by Michael Simone

I might have been intimidated at the Piper’s Weekend, Shepherdstown, WV, early this January.  Me, a toddler piper, mixing with such accomplishment, such mastery, such confidence around an arcane art: lowland piping!  Besides, where was Shepherdstown and could anything good come out of it?

First, some background.  My passion started in Scotland earlier last year.  My wife Denise and I met Alan Waldron in Stirling, Scotland.  Alan had worked with Garvie Bagpipes and made 99% of their border pipes.  He’d recently sprung on his own.  There was I, cheap tourist PC in hand, talking to Alan in his new shop, Stirling Bagpipes, a stone’s throw from the Stirling Castle. “Get some good instruction; learn good technique; practice incessantly; and, by the way, since you live in a condo, you might be interested in ‘social’ pipes.”  Then I had the “Alan Waldron education” on lowland and border pipes.  I was hooked.  If I was going to learn to play, it was those sweet, little, quite baby pipes I could play in my den.  I left Scotland determined to find a tutor.

Voila!  We’d sometimes heard piping from down the road and my wife Denise, usual encouragement to hand, told me to see if he would teach me.  “After all, if you don’t ask, it’s an automatic no.”  I asked, and for the next 7 months it was me, Nate my tutor, my Walsh blackwood PC, and many hours of practice.  Eventually I got some flimsy, mouth-blown kitchen pipes.  I could knock out 6 GHB tunes and do a mean D-throw and grip.  (The birls are well on their way.)

But my tutor, Nate, was puzzled about this Shepherdstown gathering.  He’s a Highland piper, 20 years developing, unfamiliar with “lowland,” “border,” “bellows” and “Breton.”  When he learned I was headed to West Virginia to be with a North American group reviving and synthesizing these ancient elbow piping skills, I could see his alarm.  He wondered what piping perversions his student would adopt.  He sent me off to the Upper Potomac Pipers Weekend with that same anxiety our folks had sending us off to college: “Who will my child be this time next year? Will those college eggheads ruin my parenting? — Who are these folks? Will they ruin your piping in that noble GHB tradition?”

I love my tutor.  Nate has true passion for his music, and has tried to get me hooked on the GHB.  When I started taking lessons from him last year I was quite clear, though, that my interest was in the more “social” pipes.

At the Shepherstown registration I told them I was really there just to watch.  But, ‘Noooooo,’ that wasn’t an option.

“I don’t have any pipes.” “Oh, we can get you some.”

“I play left-handed.” “You’re making excuses.”  Not an auspicious beginning.

But Friday evening was a treat with Bob Mitchell, Tim Cummings, Christian Crowley, Lucas Mitch, Jerry O’Sullivan, Nick Blanton, Chris Norman and a host of others.  We heard pipes, flutes, concertinas and a bevy of strange revival instruments in a session lasting until about 9:30.  Even Denise’s instrument, the dulcimer, was represented.  What a sweet time!  It was billed as ”a combination of open mike, session and show and tell. Bring your pipes (or other instrument), play a tune, invite others to join if appropriate. This is to allow experienced players and novices a chance to get to know each other and share some music.”  Later the large session broke up for various individual instrument sessions. Me, I’m an old fart and we left at about 10 to our lodging down the street.

Bright, but not so early on Saturday, I was in Bob Mitchell’s “Honk and Squeeze,” with about 7 others.  The class for novice smallpipers was bigger than I’d expected and the intimidation evaporated.  Bob has that way.  He talks and acts like a novice to make you feel comfortable, but those 40 years of competitive piping belie him.  Was I being scammed?  No, Bob was the real stuff.  He fitted my left-handed toy kitchen pipes with some radiator hose and a bellows and there I was with the worst of them, honking and squealing away.  But Bob assured us all that within a few weeks we’d be pretty good at learning the elbow timings and would never go back to a practice chanter again.

That afternoon I had Tim Cummings’ SSP class.  Another treat!  Tim’s done a crack-up job arranging and transposing Appalachian and shape note music for the pipes.  As he said: “After looking at these tunes, its not just that they came from Ireland and lowland Scotland, but they surely had to have been played with lowland pipes, and not only string instruments.  It’s just that the immigrants left their pipes when they came over.”

Tim’s a strict, man!  He wanted us to learn by ear!  No music!  Well, we struggled for about 15 minutes.  Finally, my pride aside, I told Tim I really needed music.  I was a bit humiliated, but soon relieved, when he asked how many others wanted it and just about every hand went up.

Tim captivated us with two tunes from “The Appalachian Collection,” his arrangements for the pipes, and this book is well worth the small investment . I’m still practicing the tunes Tim taught, “Sandy Boys,” and “Wondrous Love” on my new small pipes at home.  I’ll be learning a lot of tunes from his collection this year.

Early Saturday evening a group of us including Lucas Mitsch, Bob Mitchell, Chips Lanier joined Nate Banton for a reed-making workshop.  Nate’s pipe making is renown, and he was renting out pipes for the weekend.  Had I thought about it—and had the courage—I could have rented a left-handed set.  The result of the workshop was to convince most of us that reed-making was something we might want to leave to the likes of Nate and Chips.  But at least we understood the process and you can guess where I’m going when I need reeds.

Then came the concert on Saturday night after dinner.  All the UPPW faculty, Jerry O’Sullivan on the uilleann pipes, Tim Cummings on the border pipes, Ian Lawther on the Nothumbrian small pipes, Chris Norman on the flute, and Bob Mitchell on the Scottish small pipes gave generous solos and groups performances for two hours.  Maggie Sansone joined on the bodhrán. The production stunned us all.

On Sunday, I joined Bob Mitchell in his two small pipes classes, morning and afternoon.  I gleaned three critical points: 1) Practice with your bellows and within a few weeks it’ll be second nature and you’ll never go back to a practice chanter since you can play for hours with the bellows.  2) Practice learning music by ear with other players and do not rely on the music that may become a crutch for a good ear, and 3) keep your GHB and lowland pipe repertoires separate.  For someone at my skill level, learning with Bob was quite encouraging.

Denise and I were off right after the last workshop at 4 PM for the 3 ½ hour ride back to NW Philly.  God willing, I’ll be back next year.  I wouldn’t miss it.  And by then I’ll have 18 months of playing under my (bellows) belt.  Can’t wait.

photos by Michael Simone and Nate Banton

Here are a few of the videos from the weekend concert.  You can see more HERE.