Dunshire Bagpipe Forum 10/7/05

Student plays at funeral anyway. (My comments on another thread about beginners playing in public)

I'm an adult student who has been on the pipes a little over a year. I'm having a blast! My first goal was to play the pipes on Memorial Day at my father-in-law's graveside. I worked to get AG down in the few months I'd been playing at that point in time. Yup, there were other people in the area listening - couldn't help that. I felt good about it, my family felt good about it and in fact, I got a lot of compliments and requests from people who heard me to play again - which I did.Last month my son got married. They had a reception out of State (his wife's hometown) and another in our State a week later. They asked me to play just before they cut the cake at both events. I did. Again, lots of compliments - even a few people (kids and adults) asking about who to contact for lessons.Finally, our church congregation had a talent night. I played several tunes. I got a compliment from a neighbor of mine who's a music teacher. She said, "That was a performance with class. Thank you." She is not the type of person to compliment if she doesn't mean it.I'm still learning a few tricks and tips about tuning properly, my embelishments are not perfect but I'm not so bad I scare people.I have told my instructor about each performance before hand, and he helped me decide which tunes would be appropriate and gave me a pointer or two. Maybe you should encourage your student to find another instructor.