Pipe Dream Grant Mulholland tangles with one of the world‘s toughest Instruments

My meeting with Graham Mulholland comes as something of a shock. For an interview with a champion bagpiper, I’m anticipating an older Scotch gentleman, possibly dressed in a funny kilt and cap like the pipers you see at parades or street fairs.
But Graham is young -- younger than many guitarists in local rock bands -- and at the age of 30, he’s a prizewinning bagpiper living in Northern Michigan who’s competed internationally in more piping competitions than he can remember.
And more than that, he’s a real Scotsman.
Born and raised just north of Edinburgh, Mulholland moved to the United States four years ago after meeting Shannon, his wife-to-be, on a visit to Ohio. Today, he works for Henderson Imports, Ltd., a Scottish supplies store on the south side of Traverse City that has to be seen to be believed. The walls are covered with ancient tartan plaids, bodran drums, Scottish clan symbols and bagpipes -- plenty of bagpipes lining a wall for the brave and the bold willing to give a toot.

IN COMPETITION
This Friday, Mulholland and James Moore of Henderson Imports are staging the Great Lakes Superior Piping Challenge, a solo piping competition that is expected to draw contestants from across the country, Canada, and even from overseas. They’re also hosting a piping and drumming workshop for would-be musicians (see sidebar).
Mulholland is quiet spoken with a Scottish accent, but you can tell he’s a tough contender with bagpiping in his blood. He started playing at the age of 10 and was competing soon after. “My father played and he encouraged me,” he recalls. “I got started in the solo bagpiping scene, which is very prevalent in Scotland, the United States and Canada. It’s pretty much like any other competition -- you just get together and compete.”
Leading up to competitions, Mulholland practices up to four hours a day on one of the three bagpipes he owns, including a vintage Henderson instrument made in 1935.
Is there much money in bagpiping competitions? Are there big cash prizes? Mulholland gives a soft laugh and shakes his head no. “Basically, it’s about just how much you want to win,” he says. “When you get to the competition level you find that the more you play, the better you do.”

EARLY DAYS
Bagpipes have been around since at least the time of the Roman empire, if not before. “They originally came from eastern Europe, but they were nothing like the form they have now,” Mulholland says. “Most countries in Europe developed their own form of the bagpipe, but today, most people think of the bagpipe from Scotland.”
The Scottish bagpipe was developed in the 1700s and evolved through the years to its present form. Basically, the instrument is composed of an inflatable air bag of animal hide or synthetic material. A chanter reed plays the melody, while three drone reeds (two tenor and one bass) provide a constant droning background. The reeds are those long pipes you see sticking out of the bag.
The bag is literally a bag of wind. The player squeezes the air pressure of the bag to allow the reeds to carry on with their background drone while he takes a breath.
Today, the bagpipe is used by a number of rock bands, such as Seven Nations in the U.S. and the Old Blind Dogs and Wolfstone in Scotland, as well as folk and worldbeat artists such as Loreena McKennitt and Enya. And there are about 30,000 bagpipers scattered around the world, with the majority playing traditional music.
But the bagpipe got its first blush of popularity through the martial music of Scottish warriors, Mulholland says. In the late 1700s, when Scotland was incorporated into the United Kingdom, the British had their hands full trying to decide what to do with the “wild barbarian Highlanders” of northernmost Scotland where the bagpipe was popular. Many Highlanders were drawn into the British Army, and with them came the bagpipe and drums as a symbol of Scottish national pride. While British military bands are pretty much forgotten, the bagpipe lives on as a proud symbol of Scotland.

