Very Newbie Question

[TexasLady]

Irish pipemaker,

I'm so glad I clicked on your Thread. I watched the first video on your website. I'm in Texas USA, so when I saw the words 'pipe maker', bagpipes were not the first thing that occurred to me. I don't smoke, and I thought, "Oh, he carves pipes." But I'm mesmerized with (what we usually here call) bagpipes.

My now deceased Uncle on my father's side used to either win or take second every year at a fiddle (violin) contest in San Antonio, Texas. He couldn't read music, but his daughters would play 'reels' for him on the piano until he learned them. My grandmother's maiden name was Stagner (English name?) and we were Irish somewhere up the line. Anyway, I love leatherwork and folk art and crafts from other cultures, especially those that I have a family relationship with. Congratulations on your magnificient work making 'pipes' for musicians to use to make beautiful, inspiring music. Yes, and it's good to leave a legacy one is proud of.

TexasLady

Edited May 9, 2015 by TexasLady

[TexasLady]

...laughing at myself now. I accidentally did a quote of myself here and tried to erase it, but the website software won't let me. It says, "You must enter a post." So this is what you get,...a record of my frustration.

Edited May 9, 2015 by TexasLady

[Irish Pipemaker]

Hi Texas Lady,

Many thanks for the kind words about my work. The Irish bagpipes are very popular all over the world now no doubt because of the impact of Riverdance over the last 20 years. I have a customer in Texas and I do know there is a society of Uilleann (pronounced ill-inn) there.

Thanks a million to all the folk who took time out to lend a helping hand with this little problem. All sorted now.

[TexasLady]

Irish pipemaker,

Thanks for the pronunciation (ill-inn) of Uilleann. I'll do a search for the group. I'm in Meetups, with interests in foreign languages. Possibly I'll find the Uilleann group there under other headings. Yes, Riverdance! That surely popularized the bagpipes. I danced ballet, tap, and jazz as a teenager. By the time Riverdance came out, I was too old to dance (...well, too out of shape), but was still enamoured of the bagpipes. Why would we depend on out little lungs to always supply the air to the 'whistles' when we can pump air with our arm? One of our ancestors must have pondered the air supply issue. BTW, I played an old pump organ (piano) as a child. It belonged to that same Uncle's inlaws. The bellows were deteriorated, so I had to pump really hard to get enough air built up to play it. That was my first experience with bellows. Bellows used to be made exclusively of leather, didn't they?