Chiff and Fipple Forums

This is almost certainly a Pakistani set, not worth the time or money.

-David

I find the subject of musical heritage pretty interesting in relation to this topic. I imagine most of us came from families where at least one person played a musical instrument. My dad plays tympani and traps, my mom plays cello, and my brother plays cello and electric bass. The reason I bring thi...

I think christmas is the most hypocritical holiday there is! Peace and love for all mankind.., uhm.., yeah.., sure.. I don't know what Christmas _you_ celebrate, but the one _I_ celebrate is about being with family and the joy of sharing with each other, not about getting the most loot. Both the gi...

Further, being one who highly values my time based on other things I could do to make money, I'd suspect that it'd "cost" me several thousand dollars to make a contraption out of all that stuff you mention....and I can't imagine that I'd be satisfied with tonal characteristics. In that ca...

I'm going to be visiting relatives for Christmas and I'd like to play them something on my pipes (I'm pretty sure none of them have seen uilleann pipes in real life). Can anyone suggest a Christmas song I couold play for them? I've only been playing a few months, so nothing too complicated, but it d...

Suggestion: get rid of the f%#*ing recorder and get a good whistle for sessions. :poke: Sorry to go off topic, but.... I Honestly don't understand this sentiment. Recorder is almost the same instrument as penny whistle, just a little higher tech (which of course isn't necessarily a good thing). It ...

Granted, this whole lack of girls thing is not exclusive to just instruments of the bagpipe family[...] Oh, I gotta bring up an amusing anecdote. In Bulgaria they had their first woman accepted to the national conservatory playing gajda (bagpipe) in the 70's or 80's (I don't remember when exactly) ...

I'm about to enter grad school and I'm thinking about how I can reduce costs. I'm also starting to learn uilleann pipes, and the idea of paying for a lesson every week sounds like a lot of money to me. So I was thinking that I might try learning from a tutor book. Before you cry out in horror, I'll ...

where can I get a decent sized piece of soft leather for a popping strap? In Eugene, Oregon, USA, there's a store called Factory Fabrics that has a bin of recycled leather, mostly from old car seats. It sells for like $6 a pound, and there are plenty of pieces that are big enough to make a popping ...

Personally, I'm hoping to one day be able to play for contra dances. That was also one of my original motivations for learning recorder, and it's what got me to enjoy Irish music in the first place.

-David

David, is the entire chanter is molded? Yes, the whole chanter is molded (apart from the bits made of brass, of course). The white parts aren't made of faux ivory. They are cast seperately from the main body out of white plastic. I saw another one of Patrick Murray's chanters today and it had the s...

I recieved my Patrick Murray starter set in the mail last week. It's exciting to finally be able to play an actual set of uilleann pipes after all this anticipation. Here's a picture, along with the bag cover I sewed for it: http://www.obairlann.net/~david/murray_starter_set.jpg I'll share some of m...

It seems weird to me. In person, people are plenty willing to state a negative opinion of a pipe maker, but in a public forum it seems to be frowned on. Can anyone help me out on why that's the case? I mean, politeness is good and all, but if people only ever give positive reports then there's not m...

I just discovered that William Smith (http://www.uilleannpipes.com/) is selling wood and leather starter sets for $395. That price seems too good to be true. Can anyone comment on his work?

-David

About the tune, is Ivan a relation to Konstatin Varimesov? The name you're looking for is Kostadin, and yes, Ivan is his nephew. I'm lucky enough to be able to take lessons from him here in Los Angeles, since he's here as a visiting professor at UCLA. He's easily the best gajda teacher I've ever ha...