There
are a number of musicians in Victoria (Australia) who play the
Scottish smallpipes, border pipes, Northumbrian smallpipes, uilleann
pipes and other bellows-blown pipes. Whilst there are many events and
activities for players of the great highland bagpipe, there are few
opportunities for players of these other pipes to meet and play
together.
On
the weekend of 6-7 October, Sarah Wade organised a 'Pipers’
Weekend' for players of bellows-blown pipes. Although she played a
basic set of smallpipes in D for a number of years, Sarah's
enthusiasm for smallpipes had recently been boosted as she had taken
possession of a new set of Hamish and Fin Moore combo SSP in August.
The
pipers’ weekend was held in a lovely old six-bedroom house in
Castlemaine in the Central Goldfields district of Victoria. It
attracted 15 pipers from diverse backgrounds. Some lived in the local
area and others travelled up to 650 km (400 miles) to attend. The
weekend provided the opportunity for fellow bellows-pipers to meet,
share tunes and be inspired.
The
weekend commenced with a meet-and-greet lunch on the Saturday
followed by two concurrent workshops during the afternoon. Geoff
Jones ran an introductory lesson to the smallpipes and other
bellows-blown pipes. Sarah led a session for some of the more
competent pipers, including SSP, uilleann pipes, border pipes,
whistles and even an electronic bagpipe! During this session pipers
enjoyed trying out and sharing different tunes that can be played
together on the different types of pipes. They made a good start to a
common repertoire of Celtic pipe tunes – now available on the
website! http://victoriabellowspipes.weebly.com/
Saturday
evening was a time for a bit of fun at the jam session in the lounge
room. Everyone had a go at playing a few tunes by themselves or with
others. A few other instruments also joined in the fun, including
piano accordion, crumhorn, flute, whistles, concertina and didgeridoo
(it is Australia of course!). The piper who discovered that red wine
should go through the piper before making contact with
bagpipes shall remain nameless! The session was a great opportunity
for pipers to jam together and also show off some party-pieces.
Andrew Teusner and Martin Hungerford showed off their skill of
singing along to their playing. All in all it was a great night and
the last of the session players dragged themselves to bed at about
3am – an early night indeed! Sunday morning saw brunch at a
respectable hour followed by more sharing of tunes, playing and
tuning tips until early afternoon.
Following
on from the bagpipe weekend, Sarah also organised a smallpipe session
at the Maldon Folk Festival a few weeks later. This was attended by
7-8 pipers; some from the weekend, and others drawn out of the
woodwork, which was great to see.
The
weekend gathering and smallpipe session were both successful and will
hopefully be the first of many regular events for players of these
other Celtic pipes in Victoria and beyond.
For
those wishing to find out more or be notified about other piping
events, just drop an email to Geoff at email@geoffjones.info.
See
the website for photos http://victoriabellowspipes.weebly.com/
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