The bagpiper next door

[nanette1985]

On Monday at the local St Pat's day parade I fell into conversation with a really good bagpiper who was funny, dressed in full gear, and very very drunk. Nice guy.

This morning at 6:30 I stumbled out of my apartment building door to grab coffee across the street, and stumbling out of his apartment building next door to catch the 6:42 train was the same bagpiper guy. I barely recognized him in business clothes but yeah, the same guy.

Now I want to know where he practices his bagpipes because I've never heard a peep (well, a bagpipe squeak-whine) from his place, which is very close to mine.

He's a really really good bagpiper, he has to practice sometimes.

 

[Xavier434]

You should ask him and then tell us.

I really like bag pipes.

 

[coldmeat]

I can't tell the difference between good bagpipe playing and bad.

 

[Lorax]

he probably gets together with his bagpiping friends and they jam together.

 

[zinfamous]

paging steve.

 

[pontifex]

uh, bagpipes don't have to be super loud to play them...
he could be just using a chanter to practice too.

 

[Mucho]

Originally posted by: coldmeat
I can't tell the difference between good bagpipe playing and bad.

The good ones sounds like one cat in a bag, bad ones sounds like six cats in a bag.

 

[pontifex]

i don't get why everyone hates bagpipes. i love them, if played properly.

 

[bignateyk]

Originally posted by: pontifex
i don't get why everyone hates bagpipes. i love them, if played properly.

Yeah. The most moving thing i've ever heard in my life was a bagpiper playing amazing grace at a funeral (military). It brought me to tears (which might seem normal at a funeral, but I was fine until that point).

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: coldmeat
I can't tell the difference between good bagpipe playing and bad.

Well then you've obviously never heard a good bagpipe player.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

There is an instrument called a chanter which is similar to a recorder that is basically a bagpipe without the bag or drones.

 

[Steve]

Where to begin...

Princess Ida, he could have his practice sessions at a local church, school, whatever, or even outdoors someplace when the weather's nice.

That's what I do.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: coldmeat
I can't tell the difference between good bagpipe playing and bad.

Then you haven't heard them both, or else you're tone-deaf.

Originally posted by: Lorax
he probably gets together with his bagpiping friends and they jam together.

Yep, could be in a pipe band.

Originally posted by: Mucho

Originally posted by: coldmeat
I can't tell the difference between good bagpipe playing and bad.

The good ones sounds like one cat in a bag, bad ones sounds like six cats in a bag.

You are an idiot.

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
There is an instrument called a chanter which is similar to a recorder that is basically a bagpipe without the bag or drones.

Practice chanter. Used for learning and practising tunes. Meant to complement but not replace practice on the pipes.

Bagpipes (referring to the big ones, called Great Highland Bagpipes) are generally loud. How loud they are to an outside listener depends on the piper's environment for the most part. A well-insulated room in the basement will muffle a lot of noise.

 

[zinfamous]

Princess Ida has unleashed a monster. :shocked:

 

[biggestmuff]

Wait...people practice bagpipes?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: coldmeat
I can't tell the difference between good bagpipe playing and bad.

Are you totally deaf?

Pipes played well are (at least for me) a soul-stirring sound that I really enjoy, but when played badly sound like someone is drowing a sack full of cats.

When I was a kid, a friend took up the pipes...gawd, at first, it hurt my ears to be within a mile of him when he played...but he got better (or my hearing finally gave out) and it got so I enjoyes hearing him play. I've considered taking them up myself, but I'm disabled...I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket if you welded a lid on it...so I probably shouldn't try the pipes...(I can see all my neighbors now...it'd look like the scene from Frankenstein where the villagers converge on the castle with torches and weapons!)

I attend every event I can that has pipes though...sweet, sweet sounds.





Donald MacDonald from the Isle of Skye (or maybe it was Neil McNeil from Barra, but anyway..) went to study at an English university and was living in the hall of residence with all the other students there. After he had been there a month, his mother came to visit him (no doubt carrying reinforcements of tatties, salt herring, oatmeal and whisky).
"And how do you find the English students, Donald?" she asked.
"Mother," he replied, "they're such terrible, noisy people. The one on that side keeps banging his head on the wall and won't stop. The one on the other side screams and screams all night."
"Oh Donald! How do you manage to put up with these awful noisy English neighbours?"
"Mother, I do nothing. I just ignore them. I just stay here quietly, playing my bagpipes."

 

[SpunkyJones]

Punkrock without bagpipes is worthless.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
Wait...people practice bagpipes?

These comments never get old

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: SpunkyJones
Punkrock without bagpipes is worthless.

dropkick murphy's anyone?