Periods of learning and long breaks in between

[nemethmik]

How long have you been learning or did you learn Irish piping?
Did you have longer (months or years) breaks between the stages?
What were the reasons of these longer breaks?
Have you decided to give up completely and then eventually decided not to give up?
I am really interested in your story.
Miki

[PJ]

I started learning in 1996, stopped in 1999 (while traveling), started again in 2001. Prior to starting again, I contemplated selling my practice set but decided to keep it. Since starting again in 2001, I've been pretty consistent: I usually practice 2 or 3 times a week.

[tommykleen]

"started" in '79. Stopped in '79. Started in '80. Stopped in '80. Repeated process for the following 14 years. Grabbed the wheel for good in '94 and, like a Toyota, have not been able to stop since.

I play/practice/continue to learn about 4-6 days a week.

tommykleen

[vanfleet]

I certainly fit that description, started in 1984 with a less-than-ideal practice set, sold that and quit in 1989, and did not start again until getting a much better half set in 2002. Upgraded to a full set in 2004 and worked hard at it until 2009. I find my interest lagging a bit this year; time constraints and perhaps age are having an effect on my progress . . .

[Jarlath.I]

Did you have longer (months or years) breaks between the stages?
What were the reasons of these longer breaks?

This is an interesting question. Are you going to be unable to play for a period?

This will sound obvious, but if you are going to take time off from playing, especially long periods, just know that you will not start back where you left off. You will have to work back to that point, and in my experience, the longer you played before the break, the quicker you will get back any skills that became rusty.

Anyway, here is my story: In 2000 I went to a Tionól in Seattle without pipes and having never played. Mick O’Brien was teaching and at that point I knew I wanted to play…..

I was able to borrow a set for 6 months from the Seattle pipers club. I played for the six months, and like any good procrastinator, started looking for a set to buy when I had to send the borrowed set back. I bought a practice set and the Clarke book in 2001, and practiced everyday, then had reed issues I couldn’t fix. I got a new reed, but with a family and job demands I found I was playing once in a while, with sometimes weeks between picking the pipes up.

About three years ago I finally told myself that if I am going to be a piper I have to think of it as a lifestyle. I made practicing a priority and I play everyday, even if it is just for 15-20 minutes. I also started taking “Skype” lessons with a respected player. I’m still not a great player, but having a great time learning.

[Brazenkane]

Good man, Tommy! Great discipline!

[Pat Cannady]

Yeah, truly awesome discipline. He's got a new musical surprise just about every time I see him. Beautiful piping, Tom.

[Pat Cannady]

As for me, I've had a bit of a lull in learning heaps of new tunes recently because of work and school but still manage to get out two nights a week for a tune. Just made a point of doing it. Jarlath's point about deciding to make piping your lifestyle or at least a major part of it is very well stated, and very true in my experience.

[Brazenkane]

Tom, share some the fruits of your labours why don'tcha? Play us a tune!?

[rgouette]

Bought my practice set in 2001, and if I'm honest with myself, I hafta say that so far I 'play AT the pipes' vs playing the pipes.
Numerous times over the past 10 years , I've gone long periods without playing a single note.

I tend to play them when I'm on a mission to play for a concert, or some other finite gig:
pure laziness really..

But I refuse to sell them, because I love what Uilleann pipes are, and I know I want to learn: albeit on a very slow time frame.

And I'm also somewhat intimidated at the prospect of a tionol, to be honest again.
Though from all the reading here, one can see that tionols are where to be...
R

[tommykleen]

Tom, share some the fruits of your labours why don'tcha? Play us a tune!?

I put up some rough stuff on "that other forum", under the name of my good twin.

I'm motivated in earnest cos I feel I have wasted so much time and the clock is ticking. That's what gets me up at 5:00am to hit the pipes.

TK

[nemethmik]

in my experience, the longer you played before the break, the quicker you will get back any skills that became rusty.

Have you noticed that after a longer break you play (much) better when you stopped playing?

[Ceann Cromtha]

in my experience, the longer you played before the break, the quicker you will get back any skills that became rusty.

Have you noticed that after a longer break you play (much) better when you stopped playing?

Most definitely. Although I've not taken a break longer than a few days in the six years I've been playing, this has always been the case when I do take some time off. It's almost as if the brain and body continues to work on the material you're trying to master while you're unconscious of it. (I've noticed this even more in foreign language acquisition -- a field I've been envolved with for about 30 years. Foreign language acquisition is similar to music acquisition in several ways, including coupling intellectual and motor skills which seems to require extra time to "steep" prior to becoming second-nature or habit in the student.)

[Jarlath.I]

nemethmik wrote:
Jarlath.I wrote:
in my experience, the longer you played before the break, the quicker you will get back any skills that became rusty.

Have you noticed that after a longer break you play (much) better when you stopped playing?


Most definitely. Although I've not taken a break longer than a few days in the six years I've been playing, this has always been the case when I do take some time off. It's almost as if the brain and body continues to work on the material you're trying to master while you're unconscious of it. (I've noticed this even more in foreign language acquisition -- a field I've been envolved with for about 30 years. Foreign language acquisition is similar to music acquisition in several ways, including coupling intellectual and motor skills which seems to require extra time to "steep" prior to becoming second-nature or habit in the student.)

Thanks Khan Krum. I believe there is muscle memory that helps after a break. When first starting you are figuring out pumping the bellows, squeezing the bag, and trying to move your fingers around the chanter to make a tune come out. After a break, your body still has a “memory” of this, so you are not completely starting over.

In my case, I would play for a week and then take a week or two off, so I found that I was able to play, but was never improving. I decided that either I stop playing (not really a choice) or I make piping a priority in my life. I still take a day off here and there, and if the pipes just aren’t working (usually weather related) I stop playing when I feel I am getting very frustrated. But now I see improvement and find that the better my playing becomes the more fun this instrument is.

I hope this somewhat answers your question.

[pancelticpiper]

I had one of these on-again off-again things, not out of choice.

I began on the uilleann pipes back in the 1970s. I was living in a place where there were no uilleann pipers around. I didn't know anything. There was no internet. All I could do was to get what few books were available and listen to the albums I could find and hack away at the pipes.

So I got a Wilkinson-McCarthy practice set from Lark In The Morning (around 1976?) and I played that for several months until the reed died. (I was in a very dry climate.) So I went without a playable set for many months until I aquired a reed from somewhere. I played for a few more months until that reed died, then had another forced haitus. And so it went. Of my first five or six years of playing I only had a working reed half the time.

It wasn't until around 1982 that Sean Folsom was able to reed the Quinn chanter I had bought back around 1978 and from that time I've had a reliable instrument that always works. (Sean didn't make me a reed from scratch but rather was able to bring a half-dead reed that happened to play a perfect scale on my Quinn chanter back to life.)