Kuwait Times

Published Date: May 18, 2007
By Velina Nacheva, Staff writer

A former Kuwaiti marine officer volunteers teaching students from across the world the artisanship of bagpipe playing; thus it comes as a shock to find that some of his students hail from Scotland - the country that the pipes have always been mostly identified with.

Bader Mohammed's relationship with the bagpipe started some 16 years ago when he was in Scotland and today, his enchantment with the olden instrument producing mesmerizing sound is not only about performing with the Kuwait Caledonian Society Pipe Band. Bader volunteers teaching the pipes, a hobby he explains in short: "I do it because I love it."
 
Honorary pipe-major and driving force behind the Kuwait Caledonian Society, which provides a link to Scottish Heritage for Scots and their friends in Kuwait, and its Pipe Band, Bader studied the pipes on an intensive six-week course in Scotland. He has supported and taught the instrument in Kuwait ever since. Bader jokingly explains his love for the bagpipe as being in his DNA. "It is genetic with me."

Patrick, Bader's youngest student from a current group of 10 student piper-mates is just seven years old and already reads music notes and eagerly demonstrates how to dance one's fingers along the practice chanter. On page 14 of his guidebook is "Scots Wha Hae" - the first song he learnt how to play. He has been coming regularly to practice for two months and takes the chanter with confidence following the notes. Born in an Irish family, Patrick is playing the bagpipe in an ensemble with his two siblings who play the keyboards and the piano.
  
Some 200 students have already learnt how to play the bagpipe in Bader's school of music that has had its doors open to every bagpipe's buff on Monday evenings for over a decade.
 
I find Bader teaching Patrick and Jane on a wonderful spring Monday evening. The senior group, I am told, were practicing on their own the tunes they know, and you could hear them showing off the prowess with their pipes in the distance. The beginners were jointly learning the first steps in the bagpipe artisanship. Grace notes, short notes and embellishments fill the lesson for the two novice students. "By Christmas you will be reading music," Bader assured Jane who referred to herself as a beginner while trying to dance her fingers on her practice chanter.
 
A dance of the forefinger and the pinkie along the chanter produced a tune from the first song Jane was trying to play. It is so hard; the fingers need to be stiff and if you do not get them on the holes properly the tune will be wrong, she explained.
   
Love for music

When learning music, Bader believes, books and manuals are dry. Studying music is about closing the book with notes or instructions and "putting your feelings in the music." Explaining that he closes his eyes when he plays, Bader says, "You put your soul to it."
 
The repertoire of the Kuwait Caledonians Pipe Band is predictably mainly Scottish. In the future however, Bader observed, they plan to combine it with some Kuwaiti songs. Prior to the invasion, the original band featured some 15 members including a complete drum section while the current band has some six performing members and several novice and experienced students.
 
A former chairman of Kuwait's Darts League, Bader has many trophies from dart competitions beautifully arranged on a wall in the area where the senior pipers were practicing. Introducing me to the rest of the band he summed up the bond between the musicians say, "We are all very old friends."
 
Meet the band:
 
Apart from Bader, the members of the 2006 Kuwait Caledonians Pipe Band include Keith Armstrong and Alistair Gillespie from Scotland, John Weston and Philip Weston from Canada and Stuart King from Great Britain. As the band members say they are all looking forward to the return of Talal, a Kuwaiti drum player, who is currently specializing drumming in Jordan.
  
Keith, who has been in Kuwait for four years, has played the pipes for six years, 37 years ago in Scotland, playing with the Summerhill Academy School Band and Aberdeen Boys Band before giving up the instrument for almost three decades. He picked up the pipes again in early 2003 and has played in the band since February 2004.
 
John Weston has moved to Kuwait some 10 years ago. He took bagpipe instruction 37 years ago in Canada, when he played for dancing competitions and in the ANAVET 60 pipe band in Winnipeg. Like Keith, he gave up the instrument for almost 29 years but was inspired by Bader to restart playing the pipes in 2003 and has also performed with the band since February 2004.

Being a long-term piper, Alistair also gave up the pipes for many years and after he recently arrived in Kuwait he picked up the chanter and quickly started mastering the band's repertoire. Virtually his entire life in Kuwait, Stuart took up the bagpipe in February 2004. The 2004 St. Andrews Ball marked his first-ever public performance. Philip, who has lived in Kuwait almost 10 of his 15 years, also debuted on stage at last year's St. Andrews Ball. He took up the chanter under Bader's tutorship, in 2004.
 
Lastly, Talal is in the Kuwait Army, and has been playing drums for seven years. He joined the band in the summer three years ago. The band members say they are looking forward to his return this fall.
 
The Bagpipe (IN A BOX)

Although precise history about the invention of the bagpipe is debatable, it seems likely that the most popular wind instrument first appeared in Scotland as far back in time as the 12th century. The bagpipe achieved its recognizable form in the late 16th century becoming the musical instrument of Gaelic society complementing the Bard tradition - of musical performances and theatre. Today, there are dozens of types of bagpipes, each with a unique design, sound and own history. For instance, in the Scottish Highlands, historians claim, the pipers would succeed the harpers while nowadays following a resurgence of folk music, a variety of pipes returned to international stages.
 
What are the attributes of the bagpipe?

A bagpipe consists of an air supply blowstick, a bag, a chanter, and usually a drone. The chanter, also known as the melody pipe, could be played by one or both hands. The bagpipe can be of two-piped chanter where two separate chanters are designed to be played, one with each hand - very typical for most Arabic bagpipes. Bagpipes have at least one drone - a cylindrical tube with a single reed, although drones with double reeds do exist, which are traditionally made of wood.