Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Jim McLean
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 04:27 PM

I come from Paisley and learned to play the pipes there in 1956 or thereabouts. What I did was to get myself up to the Gleniffer Braes, just above Paisley, and walk up and down that lonely moor road, practicing for hours on end. A motor car stopped once and the driver was a local butcher who was also a piper. He gave me a few tips and I learned a lot, especially to keep playing up there away from the Madding Crowd. I have since played all over the world, in big cities and in the wilds of Turkey and Yugoslavia and was always welcomed. The only hostility I remember encountering was in North England, at my (then) future in-laws' house. The father of my wife to be asked me to play the pipes in his garden and the neighbours complained! But, as Alex Campbell famously said when a dog pissed into his collecting cap when he was busking, 'we have our critics everywhere'.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: John Routledge
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 12:35 PM

Tell them to take up Northumbrian Smallpipes.

Four of us (nsp players)have just entertained 100 people at their Christmas lunch and the only problem was lack of volume :0)

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST,Bob L
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 12:22 PM

I was camping at Towersey Festival many years ago and there was a piper somewhere on the site. Every time a lamb bleated I thought he was starting up again...

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 06:27 PM

... and the farmer wonders why his milk is curdled...

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 08:15 AM

I admire any one who can play them though, I've tried... nearly blew my teeth out of my gums- wow it's a hard instrument to get a noise out of.. .Managed one note and had to sit down... it was like drinking 10 whiskies.

BTW...my pal who plays them practices in a field in the middle of nowhere - just the sheeps and cows around to hear.

E.W.I.S

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 08:11 AM

At my 30th Birthday party I had...

A blues sesson in the living room
An Irish session in the dining room
And bag pipes on the patio...
The inevitable gathering in the kitchen telling tales
A chill out zone at the bottom of the garden
The stairs were filled

It was fab... my neighbours were not expecting the pipes at 10.30 (neither was I) to see all the lights of the houses coming on was rather funny... I'm only 30 once thank heavans.

E.W.I.S

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 06:25 AM

Paisley the scene of the crime!!
G.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: fiddler
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 05:53 AM

Joe - Like it!!!!!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 10:40 PM

So are bagpipes now to be inscribed "This machine kills -------s"?

I think that fellow should have looked his neighbor in the eye & said "It could be worse. It could be rock and roll."

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: What is almost sure to happen can still take forever on average. :||

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST,GUEST,GUEST,GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 04:43 PM

proof if proof is needed that the scottish are cruel to their animals !

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Pauline L
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 04:23 AM

Leadfingers, I didn't know that you're a piper. If you're half as good on the pipes as you are on other instrumnents, you must be fantastic.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: PeteBoom
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 05:01 PM

Oh, I dunno. I've seen strange things as well. Like, August, 2003 - Here we are practicing in Glasgow - GLASGOW - at the same uncivilized hour we're expected to be competing the next day - and up rolls some of Glasgow's finest. Seems a complaint had been made. So, here we are, negotiating with them - and subtly turn the bass drum so the polis can read the blazon on the drum head... about the time that a couple of guys get out their ids... the rest of us are thinkin' "great - now we're goin' ta have to bail half the band out of jail cuz some OAPs were upset at their breakfast." Meanwhile, the polise are talking, and talking, and having a chuckle with the guys and get a good look at the bass drum, then talk a bit, then - "Right - carry on. You're now past the earliest time allowed to play those things. See ya in the club after!"

Ah well... Off they went and we went back to practicing... the folks got 20 minutes of silence before we were "legal" again...

Pete - Windsor Police Pipe Band... 8D

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 04:22 AM

I like bagpipes - but particularly the bagpipes of the Balkan countries. I have been to Bulgaria several times and the 'Kaba Gaida' pipes of the Rodopi mountains are particularly magnificent. They are also very loud and if someone next door to me played them regularly I might slowly go off them.
On one of my Bulgarian trips, to the Black Sea coast, I heard a smaller, squawkier set of pipes - no idea what they were called.
The thing that really sticks in my mind, about that particular trip, was the cockerells. At that time (early 90s) the area was particularly quiet with very few cars or other motorised vehicles. One morning I woke up around dawn and got out of bed to go for a pee. Returning to bed I realised that the cocks were crowing. Going out on to the balcony I realised that thousands of cocks were crowing all at once, and because of the lack of other ambient noises they were blending together into a strange, rather eery noise. It was a sort of primal, elemental sound - similar to the sound of the sea. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
I haven't been back to that particular place again but believe that the Black Sea coast is becoming a bit of a boom area. I suppose all other sounds are now drowned out by the sounds of cars and all the other noises that we deafen ourselves with. No wonder some of us are intolerant of kids playing bagpipes!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 03:34 AM

