Chiff and Fipple Forums

I second the recommendation for Cran.

That's a big question... The answer is yes, but to what extent is harder to gauge. We have the Dixon manuscript of Border pipe tunes dating back to 1733, but Dixon gave very few clues about the ornamentation. The nature of most old Border pipe tunes suggests that there wasn't a need for much if any ...

There are certainly records of people in Scotland and England (particularly the North) playing and making pastoral and union pipes in the early part of the 19th century. One of the Allan family of Border pipers had a set of union pipes, for instance. Part of the issue might have to do with the backg...

With regard to the stuff about Highland piping, I think it's easy to oversimplify points of view about it from one perspective or the other. The competition system, put in place starting in the 1780s with the intent of preserving the tradition, has in fact been enormously "innovative" in t...

It'll be a good show. He'll also be playing in Portland at the Stomptown Collective on Friday and at Biddy McGraw's on Sunday. Not entirely sure which show of his I'll catch yet, but it will be at least one of the three. Complete details for all the dates of his West Coast tour are on his Facebook p...

*edited to protect the innocent. :P Gee, that's something I haven't been called in a while... No worries. There's a link to my (woefully outdated) webpage in my signature, so it's not like I'm in the Witness Protection Program or anything... As for jigs to reels, "The Green Fields of America&q...

PhilD wrote:

*edited to protect the innocent.

Gee, that's something I haven't been called in a while...

No worries. There's a link to my (woefully outdated) webpage in my signature, so it's not like I'm in the Witness Protection Program or anything...

I saw Bob's wall hanging setup yesterday and expressed my skepticism about the arrangement. Any situation where the chanter is dangling gives me a mild case of the heebie-jeebies. (As Northumbrian piper Colin Ross famously put it, "Divven't let your chanter dangle.") I was also a bit worri...

Hi, Phil! Long time, no see. G to D or D to G always works. E minor to G can also be a nice change, as can A minor to G or maybe G, A minor, and D. For a long time, I deliberately tried to avoid playing other people's sets of tunes (i.e., from recordings, etc.) and only come up with sets of my own (...

I like your movies though :) didn't you get/order a full set of pipes a little while ago? Yes there was a set of circumstances that led to that. At my level I have no business having a full set. Channing, my tutor, really does not want be playing it for a while. So Why do I have it. I ordered a set...

Brad does make narrow-bore D chanters, and he's also made chanters à la Taylor and Patsy Brown that could perhaps be described as "medium-bore" (or something). I've played this chanter myself, and it's definitely _not_ narrow bore.

Gorgeous set, Bob! Looking forward to seeing it in person!

Mark Redmond gives it some serious schtick.

http://vimeo.com/39332239

Wish I could go. Con was a tremendous and generous help to me when I was starting out. I hope the event is well attended. Con deserves a lasting legacy.

Hi Bob,

I've got a copy of "Partners in Crime" if you want to have a listen.

Good post! For someone seeking a general introduction to both languages, I think you cover just about everything. I was unaware that Irish had once been written with both grave and acute accent marks (i.e., the fada in Irish or "s(t)ràc" in Sc. Gaelic). I recently saw a post on Facebook by...