Pipe Maker
continued..."Oh, yes. There’s a good social scene to piping," he agrees. "A lot of the platform for piping nowadays is competitions…whether it’s pipe band competitions or solo competitions.
"The likes of the World Pipe Band Championships will draw people from all over the world. It’s a chance for everyone to catch up with friends who’ve emigrated to America to play in bands. It’s a good social occasion for everyone to get together, visit the beer tents and have a few drinks." Not too many, surely, or those pipes might sound like wailing cats!
Ian might be doing a fair trade now, but it all started from small beginnings. "I’d always been interested in making pipes, but I couldn’t afford to buy a set of smallpipes. So I went to night classes, started using the machinery and working out prototypes. It’s one of those things - you make a set for yourself and then a friend wants you to make them a set, and it grows from there.
"If I heard a set of pipes being played, I’d probably know who had made them. What governs the sound is the reeds and how they are maintained. I pride my pipes on being fully played-in and set in concert pitch at the time of dispatch.
"I could hear a set of my pipes five years down the line and they might sound dreadful because they’ve been badly maintained, or they might sound the same as the day they left the shop, if the owner knows what they’re doing.
So why the big interest now? "I think everyone’s looking back to their roots for some sort of identity, especially with the Braveheart thing coming out at the same time that Celtic music has become more popular. I think there are more pipe bands in New York than in the whole of Scotland!
"You’ve also got a lot of pipe bands in India and Hong Kong, where the Empire was. The Sultan of Oman sent his son over here to be educated at the military school, Sandhurst. He promptly went back and overthrew his father and set-up what is basically a British military establishment with pipe bands and the full works. There’s something like a dozen military pipe bands in Oman now, some of which play on camels. Lots of ex-army pipers go over and get tax-free pay to teach the Sultan’s army. I can’t ride a camel, so I won’t be going over!
Ian breaks off there to give a quick recital. It’s enough to suggest that anyone thinking of learning the bagpipes would be wise to consider the smallpipes. If you can play an instrument that looks and sounds this good, you’re guaranteed a jig at the next ceilidh!
Ian Kinnear
Smallpipes are available in the keys of A, Bb, C
or D. A and D are most common and useful for
playing with other traditional instruments. The
smallpipes can be supplied as standard 3 drone
sets or, because A and D harmonise and there are
2 drones common to both sets, they can be
supplied as a combined A/D set with 4 drones and
two interchangeable chanters.
Contact:
Unit 5, Brechin Business Centre
South Esk Street
Brechin
Angus
DD9 6AG
Tel: (44) 01356 626322
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Order a
set of Ian’s pipes at: http://freespace.virgin.net/kinnear.bagpipes/
Piping Events
World Pipe Band
Championships
Glasgow Green
August 14
Piping Courses
Glasgow’s Piping Centre runs a one-week bagpipe course. Students receive three lessons a day on everything from reed-making to pipe-playing. The centre has an eight-bedroom hotel. A five-day course costs £200 without accommodation and £400 without.
The Piping
Centre
30-34 McPhater Street
Cowcaddens
Glasgow
G4 0HW
Tel: (44)
0141 353 0220
Fax: (44) 0141 353 1570
