Are bagpipes the most anti-social instrument ever?

[ScottishHeather77]

I say this as a Scot!
Have just moved to a new build estate which is not even completed yet. There is someone who has been playing bagpipes (badly) for the last week every day for about an hour. The sound is carrying clearly right across the estate, I'm pretty sure its coming from quite far away but its still very loud and noticeable when sitting in the garden. I feel bad for their direct neighbours!
I can't imagine ever thinking that playing bagpipes is acceptable when I know people are trying to relax in their gardens etc. Do you think instruments like bagpipes should be played at home or in a setting like a community hall etc? I know they need to practice but they are just so LOUD (and annoying when badly played). Sorry to anyone who plays the bagpipes!

Definitely the recorder.

Known in our house as The Instrument of Torture.

I was just going to say that @ShaniaPayne - don't most pipers just use their chanter for home practice? You do need to practice the breath for the bags but that can just be for 10 mins at the end surely?

Anyway, I feel for you OP even though I love the pipes I wouldn't want to live close to a piper!

I don't mind them. Although I wouldn't want to live next door to anyone who plays.
My sister and I were at a funeral,standing at the graveside when a piper came up behind her and started playing. She let out a scream and nearly joined the deceased in the grave.

I wouldn’t know if the bagpipes were played badly or not as I get brain freeze at the sound of a million sheep being strangled.

I love them and wouldn't mind this at all.

My dad passed away this week, fortunately it’s a burial, so we’re having a piper playing Highland Cathedral to pipe him into the cemetery. If that doesn’t finish me off, nothing will

*appropriate distancing blah blah fucking blah

I love bagpipe music but wouldn't want to live near someone who practises every day.

However I am thinking of taking it up to annoy my next door neighbour who has a bloody drum kit and plays it in the garden!

@JudgeRindersMinder so sorry for your loss. We had Highland Cathedral played at my Dad's funeral too, it's so beautiful.

There is a fungi lurking in bagpipes which causes something called hypersensitivity pneumonitis (a potentially fatal inflammation of the lungs caused by inhaling certain allergens). You can die of it.......

www.telegraph.co.uk
Playing the bagpipes daily could be fatal, warn doctors

Better go across the estate to warn him.......Sorted.

I read somewhere that Queen Victoria used to have them played every morning under her bedroom window and I had a panic attack at the thought

It seems our present Queen still does - an even braver lady than I thought

www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2018083161784/the-queen-piper-role-royal-news/

Bagpipes are so much louder than other instruments. A learner violinist might be a nuisance to immediate neighbours in a terraced house, a learner bagpiper will drive people mad for at least a block radius.

I like bagpipes but they should be played by a lone piper up on a hillside about half a mile away.

This thread is brilliant 😂

Beginner violinists can sound bad but they get better and aren't so loud. Bagpipes and Accordions are always dreadful however good the player.

Yes, they are absolutely! Especially when playing Amazing Grace.

Bagpipes are not a musical instrument. They are an instrument of torture.

I cannot abide bagpipes and I am Scottish. A very good friend of mine competes internationally in bagpipe competitions, he very seldom practices on highland bagpipes, it’s usually a chanter or on of the smaller and less offensive types of pipes like Northumberland pipes. He also lives in the middle of nowhere. Part of the problem with bagpipes is that many people play them very badly and they are often out of tune.

I expect they normally would be practicing in a hall but can’t at the moment because of covid.

How long is it going on for? If it’s hours every day yanbu but an hour a day or less and I think you just need to accept that it’s the price to pay for all the stirring pipe music you will hear in future!

Clarinet is pretty bad. We have a neighbour who teaches violin lessons, often with her patio doors open, and her playing is so beautiful. I've never heard any scraping kids playing either. My daughter's violin teacher has taught them how to make a nice sound, and we've never had any dying cat wailing. There must be a way some teachers teach now that violin isn't as bad as it used to be.

If you have a single piper they have to be really good, otherwise it is pure torture.
The massed pipe bands at the end of the Pitlochry Highland Games has moved me to tears on several occasions, it is a lovely sound.

Oh, and YANBU. Bagpipes are the worst.

I love bagpipes.

My neighbour is in a pipeband so is very good.

Someone used to practice early morning on the sand dunes in St Annes.
It was a very good place to practice as the only people they disturbed were dogwalkers and seagulls.

Not sure if was family or neighbours or their own common sense that had sent them there.

The Irish gave the Scots the bagpipes many years ago.
The Scots still haven’t got the joke.

I love the Northumbrian Pipes.