My First Bagpipe Competition!

Hello again, folks!

Yesterday I competed in my first bagpipe competition! 

(I posted the video of it at the end of of this post and you can skip there or if you are a piper and want to hear about some helpful tricks I discovered that helped me, keep reading.) :)

Let me say that, though I have competed many times on mandolin and a few other stringed instrument, and gotten familiar with the competition nerves this was a whole new ball game!

When I first started taking lessons on my practice chanter I was thinking of just competing with a band and not so much solo. 
My favorite part about performing has always been playing with an ensemble, and it still is and I don't think that will change, but when my pipe teacher suggested I try playing at a solo competition it became a huge motivation factor in pushing myself to practice and get to a performance level. 

Nothing makes you practice like playing solo. No place to hide, yikes! ;) 

In my practicing, once I was able to play through my whole four-part 2/4 March, I realized I would have dry mouth trouble that, funny enough, would make it hard to keep my lips from starting to stick to my teeth. Yes, you can laugh. ;) Though it might be fun doing a Bugs Bunny impression while playing pipes it doesn't help too much with getting an air-tight seal on my blow pipe. 

I started using lots of chaptstick thinking that would do the trick but it was still to dry and sticky and there would come the Bugs Bunny again! haha #GummySmilesRock ;)

Then one day it came to me.

Oil! 

I had a bottle of Young Living's V-6 oil I pulled out and instead of putting more chaptstick on I used that. 

And...

IT TOTALLY WORKED!
Woohoo! :D


The other thing I would notice, after playing for a while, was that my throat would also dry up. About as dry as bleached bone in Death Valley. 
(Trouble is, water didn't always cut it. Plus, who has time to go pee every two seconds at a competition because you kept chugging' water all day!) ;)

Then I saw it at work. (I do instrument repairs at a music store.)

Vocal spray!

Again, worked like a charm!


So, after a couple months of practicing a little over an hour a day, learning my solo tune on my practice chanter and then building up stamina on my bagpipes, the day came and it was time to do my best. Fingers crossed! :)

Saturday morning we drove up to Piping in the Deseret, hosted at a school up in Layton, Utah.
Super nice and cool people running the event as well as participating in it! This competition wasn't along with any Highland games like ones during the summer. Just solo drumming, piping, and small bands, which was nice for for someones first competition, I think. No worries about getting lost in crowds trying to find where you need to go, worrying about rain or wind, or hunting down bathrooms. ;)


And finally, my number:

   

(Oh, and my judge: Seamus Coyne was my judge and looking him up online the night before, and seeing all his awards, might not have been the best idea for my nerves but as I learned he's a real cool and nice guy. *thumbs up)

I felt good about my performance when I finished...Okay, I was really psyched about it!! I had some things here and there but no huge bumbles, which I was really good at making during practice at home. ;)

And...2nd place!!

I got 2nd place for 2/4 March in grade 4!

Over all, a super fun day of competition. And getting to see the Wicked Tinkers didn't hurt either!! ;)

-Erin

"The Totally True History of the Bagpipes" or "How To Be the Coolest (Loudest) Person in your Neighborhood"

    For parents, there is a list of things you hope you never have to hear your child say, and "I'm going to learn to play the bagpipes!" might be on the top of that list.
    
    You see, in the 14th century or so, the bagpipes were created and designed by hoodlum teenagers in the thatched hut garages next to their parents thatched hut homes. 
This all came about when one such hoodlum teenager named Alasdair Ainsley McPatty, fell for the Homecoming Highland Queen, Sophie McKenna McRea. In those awkward 14th century middle ages, a boy had no stratocaster to woo the women folk, and knowing that, Alasdair came up with the solution. 
    Inspired by her beauty, and of course the desire to makes as much noise as humanly possible (it's just a thing), the young man attached three old hollowed out logs to the carcass of a mountain goat. 
    And despite not having developed the blowpipe as of yet, and having to operate such a contraption in a manner that resembled giving CPR to an utterly deflated goat, it was just the trick in wooing the fair maid. 

    And that's how the bagpipes were developed! So, why am I giving you this historically accurate history lesson, you ask?

    ...Well, I don't really know why...?

    But I am learning to play the pipes!

    Last summer (2016) I decided I was going to really get into learning it, and after some time on my practice chanter learning the scale, playing tunes, and getting into bagpipe shape I was ready to look into getting my own set of bagpipes! 

Getting my new Gibson practice chanter!

And made this cute carrying case for it cause I'm cool. ;)

    I always knew I had Scottish lines in my ancestry (Patterson being one of them) but I realized that not only is it my largest percentage, followed by Finnish and German, but I have multiple scottish lines and clans I come from (Yeah, they probably all hated each other and fought all the time). ;)

I went for the Wallace Classic 2

    And as everyone knows, playing the pipes is just half of the coolness factor...
    We also get awesome outfits. ;)

Got my uniform together!

    It took me a while to research and settle on what I wanted but I finally figured it out and got my pipes in September. 

    I've now joined the Wasatch & District grade 5 band and along with getting ready for our band competitions this year (2017) I am also getting ready for my first solo competition on the bagpipes in February. It's coming up so fast; it's only a few weeks away! Yikes, better get practicing!
     We'll see how it goes! 

-E