Bagpipes, Day 3 - OK.

Bagpipes, Day 3 - OK. I'm not actually supposed to start playing the pipes for real for another five months; I have to pass two more tests before I'm up to that level yet.

But they just keep calling - and, like Ulyssys' sailors, I keep getting drawn to them. I pick them up, blow air into the bag, and start playing...

...and within half a song or so, my lips hurt, and I can't close them around the blowpipe, and I can't get air into the bag, and the whole thing dies off.

Dang, they're cool!

(Thanks to King for the pointer to the pic)

It's by far the hardest instrument I've ever learned (and I get around, in descending order of competence, on guitar, cello, bass, harmonica, drums, mandolin, keyboards, curan and pennywhistle). It's the hardest thing I've done since I was a beginner on the guitar, and I'd practice, as the song says, until my fingers bled. Which means you can expect me to come into work with bleeding lips and cheeks, I guess. Seriously - I think I pulled a muscle.

I love it!

(By the way - if you're interested, Minnesota Pipes and Drums offers a free instruction program for pipes as well as snare, tenor and bass drums. If you, like me, have always dreamed about playing bagpipes or anything of the sort, email them. Tell 'em Mitch sent you. It won't do you any good, but everyone'll get a good laugh...).