Bagpipes
Taking up bagpipe
By Janet Shefveland Brownell
As a wide-eyed freshman, I eagerly signed up to learn to play the bagpipes and, hopefully, march in the bagpipe band. There were only a handful of students. Each of us was issued a practice chanter, and we began to learn the fingering of the notes, grace notes and sliding notes. It was an exciting day when we were issued our uniforms. I remember dressing up in the full regalia and showing off to my Scottish grandmother, from whom I got my love of bagpipes.
Finally, one day, we got the bagpipes themselves. We learned to blow into the blowpipe to inflate the bag, give it a smack to start the drones, put it under our arms and squeeze the air through the drones while attempting to keep the bag inflated. We blew and blew until we were red in the face, and I thought I would faint. When we got the hang of that, then we had to play the tune all the while blowing air into and squeezing air out of the bag. As if that were not enough, we had to learn to follow the lead of the drum major and the signals of the drummers and march in time while blowing and squeezing and playing the tune! Whew!
By spring we were deemed ready, if not proficient, to march with the rest of the band at the head of the graduating class of 1957. Proudly we donned our uniforms, struck in our pipes and led the way through campus.
Sadly, by the end of the year, I realized that I did not have the dedication to continue. There were too many other new and exciting things to experience at Macalester. But it was a big thrill to have the worn the kilts and played the pipes even for that little while.