Bad times, intolerant times.
Over here we have a lot of incomers who settle in rural areas because they are so calm ... and then complain at court about the croing of the cocks and ringing of the bells at inconvenient times.
I should say: the whole bloody bunch should be drummed to the walls of the National Library and there given a good dose of the cat o'nine tails. (And I considered humble self as tolerant once.)

With my music I was and am lucky. I could have started to annoy my neighbours when playing the bass, later on the drum. After the first practicizing I went round and asked whether they were annoyed by the noise. Having grown up with me, or having seen me grow up over the decades nobody complained. But we all live in old detached houses with thick walls.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Gurney
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 03:21 AM

So the lad only played once a week, for only 20 minutes? No wonder the neighbours complained. It will take him a thousand years to get competent. No wonder his folks won't let him play in the hoose.

The Scots also have chamber pipes, especially for playing indoors.

The Irish have big outdoor pipes too, much like the Scots pipes but with fewer drones. They call them war pipes!

Cyril Tawney had the same problem with sensitive neighbours. He wrote 'Beacon Park.'

I like the pipes. Played well.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: fiddler
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 02:49 AM

This is all just bl**ding mad,as I read the full articles, the neighbours are only sad 'cos he strangled the cat!

I'd say keep playing, B*ll*x to them, why should musicians buy new instruments to pelase the moronic masses.

As an aside Halifax Nova Scotia has 20 Pipe bands (population 30,000) even at only 6 pipers per band that is a magical 120 pipers in teh Town and about 3 bands practicing a night.

Send the lads neighbours to Halifax to learn some tolerance or be imprisoned for murder whichever comes first.

Andy

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Effsee
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 10:23 PM

You couldn't make this stuff up could you?

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 08:47 PM

A Letter To The Editor in a local paper in South Portland, ME complained bitterly about a summer piper who occasionally piped up the sunrise. Go figure.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Big Mick
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 02:52 PM

Marc, your story is a sign of the times. I am reminded of the family who lived on a farm outside of Ionia, Michigan. This family had been raising pigs for several generations. Mind you, this is down a dirt lane and as rural as it could be. A family bought property across the road, within a month started complaining about the smell, and caused the family to have to stop pig farming. This makes no sense to me. Just as your story makes no sense to me.

Mick

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST,Marc Bernier
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 12:53 PM

We live in a intolerant time. I live in the area of Stonington, Connecticut, USA,. Stonington Borough, is Ct's. last commercial fishing port, and is quite picturesque. This has attracted quite a few part time residents who come from places that start with New. Recently a man bought a house with a wonderfull view of the harbor and it's 19th century light house. Shortly after moving in he complained to the town council that the fog horn on the light bothered his afternoon nap, (this is a fishing port mind you), and succeded in haveing the fog horn silenced, much to the dismay of the local fisherman. Most recently a complaint has been filed about the offensive fish smell along the waterfront, and action is being taken the force the fishing boats to land their catch in Rhode Island. Fishing has been the local industry for over 200 years, (I realize that's not very long for some of you, but it is for us), but new part time residents aren't concerned with local tradition or history. I'm aware this has nothing to do with bagpiping, but it has to do with tradition.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: NH Dave
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 12:17 PM

Let me interject the age-old British Army saying, "Yer shd'na a jined oop if ye canna tak a joke!" The American forces have a much more sucinct saying, and a local pipe band calls themselves The FTITCTAJ Piping Society, from this saying. 'Strewth! It says so in large letters all across the head of the bass drum.

Dave

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: David C. Carter
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 11:58 AM

We strolled across the "Heads of Ayr",me and a "bonny lassie"who came from Denny,up near Stirling.Somewhere in the distance,somebody was playing the pipes.It still gives me a sweet shiver.There was a guy used to play in the steet in Ljubiana.I talked with him one time,had a beer with him.He was from Paisley,he said that the locals seemed to like was he was doing.He drew quite a big crowd if I recall.Great guy.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 11:58 AM

Your crude, grammatically incorrect, rhetorical question seems to have been answered before you asked it, Clint, old love.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 11:40 AM

BTW I was referring to Muttley's third point.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 11:16 AM

"Bagpipes and no CH would be MY choice"

Who gives a fuck

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 09:41 AM

Hear hear Muttley! Well said!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Muttley
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 08:44 AM

Three points to make here Bagpipes and no CH would be MY choice 'Giok'!!!!!

