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------Est. 1980 Glasgow
city centre's oldest bagpipe shop------
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Newsletter - July 2011
Dear Piping Enthusiast,
 July
is here with a swing and we are now gearing up for the Scottish peak
month of August. To get me fitter for a busy August, I have been doing
more hill walking - this time it was Dumgoyne which is
a volcanic plug on the end of the Campsie Fells. It is not that high but
quite steep so it was a sharp and quick climb. Although oxygen wasn't
required, I had to put a manly face on things to impress my girlfriend!
(Dumgoyne as viewed from the east.)
We have lots of combos these days regarding pipes with
orchestras, folk bands and any thing else that makes a sound. It's worth
remembering that bagpipes are fundamentally an individual instrument. It
doesn't need a plug - it's healthy and unique so whilst playing in groups
can be good fun, it ultimately stands alone. It was just before the First
World War that pipe bands took off with the military and whilst prior to
that I am sure players would play together on occasions, it was nothing
like the scene we have now. So playing as a complete single piper is the
way to go - lonely for sure but when it goes right, you can knock the
socks of a 60 piece orchestra! However, piping must evolve to remain
fresh and that is certainly the case now, but let's not
forget our great traditions.
Yours aye,
James C. Begg
www.beggbagpipes.com
News
 I
played recently for the Xtra factor at the Scottish Exhibition and
Entertainment Centre - for those of you outside of the UK this is a leading TV talent show and my
job was to set a Scottish theme and a "Welcome to Glasgow" at the start of the show.
It was a rather brief appearance particularly when I originally thought
they were going to do some actual filming in my shop. The Director didn't
help matters with his lack of interest generally in piping and negative
comments - anyway, if I find out when the show is to be aired, I'll let
you know.
 As
I mentioned last month, I was out with 1st Lenzie Boys Brigade band with whom I have enlisted my son Gavin at the start of
hopefully a long piping career. It's been a while since I played with a
band and since they had a decent turnout, I was happy to fit into the
back rank. It was good fun and the boys did a great job - thanks for the
invitation.
A-Z of Piping - a Personal View by James C. Begg
L is for Learning
Customers sometimes
ask me where they can learn to play and how long does it take. I suppose
I used to have fixed views but it really depends on what you want to do
and how much time you have. Not everyone aspires to be a great player and
in fact, most people that start to learn have all sorts of reasons for
doing so. Piping today is far more available and accessible than it was
in the past and this is certainly the case in Scotland. We have schools
throughout the country that tutor -The National Piping Centre and The
College of Piping are two obvious examples but piping is still a poor
relation when compared to our orchestral counterparts. We have bands that
have realised the only way to survive is to teach within the band and to
build the future through juvenile bands - well done to the SFU who
instigated that trend. We have more strength now as can be seen by the
likes of Boghall, The Vale and so on but in a different way, its hats off
to the Boys Brigade - I recently played with the 1st Lenzie BB band led
by Ken Roberts. In addition to instilling piping into the boys, he also
provides a direction in life and builds the boys' character. Ken has
maintained the band almost single handedly with his persona and his love
of developing others. He is a school teacher in history and amongst his
many skills, teaching is clearly at the
forefront. Skype and summer schools are also now widespread so tuition
for foreign students is well catered for. I heard recently that W
MacCallum did a skype lesson to Thomas Schalla (sorry Thomas if my
spelling is wrong!) in Germany
-how good is that!! So tuition is now better than ever and more informed.
We have books with supporting cds, allowing you to be self taught and
actually it's easy to start learning. So get your order in for a starter
kit and remember we have our own hand made blackwood chanters made on our
premises, but if budget is an issue, the alternative is a good quality
synthetic chanter at an extremely low price. I generally talk about my
direct experience from a Scottish perspective but tuition is sound
world-wide. There may not be a great volume of teachers globally but the
quality is good and is some cases great - consider the likes of at S
Liddell, A MacColl , I Tannoch, P MacInnes and I MacFadyen and you will
be confident that the future of young pipers is secured. So much more
could be done if the resources are made available. A shocking example of
a lack of resources and low priority can be seen in Strathclyde. This
huge Region has only 1 full time instructor and that is my friend Peter
MacInnes. This is our national instrument and it wouldn't surprise me if
the mandarins in government place the recorder and recorder teaching
higher up their list of priorities than piping - they should be ashamed
of themselves! Practice and more practice is the key to learning and with
hindsight, I wish I had done more. It's tricky to focus and find the
time, particularly when you are past your teens. I did enjoy the Gordon
Stevenson story that he started learning at 59 years old and continued
playing into his 80s. I haven't seen him for a while but what a great
guy. As he was long time student of Duncan MacFadyen, I believe he
received Duncan's practice chanter when Duncan left us for
the "Band in the Sky". It's crucial you find a teacher you get
on with -Duncan Johnstone and Eddie MacLellan were guys that were not
only good teachers but great people as well and I had so much fun with
them. After the lesson with Eddie, he usually offered me a quick beer and
I would then jump onto my raleigh
moped with my pipes strapped to my back and head back from Cathcart to
Hillington - a fairly hairy journey I have to say. So in conclusion, you
need to practice to learn and the more you practice and improve, the
greater the enjoyment will become but make sure you find yourself a good
tutor.
Technical Academy - Hemping
Be careful in your hemping of your pipes. This is a
crucial part of playing bagpipes and particularly hard for a novice
player to understand how to achieve the correct effect. Stick to hemp is
my mantra - it moulds to your joints and is natural and kind to them.
Without a smooth and moderately secure fit, your pipes will be unstable
and hard to play. Conversely, we can over-tighten the joints and end up
requiring a pal to hold one part whilst you manhandle the other section -
all very unbecoming. However, get the twine on correctly and your drone
slide tuning pins will glide when you want them to. You want the stock
joints to be a bit tighter than tuning slides but we still have to take
them out at points to check the bag or alter the reeds. It's tricky to
suggest one fits all but I supply waxed hemp, plane hemp and black waxed
linen thread - perhaps a combination of one or other is ok but generally
one should be used throughout. The overriding criteria
is to achieve a robust joint that is not wobbling and one which
will let your bagpipe be solid. It also has to let you have control of
the various sections that you will need to move at some point -tuning
slides are the most obvious but don't ignore the equally important other
sections.
Online Special
Offer - HEMP Buy anything online in July and receive a free
ball of hemp
YouReport
If you would like to report on any aspect of the
Piping World from wherever you live, we'd be pleased to hear from you. mailto:bill@beggbagpipes.com
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