0:00:02 > 0:00:04PIPES PLAY
0:00:31 > 0:00:32IRISH GAELIC:
0:00:45 > 0:00:47PIPES PLAY
0:01:05 > 0:01:08THEY SING
0:01:29 > 0:01:32We'll look at some other tunes that you've previously done
0:01:32 > 0:01:37and try and put some of those techniques into those tunes.
0:01:37 > 0:01:38Have you done it?
0:01:38 > 0:01:40- Yeah.- Do you want to try it on your own?- Yeah.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43And then maybe I can learn it from you?
0:01:44 > 0:01:45SHE PLAYS A TUNE
0:02:17 > 0:02:19He's OK there. We're turning this
0:02:19 > 0:02:23into something else and it's not going to be available.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26But there doesn't seem to be anybody here at the minute.
0:02:26 > 0:02:27- So you OK, then? - Yeah, yeah.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47I have to go and cover a class for somebody, so I better go on.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05How you doing? I have to move somebody somewhere.
0:03:21 > 0:03:28My specific interest in learning and playing music didn't happen
0:03:28 > 0:03:31until I went to Edinburgh in 1961.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35Started listening, and I was an avid listener,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37but the sound that had been really interesting,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40but didn't really know what it was, was the pipes.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43Luckily enough, it was Billy McBurney's shop in Smithfield
0:03:43 > 0:03:44that I'd gone into.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47And I can't remember what words I actually used to describe it.
0:03:47 > 0:03:49I said it was this instrument, you know,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52it was different to a flute or a tin whistle or a fiddle
0:03:52 > 0:03:55and it had a particular sound to it and all the rest of it.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59So he produced this EP, which turned out to be
0:03:59 > 0:04:03The Ace & Deuce of Pipering by Seamus Ennis, and played it.
0:04:03 > 0:04:04PIPES PLAY
0:04:08 > 0:04:11And I said, "That's it! That's the sound I'm after.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13"What is that instrument?"
0:04:14 > 0:04:16I eventually did get pipes.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19I'd been to the Dublin Pipers Club and I just had the idea in my head,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22"There's a Dublin Pipers Club, why not an Armagh Pipers Club?"
0:04:22 > 0:04:26So, I established a pipers club, which was really just ourselves,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29like, Dara, Fintan and myself.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32And the first objective was to teach music
0:04:32 > 0:04:34and to start promoting the pipes.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37It developed very, very quickly
0:04:37 > 0:04:40so we ended up starting classes all over the place.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06So eventually, we were just pushed back and back until we said,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10"Right, there will be only one class and one pipers club.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13"It will only exist in Armagh and people will just have to travel in."
0:05:13 > 0:05:18So that's how it became Armagh, centralised.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Hi, guys. How we doing? OK, there you go.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13How did we all get on with our practice this week?
0:06:13 > 0:06:15- Good.- Good.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24Now, a wee bit of a problem there.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27PIPE BAG WHISTLES
0:06:27 > 0:06:31- OK. Has that been giving you a bit of bother?- Yeah.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33We'll just soften that valve up a little bit here
0:06:33 > 0:06:35and make it a wee bit easier for you to blow.
0:06:53 > 0:06:54CHANTERS PLAY
0:06:54 > 0:06:55Hold the chanter at the bottom.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58See the way I'm holding it here at the bottom?
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Good. And top finger on.
0:07:05 > 0:07:06And two fingers down.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Well done.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31And back onto your knee.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34Two fingers back down, middle finger up.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Ten minutes' practice every evening between now and next week.
0:08:03 > 0:08:04See you next week.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Yeah, use G-D, cos you don't have this string.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Molly has extra strings. That's the E.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09OK, try that.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11You can keep playing.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Does that make sense? Is that enough?
0:10:54 > 0:10:55SHE LAUGHS
0:10:55 > 0:10:57It will keep you going.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00MUSIC PLAYS
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Because you've nothing to compare it to,
0:12:38 > 0:12:43you can't say whether it was strange or normal or anything,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45but there was a lot going on, definitely.
0:12:45 > 0:12:48I definitely have a memory of hundreds of tin whistles
0:12:48 > 0:12:50lying around the place.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53There was boxes that they'd bring to the classes,
0:12:53 > 0:12:54those Generation whistles,
0:12:54 > 0:12:59and we'd play with them and hit each other with them and stuff.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03And I do remember trying a few different instruments.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07I remember my mother trying to teach me the fiddle,
0:13:07 > 0:13:08but it didn't make sense to me
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and then, probably a year or two later,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13my father tried me on the pipes and I liked that,
0:13:13 > 0:13:18that seemed easier and it suited my state of mind.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20The strings didn't.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23But then I think when I started the pipes
0:13:23 > 0:13:26my da had a wee class of three - there was me,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29Tiarnan O Duinnchinn, and a fellow, Michael Murphy,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32and that was in the living room of the house
0:13:32 > 0:13:37but it definitely grew massively, even in my childhood,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41and then after I left, it sort of seemed to grow exponentially.
