Bagpipes and other instruments.

[Ian Lawther]

A thread elsewhere on the forum about playing in a folk rock outfit got me wondering what combinations pipers have played in and what are people likes and dislike on blending pipes with other instruments.

Over the years I have play along with military bands, as part of a pipe band, an orchestra (Orkney Wedding with Sunrise), folk dance bands with fiddle, guitar etc, and most recently an outfit here in DC called The Fabulous Potatoheads Rythym and Blues Ceili Band who mixed up Irish and American popular music, and resulted in me playing Chuck Berry on GHB, and the intro to Dancing in the Streets on uilleann pipes!

All of the above was fun in varying degrees, but I enjoyed the dance band and folk rock more than the orchestra and military band.

For listening to pipes and other instruments I enjoy the folk bands such as Battlefield Band and Ceol Beg, as well as some of the more progressive stuff like Rare Air (in their day), and Martyn Bennett. But I have never gotten over buying my own first piping LP as a young teenager and finding Red Hackle had an organ playing with them :mad:

What about the rest of you.

Ian Lawther.

[Rick James]

Our band has played with two different orchestras. The first was a phenomenal experience and one we have repeated several times.

The second was somewhat discouraging. The reason was that the conductor insisted that we follow him. That might seem like a reasonable request, but became impossible as he tried to vary the speed to follow his personal interpretation. Our drummers did not want to change tempo in a random fashion and the pipes got lost between following the drummers/following the pipe major/who was desparately trying to follow the conductor.

The first conductor treated us a guest soloist and followed us. It was great. If you can get that sort of arrangement I would highly recommend it.

[Ian Lawther]

I had an experience playing with pipe bands and military bands which was not dissimilar. IT was in th emid 1970s and Amazing Grace was still the in thing. The massed pipe bands of the London and South East England SPBA (this was before the "R") were performing at some big air display at Waterbeach near Cambridge. During the finale we were to play Amazing Grace with the military bands.

Because of the size of the event it was decided that two pipe bands would do the solo part then everyone would join in. The only problem was they line us up across the front of the massed bands, which meant each piper could only hear the piper on either side, and no one could see the P/Ms fingers. As it started to disintegrate the band master of the military bands frantically tried to bring back in time with his conductors baton, but being a pipe band no of us were familiar with his signals and he only caused amusement. Not a happy memory... :(

Ian Lawther.

[Kevin J. Auld]

I've played with a pipe band, of course, but also had lots of fun mixing my pipes up with other ensembles. I played with a celtic rock group for a while. Our instrumentation was a mess. We had the usual electric and acoustic guitars, bass, and drums. We also had cello, mandolin, fiddle, and me on pipes. One of our members was a multi-instrumentalist that played Irish pipes, flute, whistles, Bulgarian Gaida (Bulg. pipes), as well as many other instruments. It was fun to see what sort of sound we could come up with.

Presently I'm playing Fireside pipes with an acoustic ensemble called Spindrift. We have five players and our instrumentation is: pipes, two fiddles, bouzouki, and guitar. I double on whistles and bones, one of the fiddle players also plays the harp, the guitarist plays cello and upright bass, and the bouzouki player also plays the concertina, guitar, and mandolin. It's great, we can go from sounding like a chamber ensemble to sounding like an irish pub band within one tune set. Here's the website, although it's not finished yet. http://www.auldk.addr.com/spindrift/ I'll have player bios and photos up there pretty soon.

Oh, if you want to talk about fun instrumentation, talk to Stewart MacNeil of Vancouver BC. He plays highland pipes with Japanese Taiko drummers. I hear that it's fabulous.

The main problem people run into with playing pipes with other instruments is the tuning. GHB are supposedly in B-flat, but the newer chanters are tuning about 15 cents sharp of that. It's easier these days because a few pipemakers have come out with chanters tuned to the key of A. Hamish Moore is one, I know there is at least one other. If you are planning on playing GHB with other instruments, you may want to think about it. Otherwise the entire group has to tune to you. Believe me, it's not fun.

Cheers,

[Mitch Man]

Originally posted by Kevin Auld:
Oh, if you want to talk about fun instrumentation, talk to Stewart MacNeil of Vancouver BC. He plays highland pipes with Japanese Taiko drummers. I hear that it's fabulous.


Best time I ever have in a jam session is with a
good Bohdran player who can whail and vary the
pitch of the drum to match the characteristics of
the tune I'm playing.

Worst instrument is a side drum that's too loud!

JM

[Dain Forsythe]

The main problem people run into with playing pipes with other instruments is the tuning. GHB are supposedly in B-flat, but the newer chanters are tuning about 15 cents sharp of that. It's easier these days because a few pipemakers have come out with chanters tuned to the key of A. Hamish Moore is one, I know there is at least one other.

The other is Michael Mac Harg. Very amiable person! I'm still waiting on the chanter, but I expect his work is of fine quality. I asked around a bit and got his name from a good source. He makes all kinds of pipes, not just GHB's. He and Moore are currently the only two individuals in the world, that I know of, or could find, who make chanters in the key of A.

Good readin, here, btw.

Dain

[HepcatBob]

Originally posted by Mitch Man:


Worst instrument is a side drum that's too loud!

JM

Isn't that a bit redundant? Aren't all side drums too loud?

:D

[Mitch Man]

Not if you ask a drummer!

I've always said, "You can here one drum with
no problem, why do we need 8?"

cheers

JM

[Ian Lawther]

Originally posted by Mitch Man:
Not if you ask a drummer!

I've always said, "You can here one drum with
no problem, why do we need 8?"

cheers

JM

This puts me in mind of a folk festival in Britain that decided to put a limit of only two bodhrans at a session. Cunning bodhran players spent a drunken night contemplating this and worked out a way of getting eight players per bodhran, four on the skin and four on the rim!