Audience reaction to Uilleann pipes.

[rorybbellows]

Its very common for an Irish audience to react to Uilleann pipes with roars and cheers in the way they do in the samples below. Do internation audiences do the same ?

pipes come in at 1-03
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVMb3Ew2Ny8

pipes come in at 3-53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwtWeJHB ... re=related

and do you think the other musicians get pis'ed off because Davy gets all the cheers?

RORY

[bradhurley]

A friend of mine used to accompany his brother on musical tours of elementary schools up and down the East Coast of the United States; his brother played concertina and my friend played whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes. One day when they were playing for a classroom full of students, my friend started playing the pipes solo, first with just the chanter. The moment the drones kicked in, the teacher in the back of the room fell sound asleep and started snoring.

[Pat Cannady]

I was playing some tunes with friends in my local one night and a college kid who'd had a few bounced up mid tune and shouted "WHAT THE F--- ARE YOU PLAYING?!"

[dunnp]

Once I was doing a presentation for a school with my bandmates explaining Irish instruments to all the classes for St. Patrick's Day.
When I went to pump up the bellows and turn on the drones they shot out from the stock crashing to the floor making a horrible noise. The kids all loved that by the way. I barely recovered from the shock but continued on but my ever helpful bandmates could not stop cracking up.

[Cathy Wilde]

I was playing some tunes with friends in my local one night and a college kid who'd had a few bounced up mid tune and shouted "WHAT THE F--- ARE YOU PLAYING?!"

I get that all the time. But while you guys are mighty me, I count my blessings they don't know enough to say "WHY the F--- are you playing?"

[morning wood]

Its very common for an Irish audience to react to Uilleann pipes with roars and cheers in the way they do in the samples below. Do internation audiences do the same ?

pipes come in at 1-03
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVMb3Ew2Ny8

pipes come in at 3-53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwtWeJHB ... re=related

and do you think the other musicians get pis'ed off because Davy gets all the cheers?

RORY

I get the roars for the pipes and Davy etc but those tunes/performances are just

[MTGuru]

The moment the drones kicked in, the teacher in the back of the room fell sound asleep and started snoring.

Sounds like post-hypnotic suggestion to me. "When you hear the drones, you will feel very, very sleepy. When you hear the chanter, you will quack like a duck."

Another classic example is the opening set of Planxty's reunion concert at Vicar Street, when LOF transitions from "Woman I Ne'er Forgot" to "The Pullet". Drone tease at 2:04, chanter at 2:13. Funny, the YT comments reflect exactly the "uilleann effect".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hb89bJVxMg

Don't know about international audiences. But for people here who have never before heard U-pipes, a typical reaction is certainly "W-T-F is that?" And actually meant in a positive way.

[CHasR]

Its very common for an Irish audience to react to Uilleann pipes with roars and cheers in the way they do in the samples below. Do internation audiences do the same ?


and do you think the other musicians get pis'ed off because Davy gets all the cheers?

when the setting is right, the reaction I get is one of awe and wonder.
when the setting sucks, the reaction I get is, "whatever".
Mind you, we are rather a cultured lot in the NE corridor with plenty of euro transplants and folk junkies.
& no i dont believe the other musicians get pissed off because of the cheers. theyre mature individuals who recognize a colleagues job well done- plus, theyre getting payed, arent they?

[rorybbellows]

the teacher in the back of the room fell sound asleep and started snoring.

I hope he got tarred and feathered and ran out of town.

Just to go off on a tangent ,in the second sample clip above does the back D on Davys chanter break at 4.14 and at 4.20 ? if it is,it appears to done in a very controlled and on purpose manner.Sax players employ a similar technique.

RORY

[rgouette]

people here in Maine tend to not emote, at least the true Mainers.
maybe we're part Finnish..
But they also do tend to be intensely curious as to just what it IS that I'm playing.
All in all, like what MT said

[tommykleen]

I was in a "contemporary Celtic band" where I used to get that kinda roar-thing happening when I would come in with my digeridoo. Pipes...didge...big droney/bassy-thing: what pushes the button seems to be having that little half-beat break before you nail it on the down beat.

The bigger issue that I have been trying to figure out is why people are so indifferent to live performers. And when I say indifferent, I really should say "wary". I play the uilleann pipes: a bizarre, Dr. Seuss-of-an-instrument if ever there was one. I have played countless social occasions where I am the sole performer. It always gob-smacks me how seldom people want to even come over to me to see what's going on. Best I usually get is a look of confusion (sprinkled with worry: their experience tells them they are hearing "pipes" but their processing of the situation tells them "whoah...not pipes"). Personally, I don't need the interaction, but it startles me what lack of curiosity people have. What disturbs me even more is this bigger picture: most people have no concept of what it means to be in the presence of a live musician. You know, one you could actually reach out and touch, or even talk to. The only two forms of musical interaction people have now a days is through their ipods and going to arena-sized concerts. Criminy.

Yours,
The approachable tommykleen

[Cathy Wilde]

The two things that amaze me about audiences (one not having anything to do with piping, at least not directly):

1) I've been to three big-ticket concerts in the past year where the crowd might as well have just been somewhere else. At Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt's duo concert, they were so busy texting, filming, and photographing they weren't even listening. At the John Prine and the CSN concerts I attended they were either texting or thinking they were at a bar and hollering and socializing with their friends and completely ruining the concert for the rest of us. To at least 80% of the audience, the musicians might as well have just been a CD in the background. And these tickets were like, $65 each! I totally don't get it. It's like, no matter where people are they're trying to be somewhere else, too.

2) Oh, my goodness! What in the world? do people come up and ask me questions while I'm playing? Can't they at least wait 'til the tune's over? Hollering at me while I'm playing the pipes I can *almost* understand, but it's especially amazing that they expect an answer while I've got a flute or whistle in my face.

I swear, this is so not the same planet I thought I was born on.

Good point on the half-beat break, T! It's true! That and a big key change and you're good to go.

[rgouette]

It's like, no matter where people are they're trying to be somewhere else, too.

whoa, I'd pay money to use that one....

[CHasR]

The bigger issue that I have been trying to figure out is why people are so indifferent to live performers. ....Personally, I don't need the interaction, but it startles me what lack of curiosity people have. What disturbs me even more is this bigger picture: most people have no concept of what it means to be in the presence of a live musician. You know, one you could actually reach out and touch, or even talk to. The only two forms of musical interaction people have now a days is through their ipods and going to arena-sized concerts.

tommykleen this is fascinating topic. I have a harpist friend who had a regular gig at a sunday brunch from 9am-1pm, every week. I asked her, what do you play, how do ya fill such a big span? & she said, "dosent matter as long as Im in the same key as the knives forks & glasses"
have we ever been so innundated with musical sound & yet so far removed personally from its production?
I have to say in my large urban area there are no shortage of intermediary performances, between the ipods & the stadium. So many in fact there is often too many choices really.

do people come up and ask me questions while I'm playing? Can't they at least wait 'til the tune's over? Hollering at me while I'm playing the pipes I can *almost* understand, but it's especially amazing that they expect an answer while I've got a flute or whistle in my face.

hahha been there too ...or on a windy day when the undertaker leaves a $100 bill on top of a gravestone & expects you to nab it i dont know what is goiig throuh their heads

[fancypiper]

I have been asked "Where are the batteries?"