Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
“The perception that we’re just out there honking away,” says John Haack, “that’s the hardest thing to get past.” Haack is the pipe major for the Saint Louis Caledonian Pipe Band, a group of precision bagpipers and drummers, and he wants you to know that what he performs is real music—and really challenging. Listen to him and his mates blow it out at the annual Hibernian St. Patrick’s Day Parade (stlhibernians.com) in Dogtown on March 17.
• I’ve been playing close to 30 years, since age 12. Believe it or not, I got started with the bagpipes when I was a kid because in a children’s book by Richard Scarry, there was a dog that played them, and I thought that was really cool. Then, some bagpipers came to my church and played, and I insisted on learning, to the initial chagrin of my parents.
• The way that bagpipes work, everybody plays both melody and “drone.” The chanter in front that we hold works a lot like a recorder. The drones are the three pipes that rest on the shoulder.
• Playing is not simply about lung strength. It’s about the “cheek power” needed to get the air into the bag. You have to fight against the pressure of the air already in there; it’s like a full balloon. You also have to manage a lot of things at once—it’s like patting your head, rubbing your tummy, and knitting a sweater at the same time.
• What I say to people who say they don’t like the sound of the bagpipes is to explore and seek out quality recordings or players in a live setting. In a lot of movies with bagpipes, they don’t use a quality player, and folks get an awful experience, and they can’t see past it, but they’re listening to a beginner.
• There’s no way to stop the sound once it starts exiting the bag. We can’t get louder or softer, either. So everything has to be conveyed through the finger work.
• Some bagpipers get upset that we’re the butt of some jokes. My favorite one always was, “Why are bagpipers marching? If you made that kind of racket, you’d be trying to get away, too.”
• A lot of people ask, "What do you wear under your kilt?" One of the good responses is "Shoes and socks.”
• A good bagpipe costs over $1,000, and that’s the low end.
• The actual bag in the bagpipe is made of leather or sheepskin, but a lot of people have moved to Gore-Tex now, too.
• Some of the more popular, recognizable songs we play are “Scotland the Brave” and “Amazing Grace.”
• When you’re listening to the bagpipes, the first thing you listen for is whether they’re in tune. You’ve got three reeds, so there’s a lot of potential for going wrong there, tuning-wise. Then you notice the degree of ability in the fingering for the melody. There’s a lot of intricate finger work.
• Going from the ground up, our shoes are called ghillie brogues, which are sort of hunting shoes, designed to let moisture out as you step through the foggy soil of Scotland. Some people wear the sgian dubh, a little knife in the sock. Then there’s the kilt. There’s a little bag or purse that hangs in the front called a sporran. Back in the day, you kept lunch in that. The hat is a military hat called a glengarry.
• Bagpipes are actually used in some popular music. Now you’ve got these bands like Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys. I call it kilt rock.
• It’s more than a hobby; it’s a way of life.
