"basskisser" wrote in message
ups.com...

Chuck Gould wrote:
JoeSpareBedroom wrote:


Maybe the skill is handy for big funerals. Analogy: Hidden among the
population like terrorist cells are legions of bagpipe players. They
come
out of the woodwork for police funerals in some cities. I have no idea
why.
My best theory is that having to listen to bagpipe music should make
other
cops do a better job of looking out for their partners.

Shame on ya, McBedroom.

I've been taking bagpipe lessons for a couple of years, and I'm just
now about to graduate from the practice chanter to something with an
actual bag. I can extract house-rockin' music from anything with a
keyboard, blow a wicked blues harp, and while I sold my last guitar
about 30 years ago I could get my chops back with a few months of
practice. Learning the pipes is like learning a foreign language after
speaking English for 50 years.
The western scale? Forget it. Staff notation? Yeah, but don't pay
strict attention to the note values because one of the things a piper
has to know is what the notation actually means, inspite of how it
reads. It usually takes me 3-6 months to get adequately proficient on a
musical instrument. The pipes will humble ya, that's for sure.


While I understand that the pipes are a very hard instrument to learn
and be GOOD at, your remark about notation applies to any and every
instrument, not just pipes. That's what makes music uniquely yours,
whether or not you simply know enough to copy verbatim someone else's
playing, or make it yours.


At a jam session last summer, a guy handed me his violin and said
"Here...give it a try". I came close to being either beaten up, or arrested.