Carillon Piping

I'm afraid I haven't done quite as much bagpiping this summer as I'd like. Certainly not as much as I did last summer. Various things just kept getting in my way. Remember that my band isn't a competitive band, we're a hobby band, so we play in a lot of parades and charity events and most of these are in the summer when the weather is better.

One neat thing my band did get to do was play a concert with a carillon. The World Carillon Federation defines a carillon as, "A musical instrument composed of tuned bronze bells which are played from a baton keyboard. Only those carillons having at least 23 bells be taken into consideration". And Wikipedia says it's the heaviest instrument because the bells can weigh several tons. So it's basically a huge set of bells in all shapes and sizes and it's very loud. The picture at the top of this post is NOT the carillon we played with, but it gives you a sense of what one looks like. There are all differents types and sizes of carillons.

The carillon player does various concerts and I guess he decided a bagpipe band would be a nice compliment to his carillon. The carillon we played with is at the top of a tall office building. We went up 14 flights on an elevator, up 2 flights of regular stairs, and than up about 2 flights of a spiral staircase. I'm afraid my poor drones suffered a few nicks in the tight quarters of the spiral staircase.

At the top we found ourselves standing on a narrow ledge with a fantastic view, but no worries, there were solid concrete waist high walls so even though we were high up, we felt secure.

We were going to be playing "Amazing Grace" and "Highland Cathedral" with the carillon. The carillon player picked the tunes and while we know AG, we didn't know HC. So, because we weren't playing in front of a very visible audience, we cheated and taped the music up to the walls.

It was not our greatest performance. We had to stand in single file and I was stuck in between two of the biggest guys in our band, so it was impossible to see our pipe major. We had 10 pipers and amazingly, when we were playing with the carillon, we drowned it out. So it was impossible to tell if we were playing with it...and more often than not, we weren't because the carillon plays a lot slower than a hyper charged up bagpipe band.

Afterwards, we went down and played a nice concert in a park at the base of the building. We could all see each other and we were sans carillon.

Pipe on!

Human Bagpipes?!

Human bagpipes. Very, very bizarre. I never in my life would have even conceived of something like this. But apparently a lot of people did. There are all sorts of videos on youtube featuring people who proclaim themselves to be human bagpipes. They sound a little bit like those throat singers, and a lot like people who have way too much time on their hands. But since they have all of that time, and even more time to tape themselves and post it on youtube for all the world to see, we might as well take a listen.

So, call it the poor man's bagpipes, call it strange, maybe you won't be able to call it anything at all because you're laughing or speechless, I present to you now, the human bagpipes:









Pipe on!

Pipes in Strange Places-The Sequel

Way back in August I was wandering around youtube looking at all of the bagpiping videos and I noticed that there were a lot of clips. There were clips of bands marching, people playing in their living rooms, and people playing up on stage. But something else I noticed is that there were a lot of clips of people playing their bagpipes in really strange places! The highlight of my original post was a guy playing the bagpipes in a speedo, while standing on floats in a swimming pool, I'm serious, check out my original post!

Now that you believe me, I've found some other great clips of people playing their pipes in strange places. I've been saving them up and I can't stand it any longer, I MUST post them!

I'll post them as a top 5 list so....I think a blog typing drum roll would look something like this:
dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

Coming in at #5 is a piper and drummer on a roof in Halifax. Looks very neat silhouetted against the sky:



At #4 are some pipers and a drummer playing on a subway in Philadelphia. They were probably just taking the subway back from a gig but it takes some talent to play on a jerking subway, you can see the closest piper stumbling a bit for balance (or perhaps from drink!) towards the end:



For #3 I chose a clip of comedian Mark Malkoff. He made the news recently because he's living in an Ikea store in New Jersey while his apartment is being fumigated. He's been posting clips of his experiences on youtube and this one involves a bagpiper playing in the bathroom for his fish's funeral.

Now, before you get upset thinking that he killed the fish for comedy, the comments at the bottom of the clip reveal that he bought a live fish and a dead fish.

I also like this clip because one of my husband's fish died recently and I played Amazing Grace on my practice chanter as he flushed the fish down the toilet:



Number 2 is a winner because it's a clip of another piping girl, and, to make things even better, she's playing her bagpipes while riding on a ski lift and snowboarding:



I have of course saved the best for last. My #1 choice. What can I say, I'm a sucker for unicycles and bagpipes. If you've ever gone to the very, very bottom of my blog you've noticed my video bar with a clip of Melvino in all of his bagpiping madness on a unicycle. I think this clip is as equally impressive:


I may have to devise my own list of strange places to play my bagpipes, any ideas??

Pipe on!

Bagpipe Trees!

I do apologize for my somewhat sporadic posts. Expect to see more frequent posts here, my super busy time of the year is done so now I can devote more time to this blog.

I found this really interesting article over on the
Scotsman.com. It's about the African Blackwood that is used to construct the three stocks of a bagpipe. Apparently there is concern over unsustainable logging of the African Blackwood, particularly in Tanzania. It takes 70-100 years for the Blackwood to reach harvestable age. So there is a
conservation group that is working to provide local communities with incentives to protect and manage their forests. In addition, people are being encouraged to plant bagpipe trees. Moreover, pipers are encouraged to ensure that bagpipes they purchase come from eco-friendly sources.

Pretty interesting. I don't know where the wood from my bagpipe comes from but it is made out of African Blackwood. The African Blackwood is really tough wood, so it doesn't crack, and it is supposed to really affect the quality of sound made by the bagpipes.

It would be interesting to hear music made from a set of pipes that is not made out of African Blackwood. For example, the article mentions that before the African Blackwood was used, native bog trees of Scotland were used. I wonder what a bagpipe made out of bog tree wood would sound like??

Pipe on!

Samurai Jack and The Scotsman

I just found this video on youtube and had a good laugh over it:



No doubt many a person has wanted to do this to the bagpipes!

Pipe on!

Pipes in Strange Places

I've played my bagpipes in a church, my house, parades, eating establishments, bars, and that's about it. A friend of mine who goes out of town on business practices his bagpipes in graveyards, quiet and peaceful, but I think I'd freak myself out trying that.

Check out this video of a guy who carried his bagpipes up the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. This is an 8.5 mile trek with a 4,800 foot elevation gain and he still managed to play some fine tunes:


This second video comes with a warning: speedo. You have to see it to believe it.


Pipe on!