Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 20/05) - Holding the instrument was awkward enough. Attempting to play it was out of the question for this reporter. Behold the bagpipe.

Yellowknifer reporter Dorothy Westerman has a first-time encounter with bagpipes.

Handing the tentacled instrument back to the strong hands of NWT pipe band member Brad Heath was somewhat of a relief during my brief moments as a bagpiper-in-training during a practice session at Weledeh school.

Heath gets a firm grasp on the pipes, fills up the bag with several large gasps of air and plays adeptly.

He describes the sound as a skirl.

"It's designed for the outdoors. It's definitely not an indoors instrument," he says, as Scotland the Brave fills the air.

"I've had people tell me they can hear them a couple of kilometres away," Heath says of his occasional outdoor practices at home.

Withstanding the test of time, this ancient musical instrument remains undefeated in its ability to rouse a love-it or hate-it reaction from those within earshot.

"I don't know what it is about them. Sometimes when we're playing Amazing Grace, we can look up and see people with tears in their eyes," Heath says.

So how long does it take to master that great combination of airbag, pipes and chanter with a ribbon of tassel thrown in?

"The old saying is 'seven generations and seven years'," Heath says.

"In reality, it takes seven years to become competent," he says of the complicated technique.

Beginners start out on just the chanter, playing nine basic notes and embellishments, he explains.

Once the airbag is added in, four reeds to fill up takes an awful lot of air.

"The lung capacity takes quite a long time to build up," Heath says.