. You don't have to catch your own - I believe it's all laid on by a team of Dutchmen. (Are female Nederlanders called Dutchesses? I wonder at this point). But even worse than the Skunk is the fiendish Scuff, which is a sort of green gunk scraped from the walls of a centrifuge into which a Skunk has been put and whirled. The non-sticky bits are left in a pile at the bottom, and anything resinous sticks to the walls. This is probably very cruel to dumb animals, and smoking this sort of equipage is probably as bad as chasing the dragon down the local 'Chinese Laundry', if you catch my drift.
As a flute player, you probably won't improve your technique by indulging in any of these degenrate vices. You must find other degenerate vices which are more appropriate.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Ottery
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Hmm. I fail to see how your post advances the pipers' cause, Ottery, but it ceratinly was more substantive.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Dont you just love the smell of elitism in the morning?
2nd fiddle could you please stop teasing us fragile wind instrument players with the promise of Nirvana?
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by wreckin` rea
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Are they short and deferential enough for you?
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by wreckin` rea
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
He's got us by the Short & Deferentials!
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Ottery
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Can I post here if I disguise myself as a piper? I expect the usual cowboy outfit will do - leather jacket, cuban heels, silly hat?
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: This was a PIPERs' thread--
Seeing as both my concertina and accordion both have bellows and reeds and work on wind (much the same as pipes do), can I join in this subjectless thread as well?
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by geoffwright
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Clearly pipers need to be told what to talk about. Maybe you should talk about reeds or something, and then nobody else will want to join in anyway. I had a go on a set of pipes once so I'm allowed to have said that, thanks.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Dow
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
I had a go on a set of practise pipes. It sounded like a duck farting.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
You're not supposed to play them underwater, Conan
:-o
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Ottery
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
This Wind Instruments Only rule may be one of the only times when someone who plays the lowly tin whistle would be given a status preferential to a fiddler. Oddly enough, instead of being honored, I feel vaguely uneasy, wondering if I buy into this, will the wheels of Karma will then come around and grind me back into my place? Kind of like knowing that the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything is 42, without knowing exactly what the question is.
Since my post must apparently be deferential, I will just state that I prefer the pipes to screaming, highly distorted electric guitars.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by AlBrown
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Mark, Seán Maguire once told us of a chanter with a brass reed; he reckoned you could play it underwater. Why you'd want to...
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Because you're there?
KFG
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by KFG
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
You'd need some sort of snorkel to get air into the bellows as well. The sound would carry differently underwater, and might attract whales in season, or spawnning pike maybe, which could be disturbing for the less broad-minded piper.
I think it's time that an Extreme Piping Club was established, along the lines of Extreme Ironing (Here's a link to a picture of Adie Hooper, one of our caving friends, ironing in Alum Pot, for anyone who might be interested):
http://www.extremeironing.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album19&id=1_144&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
As well as Underwater Piping, we could have categories for Cave-Piping, Piping whilst Base-Jumping, Piping on the high-Wire, Piping Whilst Skiing/boarding/Ice-skating, Bobsleigh Piping, Mountain-Top Piping, Abseil-piping, Bog-Piping, Bungee-piping, Piping in Pits full of Scorpions/Anacondas/Rattlesnakes/Tigers/Slugs/Eels/Tarantulas/ShakeyEgg players/ etc etc - the list goes on for ever.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Ottery
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Uillean Piping at an Orange March!
A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, used to play the pipes while on a unicycle! Now that's a party trick.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
It appears that, on careful review, the category of IRISH WIND INSTRUMENTS, as originally dafted, is overbroad. Although it was our intention to encourage lowly whistle players by sorting them (in principle) above certain stringed instruments, hierarchically speaking, so as to teach them to aspire to that greatest of instruments, viz., the PIPES, it was hardly our desire to plant unfounded fantasies in the minds of upstart box-players, tin sandwich, kazoo, and comb players. On orders from Na Píobairí Uilleann, I hereby amend the category of IRISH WIND INSTRUMENTS to the smaller category of WOODEN FLUTES, BOEHME SYSTEM FLUTES, and and LOWLY TIN WHISTLES. Do not weep, lowly whistlers. Do not despair. Only by progressing in the WAY OF THE WIND can you fully manifest your destiny. Just as a baby must crawl before it can walk, and walk before it can run, so too the lowly whistle player may aspire to play the flute, perhaps by way of a vertical flute or flageolet, so as not too greatly to disturb the mentual faculties; gradual steps must be taken when acclimating to the rarified air of the highest peaks; but the boldest and most daring aspirants will at once don the "Cuban Heels," so to speak (ho! ho! ho!), "fart like a duck," (to adapt a quaint simile) (even as a duckling, or rather an infant, must fart before it can pass stool, and pass stool before it may fling it at passersby, etc.), "don the Cuban heels," I say, to be brief, and elevate themselves to the UNION or UILLEANN (ELBOW) PIPES. Can it surprise anyone, scatological analogies aside--do not misintrepet! careful exegesis is required!--that such an august, such a distinguished, such a select group--membership of which is attained by years of apprenticeship, of duckfarting, so to say (in the metaphore of brother Conán), of crawling (in a manner of speaking), toddling, passing stool, running, flinging etc.-- can it amaze anyone that figurative wearers of the "Cuban Heels," etc., can it startle anyone that the HEROES OF THE UNION, UILLEAN (ELBOW) PIPES, &c. desire more ELBOW ROOM, at the various "sessions, parties, chance musical meetings, un-fee' d impromptu Terpsichorean gatherings (Terpsichorean in factum or in potentia--distinctions must always be made, a jolly-boat not in the water is still a jolly-boat, etc.) (etc & &c.)--that such masters of music should desire "ELBOW ROOM," I say, (to turn a quaint phrase, te he, te he) on the six permanently inhabited continents and myriad islands of the globe! Surely it cannot; such a thing were scarce to be credited.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by 2ndFiddle
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
I think that perhaps "dafted" is a good word for this thread.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Daft indeed.
Can we have a "Gobsh*tes Only" thread, too, while we're at it?
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Hanley
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
If a skunk was smoking the pipes would he be allowed into the hierarchy? And where exactly do the bellows fit in this scenario?
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by tallulah
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Ah, now I feel the whistle player is back in the proper place on the heirarchy--that of a lowly lungfish who has just heaved herself out of the primordial ooze in order to start the slow march toward mammalhood, intelligence, and finally the development of double reed instruments that sound uncannily like the first wheezing breaths she takes upon reaching dry land while blowing the plegm out of her respiratory system, thus fulfilling what in a Disney movie would be called "The Circle of Life."
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by AlBrown
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
2nd Fiddler. I would draw your attention to that doyen of Irish traditional things, i.e. Rod 'the lad' Stewart. And I would particularly draw it to that sean nos masterpiece 'Mandolin Wind'.
Aha!
So much for your febrile posturings on the categories of instruments! If the mandolin is, in fact, a wind instrument, the floodgates are not so much open as ripped off their hinges and swept away like so much matchwood in the ensuing torrent.
And, Julia, you may get a frisson of elicit excitement from typing the word 'bellows' but please desist.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by Ottery
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
Ottery, your word is my command.
Maybe you should get a boat........
:-}
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by tallulah
Re: This is a PIPERs' thread--
the bellows fit just "below" the skunks "elbow" in this scenario.
# Posted on May 31st 2005 by flanum