Have you ever tried composing a piece of bagpipe music? What was the result? Composition skills are like anything else, they require learning and practice. Remember back to a time when you could not read a piece of music, or how about even playing a D throw? How good are those skills now?
If you repeat something often enough, you will develop habits related to that something. So it is with music. Music composition, aside from comprising a set of skills that can be learned, is also a creative exercise. Tapping into your own creativity means habitually placing yourself in the right mindset to allow your personal creativity to flourish.
A general axiom among learning experts states that if something is done for thirty days, it will become ingrained and habitual.
Try this exercise: Each day, for thirty days, create an original piece of pipe music. It could be a phrase, a melodic line, a full tune, anything. Scribble it down immediately. Carry around some music staff paper, or a notebook or even your laptop loaded with your favorite music transcription software. Think about it during the course of your normal day and pick a set time to jot down what’s going through your head. Don’t worry if the result is any good, or if it sounds like something else. The idea is to get used to the process of creating and documenting. Review your results at a later time and expand on your scribblings. You can then decide whether what you’ve written is junk or not.
After a while, you may find yourself jotting down several phrases, or even an entire four-parted tune. You may find that things just pop into your head unprompted. That is the point. Once it becomes easier to tap into those mental resources, you might be surprised by the changes in the way you approach the music. And who knows? You just might end up getting a good tune or two you can call your own.
As pipers it’s likely that many of us play gigs here and there. Most often, I play at weddings and funerals.
There’s nothing all that hard about these gigs, and frankly, it’s rare that anyone would even notice if your pipes weren’t quite in tune. Unfortunately, a lot of folks hire pipers just for the basic raw sound of the pipes, and for the look of the piper.
So, the tip really is, just dress nice when you play at gigs. That’s all that matters.
Kidding.
The biggest challenge instrument-wise is that you generally have to warm up long before the performance. For instance, at a wedding, you may have to sit through the whole ceremony, and then be expected to fire up and escort the wedding party out of the church. Or, at a funeral, there’s often an “Amazing Grace” or something of the sort 15 to 20 minutes into the service.
Here is where my tip comes in: It’s always important to tune up your pipes in the environment in which you’re going to be playing. In the funeral/wedding environment, the “environment,” so to speak, is a totally un-warmed up instrument! Be sure to get your pipes in tune in their “cold” state, not their fully warmed up state!
Here’s my routine:
Usually, gigs don’t require the piper to play for a long time during the ceremony. We usually play a quick ditty during a service, or march a wedding party out of the church. Therefore, to be fully “warm” is not essential. If you do have to play longer at a gig, don’t be afraid to reach up and tweak your drones from time to time, to keep them sounding harmonious! A good thing to practice on your own is the art of tuning artfully. In other words: try to make your tune-up routine musical. I use a bright clear high-A when I reach up to tune my drones, and sections of major-key piobiareachd variations to check my chanter tuning.
Unfortunately, when people hire us to perform, they don’t necessarily expect us to sound good. However, that also means that if you do sound good, you’ll make a phenomenal impression on your clients and the audience members present. Good luck at your next gig!
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