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!

@Permanantlypuzzled

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

😂

Recorder played well (and I mean by someone who is good enough to be taking grades) can sound amazing. But everyone associates it with three blind mice being played in unison by an entire class, and overblown.

@Permanantlypuzzled that makes perfect sense now.

Beginner trumpet practice first thing in the morning before school with the windows open is pretty grim. I had a real CF of a neighbour for a while......

However, to all those saying that the recorder is always awful - you need to listen to the recorder player in the woodwind final of young musician of the year - available on BBC iplayer - she is amazing and not painful to listen to.

@Aquamarine1029

I've wondered who invented bagpipes and thought, "Well, that sounds lovely." They're an abomination.

As a Scot, I could not agree more

I'm not keen on bagpipes but I'd rather hear someone learning a real instrument than someone else's choice of amplified music.

I dunno - a one fingered rendering of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star played over and over again on the piano can get fuckingannoying after a bit.

YABVU Do you live near Alistair Campbell?

I absolutely love the pipes. They’re beautiful and stirring (done well!).

I suppose if you’re English and more accustomed to something gentle like an accordion accompanying your Morris dancing they do sound a bit strident

Our neighbour used to practice his pipes in the garden at weekends (he played professionally). That was bad.

Another neighbour was a classical pianist - I loved that.

My sister got a digeridoo - nope, that was definitely the worst.

Yes

I love them. You can put mutes in the drones to greatly reduce the noise, or use something called a goose (bag with a practice chanter essentially) which are much quieter.

If it sounds like someone just starting out have a whip around, £100 will cover a cheap goose and a set of mutes. It’s not unlikely they are trying to learn from books/video from scratch to pass lockdown and have missed out the easier early steps due to only having a full set of pipes.

My son 9 is learning them. We have just spent 1000 pounds on a set of bagpipes. They are being made for him. It’s a racquet to listen too. But worth it

I used to play the bagpipes regularly for about 15 years but there isnt a band nearby any more. I loved playing, band practise twice a week then at home. I travelled to many countries as part of different bands. The best being when there were 2 pipe bands in the same hotel! Our band also competed. I really loved that time, but you did need to practise, the chanter really only covers learning the tune and fingerings, not the breath control and expression.

Yep bagpipes can be annoying, like any other instrument played loudly or at a time tou need a rest. But I think the most annoying must be the vuvuzela. And people that play their disgusting music loudly for all to hear.

Yup recorder is far worse.

Another one saying the recorder is 60 billion times worse.

I agree with whoever said that a daily hour’s practice on any instrument, however loud or badly played, is considerably better than endless amplified music.

I don’t mind bagpipes, though they’re nothing to uileann pipes. I used to be friends in my teens with someone who piped in a pipe band, and would sometimes pick her up from practice. Standing at one end of an echoey band hall with thirty pipers and drummers pacing towards you in full flow was memorable.

I actually admired their lung capacity. I remember them piping at some church occasion, and playing all the way, in full regalia, to the top of a steep hill, on a hot summer’s day.

I love bagpipes, and uileann pipes, and the didgeridoo. Fabulous sounds all, but only when they are being played well.

When I was 14 we had a school residential in a castle and one of the teachers woke us early every morning by playing the bagpipes in the doorway of the dorms. I had no idea it was meant to make us feel like royalty.

The lone piper on the battlements of Edinburgh castle makes me well up every time though.

@AChickenCalledDaal

When I was 14 we had a school residential in a castle and one of the teachers woke us early every morning by playing the bagpipes in the doorway of the dorms. I had no idea it was meant to make us feel like royalty.

The lone piper on the battlements of Edinburgh castle makes me well up every time though.

Carbisdale castle by any chance?

The bagpipes are meant to be heard drifting on the wind from the next glen over. Any closer than that and they are quite obnoxious. My real ire is reserved for whoever invented the pipe band though.

Chemenger busted! I wonder if we know each other?

Did you know that Carbisdale is now being restored into a private home? Complete with spa in the basement. Not quite how I remember it. Perhaps the spirit of whoever-it-was will haunt the ramparts with his bagpipes.

www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/home/1214104/carbisdale-castle-to-be-restored-as-private-home/

No, descant recorders ‘played’ by Primary School children are enough to make your ears bleed

An hour a day isn't really bad is it? Surely you can put up with that as long as others can tolerate kids playing, radio noise, motorbikes etc.? People do need to learn, and it'd be really sad if such skills passed out of use.

Disclaimer: if it's pre-8am or post-7pm then they can get tae fuck!

Hate them