HOW TO PLAY THE BAGPIPES

New Zealand Mail, 17 September 1902, Page 61 (Supplement)

HOW TO PLAY THE BAGPIPES

The Musical Review” recently gave the following as “the most approved manner ot playing the Scotch bagpipes”: n Pllts his left'arm about to ™Ju tllo lns t r nnient, endeavourcatcil 411 uadcr ‘holt,’ and when it? u’n to the machine finS it bristles with tubes, nozzles and pines uS K out ove ? his shoulder,, vfrom points Then I *}, 8 / ‘ifl/, 1 ’ 0111 available points, lnen ho shuts his eyes takes tha niouthpieoo between the teeth’, starts to xl© pumps with his arms, works hi« n T’ J^ ves hi « chest, akd hump-3 Ms back. After a while a doleful sound bee gins to issue from one of the tubes - A pipa catches the disorder t u’ 1 ea^i 3 out -' all nature becomes startled and pained. He puts on more throws the wind into another floe, vr d i? a fresh outbreak of noise. He works the keys, and squeezes the animal-in another locality’. It has only /ceu 10 minutes since he began work, still, in this short space of time he haa succeeded in turning loose 11 different noises. When a bagpipe is all in motion, from tubes that make the busy bed buzzing noise, to the flue that keeps runnang the scale from both ends at the samel am© then the musician’s work is only half-done. He lias got to get all the wind out of the machine, and stop it in soma way. .1 have never known less than half-an-hour s work to silence a full grown healthy bagpipe-after it had once got to hooting its best, and even then it wag liable to break out in some spot that hadn t been plugged up, and compel, the poor, tired player to tackle it again. Anyone can play the bagpipes after a few lessons.”