Second point: re "Weapon of War" reminds me of the old joke - As the Highland Regiment went 'Over the top' to charge the Germans on the Somme; their piper, naturally accompanied them, playing heartily. There was a sudden burst of machine-gun fire from the Germans and 40 of the lads fell. The piper and his men continued their advance.
Another burst of MG fire plus mortars and grenades and another several dozen fell, And so it continued across No-man's Land: The Highlanders advancing to the piper's frenetic playing. At last, down to their last dozen or so men, one the sergeant sick of the hail of fire coming from the German trenches finally turns to the piper and says "For God's sake, Angus - - - can ye no play somethin' the bastards LIKE??!"

Third point: Only returned to Australia from Europe 2 months ago - with the last 3 weeks spent in the UK (England & Scotland).
On the third day in Scotland - about 2 hours or so intop the highlands north of Loch Lomond, we pulled into a roadside scenic view area where there was a small caravan selling souvenirs.
It was as fine a Scottish Summer's Day (the wind was blowing strong, and the drizzle was coming down fairly solidly) as you could wish.

Now - picture the scene: The hill behind us was crowned and flanked by purpling heather, there was a loch lying in the valley below us and about 20 yards from the caravan was a piper dressed in full "Cameron Highlander" regalia, busking his heart out. Just as I started filming him (it was a Sunday morning - at a time we'd normally be in church at home) he segue'd from whayever he had been playing into one of the most beautiful renditions of 'Amazing Grace' I have ever heard - his timing was JUST right - he held the notes JUST so!
Any wonder that, if we turn up the volume on the TV when replaying this bit of tape, one can hear a VERY emotional camera-person sobbing. This was a moment i shall remember and cherish forever.

Yes, I can understand people find the sound of the pipes irritating and intrusive - but I, for one, am NOT one of them and I am not ashamed to admit that the sound of the massed pipes can bring me to tears with very little effort.

Weapon of War - what a beautiful sound to follow into eternity!

Muttley

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:41 AM

http://www.college-of-piping.co.uk/acatalog/Electronic_Pipes_and_Practice_Chanter.html

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST,Jenny
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:29 AM

I once knew of a piper who had to practice along the railway cutting. In Devon the council has been known to ban cockerels because of neighbours' complaints about them crowing (but I bet the neighbours eat chicken - I wonder where they think that comes from?!).

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:27 AM

In a television interview with the boy and his mother, he said he only played once or twice a week [ usually only once ] for twenty minutes maximum.

eric

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:21 AM

Conspiracy

It's all part of an English conspiracy ☺☺☺
Giok

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:13 AM

Hi Sandra. Obviously I can't have been there, because if I was, I think I'd remember something like that!

(BTW, it's "Who Was Here?";-))

Jenny

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:05 AM

At least 80 percent of these "dumb council" stories miss out critical factors.

Time of day?
How long was he playing for?
How frequently?
Any special considerations about the neighbours? - shift working, small childred etc.

This thread says a lot about the tolerance of Mudcat. On most forums that I visit ET would have been flamed for not providing a supporting link to the news article.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 04:29 AM

JennyO, I don't know whether you were at the Dog when "Who Was There" was launched way back in '97, but a piper played during that song.

Nieghbouring kids came from everywhere & danced along the footpath when he was practising outside and when he rehearsed in the 'best acoustic venue in Sydney' the sound echoed wonderfully.

However in the concert he walked from the balcony across the hall into the stairwell where we collect the money, & I escaped into the kitchen cos the enclosed stairwell is not the best place to appreciate bagpipes.

My favourite bagpipe memory was a New Years eve back in the 70's when my friends & I followed a pipe band back from the celebrations to their bus thru a park lit by fairy lights & occasional street lights.

Sandra (descendent of generations of Borderers)

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 03:44 AM

"The Scottish Bagpipes have officially been reclasified from 'Musical Instrument' to 'Weapon of War' "

Doe that mean he'll be prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation?