TOUGH INSTRUMENT
The bagpipe is a notoriously difficult instrument to play, but not because of its mixolydian music mode -- a medieval church mode devised for Gregorian chants 1,000 years ago.
“The scale is in A, but it’s in the bagpipe’s own scale of A, and not the same one as a piano,” Mulholland notes. “It was designed before the rules of music were set down. It evolved independently of other forms of instruments. It’s very odd.”
But the real reason the bagpipe is so tough to play is because it’s a finicky instrument that reacts to both climate conditions and how much moisture your lungs blow into its reservoir bag.
“The instrument itself is very high maintenance and it can be as hard to master the instrument itself as the melodies,” Mulholland says. “You have to play it every day to keep it in good working order and the more you play, the better it sounds.”
Considering that the player may have a treacherous bagpipe on his hands the day of competition, has Mulholland ever had any embarassing moments at a contest?
“Sure, lots of them,” he says with a smile. “It’s one thing to play in your house for practice, but it’s quite another thing to be in front of a judge in competition.”

A MATTER OF STYLE
“There are lots of different types of bagpipes,” he notes. “Some are made of synthetics like Gortex material and others are made from sheep skins or hides.
“Different materials are used for different climates,” he adds. “Sheep skin is great for Scotland where it’s very moist, but cowhide or synthetics are good for the United States which has a dry climate.”
Most bagpipes are hand-made with different suppliers for the reeds, bags, silver trim and artificial ivory fittings. The $5,000 bagpipe prize for this week’s competition has elaborate hand-engraved sterling silver mounts. The reeds are often made of ebony or African blackwood from Madagascar. “It’s a very hard wood that gives off excellent harmonics.”
What about the costume typically worn by bagpipers?
Mulholland says the Scottish kilt is made of a plaid that represents the wearer’s clan -- an extended family. Today’s well-dressed piper might wear a dressy “Prince Charlie” jacket to a wedding or a formal piping event, along with a tuxedo-style shirt and bowtie.
Chances are you’ll also be wearing a “sporran” -- literally a rabbit skin purse hung on a chain around your waist. Kilts have no pockets so the sporran is a necessary carry-all.
Exercise caution over teasing a proud Scotsman about wearing a purse and a kilt. Tucked inside his long stockings, he’s likely to be packing a “sgian dubh” -- a Scots Gaelic word for “black knife.” These double-edged knives look a good deal like throwing knives or those carried by ninjas, and it’s easy to imagine them being used to gut a great many British grenadiers back in the days before Scotland joined the United Kingdom.
And speaking of style, you might care to pick up on a bit o’ the Scottish language, said to be one of the most difficult in the world. Tell your friends you’re interested in some “piobaireachd” (peeb-air-ach, with “ach” pronounced as in Loch). It’s the Scots Gaelic word for “piping,” useful when you’re listening to a little “ceol mor” (kee-ol more) which means “big music.”

Bagpipe Blowout -- concert this Saturday

Henderson Imports, Ltd of Traverse City and a number of companies from Canada and Scotland are sponsoring “The Great Lakes Superior Piping Challenge – Solo Piping Competition” takes place this Friday, April 8 in Traverse City with a public concert to be held Saturday, April 9 at the Central United Methodist Church, 222 Cass St; Traverse City at 7:30 p.m.
Over $7,500 in cash and prizes will be awarded to the winning participants. A $5,000 silver set of David Naill Bagpipes is the top prize.
This is the first year of the Superior Challenge, which has been specifically designed like traditional piping competitions in Scotland. It’s intended to raise the caliber of play and competition repertoire here in the U.S.
The need to construct a more rigorous competition environment was demonstrated at the Winter Storm Competition held in Kansas City this past January. The only pipers that placed in the top five were from Scotland or Canada. With nearly 40 competitors, the players outside the U.S. clearly demonstrated their superior ability. Although there are more active pipers in the U.S., they are not playing at the skill level found overseas or with our northern neighbors.
With this in mind, James Moore and Graham Mulholland from Henderson Imports, Ltd. of Traverse City have been developing piping and drumming instruction for bands and individual players from all over the Midwest, with workshops for experienced players of the pipes, snare, tenor or bass drum this weekend.
The highlight of the weekend will be the public concert on Saturday evening. This year the concert will feature members of the Windsor Police Pipe Band who will also be some of the instructors participating in the workshop. In addition, performances by the Competition winners, solo players, and a demonstration of bellows blown small pipes will also be presented.

For more information call Henderson Imports at (231) 932-7330.









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