What's the best thing about the Uilleann pipes?

[daveboling]

Busking on the street and hearing people try to pronounce the name to each other
(you can't call them "union" pipes in the southern U.S., people will think they are crossing a picket line....)

dave boling

[kathaleenypoopa]

The C natural!

[Murk]

A High E bent up from a Ghost D.

And BCD Triplets.

[Pyper]

The buzz, and the buzz you get from playing them!

[Tony]

The best thing about Uilleann pipes is you don't have to take a hit in price should you be forced to sell pipes made by a reputable maker !!

[pancelticpiper]

Seriously, for somebody like me coming from the Highland pipes the best thing about the uilleann pipes is the greater musical capability.

We Highland pipers get asked all the time to play tunes that just don't work the Highland chanter. I don't know what other Highland pipers do when asked, but what I do is tell the client that yes I can play their request, but on a different sort of bagpipe.

Tune requests cause me to bring both types to many of the gigs I do.

I do warn clients, when they request tunes that only fit on the uilleann pipes, that the sound and sight isn't what they have in mind. I tell them the difference is that when you come marching into the room playing the Highland pipes in full Highland Dress the public reaction is "Yay! Here's the bagpiper!" but when you sit in the corner playing the uilleann pipes the public reaction is "What is that thing?"

The vast majority of the time when I play uilleann pipes at a gig it's because of tune requests. The clients would prefer that the tunes could be played on the big pipes. Rare is the call where the client is specifically asking for uilleann pipes ("YOO-lee-un" pipes actually).

There are times when the greatly lower volume of the uilleann pipes is a good thing, many other times when it's a bad thing, at gigs.

Also of course the uilleann pipes opens up a vast Irish traditional repertoire, little of which can be correctly played on the big pipes.

[Brus]

Busking on the street and hearing people try to pronounce the name to each other
(you can't call them "union" pipes in the southern U.S., people will think they are crossing a picket line....)

dave boling

This weekend I saw the Willis Clan at an Irish festival in Pittsburgh. They said the best thing about playing at Irish festivals is that they don't have to explain what uillean pipes are.

[Cathy Wilde]

Pipers!!!!

[bensdad]

As Tommy Canavan once said to me,

'tis the company.

[Coffee]

Thank you all for the replies, both the humorous ones, such as what I started out with, and the honest and thought-provoking ones.
Between band and everything else, I find the hardest thing is keeping uilleann fingering on the uilleann chanter, and the highland fingering (and grace notes) on the highland chanter.

[pancelticpiper]

I find the hardest thing is keeping uilleann fingering on the uilleann chanter, and the highland fingering (and grace notes) on the highland chanter.

For whatever reason that never bothered me. At one point I was regularly playing Highland pipes, uilleann pipes, Bulgarian Gaida, Spanish Gaita, Northumbrian smallpipes, Irish flute, Boehm flute, Bulgarian Kaval, and Bolivian Kena, each of which has a different fingering system, and never has the fingering of one instrument intruded on another.

On the other hand, there's something that many people have no problem with that my brain can't handle, and that is playing bellows-blown Scottish pipes. One would think that someone who plays both uilleann pipes and Highland pipes could pick up a set of bellows-blown Scottish pipes and take to them like a duck to water. But alas, for whatever reason Scottish fingering is connected to mouth-blowing in my brain, uilleann fingering with bellows-blowing. It was a rude awakening, after decades of playing Highland pipes and uilleann pipes, for somebody out at some festival to let me try their bellows-blown Scottish Smallpipes. I strapped them on, blew up the bag, put my fingers on the chanter... and couldn't play a note.

So, all of the Scottish Smallpipes and Scottish "Border" pipes I've had have been mouth-blown.

[Coffee]

Oh, but I do so love the reed stability inherent with bellows blown.
In my case though, I did both highland and smallpipes, the latter bellows blown.

I find it helps if I always play smallpipes and borderpipes standing up, rather than seated.

[ennischanter]

On the other hand, there's something that many people have no problem with that my brain can't handle, and that is playing bellows-blown Scottish pipes. One would think that someone who plays both uilleann pipes and Highland pipes could pick up a set of bellows-blown Scottish pipes and take to them like a duck to water. But alas, for whatever reason Scottish fingering is connected to mouth-blowing in my brain, uilleann fingering with bellows-blowing. It was a rude awakening, after decades of playing Highland pipes and uilleann pipes, for somebody out at some festival to let me try their bellows-blown Scottish Smallpipes. I strapped them on, blew up the bag, put my fingers on the chanter... and couldn't play a note.

Interesting how we all have our own Idiosyncratic strengths and weaknesses,

[dunnp]

I sometimes find myself flapping me arm on some phantom bellows when playing sackpipa (Swedish pipes) despite them being mouthblown.

[PJ]

I can't believe that nobody has replied "They don't smell".