0:14:07 > 0:14:14Basically, the general thing that is happening is there are six concerts,
0:14:14 > 0:14:19five individual concerts and then The Hooley,
0:14:19 > 0:14:25which involves about 16 or 17 different acts
0:14:25 > 0:14:27playing on four stages.
0:14:27 > 0:14:33The Hooley is really the key event, so we need to have volunteers
0:14:33 > 0:14:37to check the doors, to be able to get people into their seats.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40The other thing is in those four venues,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42there will be no alcohol served
0:14:42 > 0:14:43and, as everybody knows,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46I won't be touching a drop that night, you know?
0:14:46 > 0:14:47PEOPLE MURMUR
0:14:47 > 0:14:49Seriously, you know...
0:14:50 > 0:14:55But people who have volunteered can check these lists here
0:14:55 > 0:14:58and make a note of exactly what they have signed up for
0:14:58 > 0:15:01in case they don't remember.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03So, everybody's perfectly clear then?
0:15:03 > 0:15:05I don't believe that somehow, you know?
0:15:07 > 0:15:08I can't hear a word you're saying.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33PIANO NOTES SOUND
0:18:23 > 0:18:26LIVELY FOLK TUNE PLAYS
0:20:07 > 0:20:10UPBEAT FOLK TUNE PLAYS
0:22:12 > 0:22:15I think the William Kennedy Piping Festival
0:22:15 > 0:22:17is a massive event.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22But I think for the younger members of the club, it's a massive thing.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25It's a massive thing for the pipers that every November
0:22:25 > 0:22:27they have a lot of the best pipers,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30not just in Ireland, but around the world,
0:22:30 > 0:22:36come to Armagh and perform and play sessions and hang out all weekend.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40And that definitely is a, sort of, a big part of the calendar,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42I think, for everybody here, now.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46When I was coming back again, and you're older,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48and you appreciate it more,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51I was learning something every time I came
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and definitely was inspired by the music
0:22:54 > 0:22:57more than almost any festival I'd go to year-round
0:22:57 > 0:22:59because it was very different.
0:22:59 > 0:23:00It is very different.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04Definitely people you've never seen before and people that would
0:23:04 > 0:23:07give you ideas about things you might do yourself.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48We are from Belgium and we are big fans of
0:24:48 > 0:24:51a Belgian bagpipe band called Griff.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Griff was invited and we tagged along
0:24:53 > 0:24:55and we got to know this festival,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58and we just loved it from the very first time.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11It's got this, sort of, a family atmosphere
0:25:11 > 0:25:14and it's now our sixth consecutive year
0:25:14 > 0:25:18and we are going to keep coming back as long as we can.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45I had an operation at the beginning of October,
0:25:45 > 0:25:47which is a lengthy recuperation,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50including wearing this contraption for six weeks.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52A lot of them think I'm going around
0:25:52 > 0:25:55with a pair of bellows under me arms, you know?
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And then they're looking at it for a while, you know?
0:25:58 > 0:26:01That's what they think and then others were thinking
0:26:01 > 0:26:04maybe it's a new training device.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07I have less and less to do every year, anyhow,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10so I skived away from as much work as I could.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41I can take absolutely no credit for the William Kennedy Piping Festival
0:26:41 > 0:26:43but it's extremely well run
0:26:43 > 0:26:46and it's very professionally run, you know?
0:26:46 > 0:26:50The sound and the staging and the line-up, the concerts,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54they're very well designed and interesting, I think.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58So, you know, it's definitely something you can be proud of,
0:26:58 > 0:27:00people in Armagh should be proud of.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35When we started off, we had a very simple philosophy
0:27:35 > 0:27:40and that was to highlight the pipes of Ireland and Scotland
0:27:40 > 0:27:46and then that moved on to discovering other piping cultures
0:27:46 > 0:27:49and that was a great voyage of discovery.
0:27:49 > 0:27:50You don't have to get bigger, you know,
0:27:50 > 0:27:54but you do have to be creative every year
0:27:54 > 0:27:57and try never to go backwards.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00You always have to go forwards and aim high all the time.
0:28:09 > 0:28:10CHEERING AND APPLAUSE