Ten years ago, I began learning to play the bagpipes. Specifically, I chose to play the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipes (as there are about 130 variant types of bagpipes in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East).
It just sort of happened.
Learning a new musical instrument is a lifelong journey that brings joy and personal fulfillment. For me, bagpiping literally began as a physical journey. Cindy and I were hiking in northern England with two of our best friends, Sonja and Gerry. We were there to explore the 73-mile length of Hadrian’s Wall from Newcastle (Wallsend) on England’s East coast to Bowness-on-Solway (15 miles past Carlisle) on the West Coast.
Two thousand years ago, Roman Emperor Hadrian built his stone wall to fortify the northern border of Roman Britain at the island’s narrowest point, the goal of was to separate the “civilised” Roman colony from the “barbaric” tribes of the Picts in the north (present-day Scotland).
My Scottish Campbell and Wallace Clan blood pulsed within me. How dare the Romans attempt to stifle the wild raiding and roaming of my perhaps distant ancestors! On the other hand, it was the Romans who first introduced bagpipes to the island, which are now considered quintessentially Scottish.
With these tidbits of history floating about in my mind, it seemed only fitting for me to purchase a slender black bagpipe practice chanter in Glasgow, Scotland before we set out on our long, damp, craggy walk.
A Travel Brochure Description: Hadrian’s Wall traverses a landscape of dramatic hills, crags, and rolling grassland, its ancient stones rising and falling with the rugged contours of the north English countryside. Today, much of the wall’s course is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with long coherent stretches weaving through rural villages and preserved Roman forts.
My Less Eloquent Description: There are many sheep in Northumbria. MANY. The odiferous scent of their droppings wafts in the wind. There are many cows too. Oh, and it rains a lot, sometimes horizontally. The trail is steep and slick in spots. Prevailing winds blow West to East — so, mostly in our faces, since we walked East to West, (whoops). The views are beautiful. The ancient history of the place is fascinating.
Anyway, somewhere along the way I broke out my new bagpipe chanter and began experimentally fingering out tunes for the cows and sheep as we plodded through their hillside pastures. A chanter only has eight holes, so making basic tunes is not rocket science.
The sheep were mostly indifferent to the music, but the cows absolutely LOVED it! As I played my chanter they would come trotting over. I was a rock star. I was the Jon Bon Jovi for British Bovines.
After a week of playing bagpipes tunes for enthusiastic throngs of English livestock I was hooked. When we arrived back in the United States I sought out a bagpiping instructor and started practicing with the City of Alexandria Pipes and Drums (CAPD) band.
Ten years later… I am happy to report that in addition to cows, humans now tolerate the sound of my bagpiping efforts, and my neighbor’s dog likes to howl along with me as I play, so my multi-species audience continues to expand.