Weird question on bagpipes

[Catsinaflat]

Does anyone play the bagpipes or do you know someone who does? Where do they practice. DS is learning and until now it has been on a practice chanter but today he got the full set of pipes and omg they are loud. Far too loud for our flat! Any suggestions?

A lot of people practice outside in parks or on the beach!

I had a friend who used to drive to a secluded car park and play his instrument as his flat neighbours complained regardless how quietly he tried to play

I have a neighbour who plays 🫤. But he must have somewhere else to practice as I only hear him about every few months in the summer. They are extraordinarily loud!

I remember driving down the A14 towards Cambridge and there was someone stood in the middle of a field playing.

IMO the best place to practice bagpipes is on a remote mountain top. Far, far from civilisation.
Or in the Mariana trench.

There was a man that used to play early morning in a local park near us. My mum used to see him when she did her early dog walk.

I encountered somebody practicing in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire! I heard the sound from a long way off and followed the sound to see where it was coming from. I saw the man stood there playing them, alone, not very far down a path from a lay-by. It was quite an eerie and obviously unexpected sound in a forest!

One of my teenage friends was in a smalltown pipe band. She lived in the country and used to practice in fields. Others practised on the beach.

Just adding, I've seen a group of young lands walking through some woodland with guitars, who must have had some sort of band and had apparently gone there to practice!

When I was a girl I remember going for a walk with my sister in some quite remote woods . And there was a man leaning on the fence at the perimeter of the wood practising his bag pipes.
It was quite surreal walking to through the woods to the sound of bagpipes. This was North Yorkshire btw, not Scotland!

This is an interesting question but..I’m intrigued- surely your DS is surrounded by people who can answer this- his teacher and fellow students/band members?

Lads, not lands 🙄

That’s actually worse than the oft-repeated Savernake Forest horror story on here!

When I lived with my parents I always practised at home in the garage! Our neighbours one side had known me since I was one. The other side came to look round the house as it was up for sale on the day I got my pipes! They still bought the house.

I did only practise during the day time and for maximum of an hour. Any more would have been far too much

🤣 🤣
I try not to think about that story, when I'm camping at Postern Hill campsite there and have to sometimes walk through two huge 'enclosures' in the dark to get back to my caravan, after I've done a very long walk and set off back to the site too late! 😄

A teenage boy used to practice in his back garden which happened to be near the local park. All the kids used to stop playing to listen to him.

He played wonderfully.

@HotCrossBunpleasewell his lessons have been with an online tutor using a chanter (which is pretty loud). We went to collect his full set yesterday. He isn’t in a pipe band and doesn’t know anyone else who plays he just enjoys music.
it never occurred to me until yesterday quite how loud they sound in a small space!
Thanks everyone for all the ideas. The Savernake forest encounter must have been spooky especially after the old thread about the thing coming out of the woods!
He has found a local church that rents space out so that may be an option.

Wow I’m really impressed that he has done this without a bagpiping community around him! Hope he continues to thrive as a piper. I had a mini pipe band at my wedding, it was perfect.