The Pipers’ Tryst session workshop was in full swing on Saturday, January 28, at The National Piping Centre in Glasgow. This was the third of a four-day workshop series for bellows pipes, aimed at teaching the tunes and skills for playing in a trad music session.
The afternoon session was led by tutors, Ailis Sutherland and Ciar Milne, who kept the tunes flowing and invited the other pipers to lead a set of tunes, keeping everyone involved. It was a listening and learning experience at times for the participants, as like any other session in the world, not everyone can possibly know all the tunes all of the time. But there were lots of weel-kent tunes that any Highland piper would know, so it was the perfect setting for any Highland pipers who want to take their first steps into an informal trad tune session with other musicians.
Celtic Connections presented the perfect evening concert to follow the Pipers’ Tryst workshops with one of Gaelic music’s treasures, DÃ imh, playing in Glasgow’s City Halls and attracting a large audience. This 30th anniversay of Celtic Connections shows what a massive success story the festival has become. There were 13 concerts happening at the same time on Saturday night at venues across Glasgow city centre, and the reports are saying that the venues were very busy or full up!
If pipers wish to be part of this Celtic Connections phenomenon there is the perfect opportunity next weekend with the Annual Piping Concert, Names and Places, on Saturday, February 4, 12.30 in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall — more details here. And if you wish to hear more pipes in the evening, there is the James Duncan Mackenzie concert in the Strathclyde Suite to round off your night.
Dà imh posted a series of videos to YouTube over the past year giving tuition on session tunes for various instruments. Pipers may want to play through the Allan MacDonald reel above, Fà g a’ phìob bhochd on bellows pipes, or whistles, and check out the other videos on their youtube channel.