There only so much practising you can do with a practice chanter. It doesn't help with tuning the drones or control of the air. Even switching to a smaller instrument won't help maintain condition on the larger set.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Effsee
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 10:03 PM

A few years ago, Garrison Ford, writing in The Scotsman, said that on a visit to Ullapool exploring his roots, he wandered round the village and heard the sound of the pipes. He described it as music that gets into your bloodstream, re-arranges your DNA, and makes you long to be Scottish! That'll do me!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Hawker
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 07:55 PM

Last summer we were sitting on Crackington Haven Beach, North Cornwall in the early evening glow of sunset when my husband said Sssh! I can hear ............Pipes!!! We looked around and about 40 feet above us and out on the headland cliff edge, a lone piper was playing the bagpipes, dressed in full scots regalia. We never worked out if it was where his wife sent him to practise so she didn't have to listen, or whether he was about to jump to get away from the noise!
It sounded lovely from where we were!
Regards, Lucy

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Barry T
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 02:56 PM

This reminds me of an amusing story that occurred and was publicized in newspapers here in Canada. The Simon Fraser University Band, which has been Grade 1 World Champ multiple times, received complaints about their practicing in a local park... where they had done so for years!

Apparently even the best in the world are not immune!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Compton
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 12:41 PM

Another piece of evidence that the Uk has gone bloody mad..Mind you, if the kid was playing Sunday Afternoon next door to me, (or three in the morning, I may do something uneccesary to the kid with his bagpipes!!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: JennyO
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 12:01 PM

Personally, I love bagpipes. When I was a kid, I'd come running if I heard them. I even managed to tolerate the guy playing them outside my tent at 7 in the morning at a folk festival once.

Anyway, here's a different point of view about bagpipes:

PIPER ON THE HILLTOP
John Warner (1989)

It's a hot December evening
And there's herald of a change
In the mighty clouds that roll across
The Brindabella Range.

Chorus
There's a piper on the hilltop
By the supermarket square,
And his pibroch falls like sunset clouds
Above the city air.

The chattering of kids at play,
The sullen roar of cars
The thunder of a jet plane's flight
Above the rising stars.

I sit beside my window
And I listen to the town
And an aching air, an old lament,
Like mist comes drifting down.

Then Spence gives way to Glencoe,
Bonny Charlie's at Dunbar,
And the "Flowers of the Forest,"
They all are gone awa'

A breeze disturbs the silent leaves,
Rolling thunder brings the change
With the pibroch for Belconnen Town
By the Brindabella Range

John was moved by the unexpected sound of bagpipes being played near the Spence shops in Belconnen near Canberra. The moment was climaxed by a dramatic summer thunderstorm rising over the Brindabella Range, an outcrop of the Snowy Mountains. A 'pibroch' is a traditional bagpipe air serving as a call to battle or a lament.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 11:42 AM

CH and no bagpipes
or
Bagpipes and no CH

Gee Clinton that's tough choice mate. ☺ ☻

Giok

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 11:17 AM

"banned a 12 year old from practising his highland pipes because of complaints from neighbours about the noise"

Good... now if we can just the the damn things banned everywhere else too, we'll be getting somewhere....

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Flash Company
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 10:42 AM

Living where I do in Mid-Cheshire, I was delighted in the Summer to hear a neighbour up the lane playing the pipes. Can't recall now what he was playing, but it was traditional ie Not Amazing Grace or A Scottish Soldier.
Prefer it to the rap-music that goes by in cars all the day!
FC

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 06:44 AM

Well actually, you can get 'practice chanters'... I got one.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 06:34 AM

As is obvious from this sad little piece of man's intolerance of man, Paisley is not exactly a hot-bed of culture. Though I could have understood it better if it had been somewhere like Skye where the incomers outnumber the natives by about2 to 1.
G.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 06:34 AM

Eric - get yourself a banjola ! Five string banjo neck on Mandola body ! Play it just like a banjo (Though they dont 'frail' very well) and they are a HELL of a lot quieter !

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 06:26 AM

I got it all with my next door neighbour re the banjo, I could mute it but can't be arsed, so I just don't play banjo at home.

eric

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 09:16 PM

The Scottish Bagpipes have officially been reclasified from 'Musical Instrument' to 'Weapon of War' . This was as a result of a court case some time ago . By the way , I am ex sergeant piper in an RAF Pipe band !

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 09:09 PM

No, it's harder to hit a moving target!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe Volume - Neighbours Complaints
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 09 Dec 05 - 07:34 PM

Why do bagpipe players walk while they play?
To get away from the sound!