Scottish Musician Jigs with His Bagpipes

Award-winning Scottish musician John McLean Allan performed at the A.K. Smiley Library in Redlands recently as a free entertainment treat to anyone who wished to attend. He not only performed tunes on the bagpipes, but he also talked about how they work, gave a brief history of music within Scottish culture, and taught the audience Scottish dancing. Allan started the event by playing some songs on the bagpipes before going into an explanation on how they worked, with the reed and chanter producing the main sound and melodies, the bag to produce a continuous sound, and the drones for providing the base and tenor notes, and how everything going into the instrument is for volume. He taught the audience how to commonly participate with bagpipe music, with tapping feet and clapping along. He then lectured on the history of the bagpipes, the significance of traditional Scottish garb, and went into teaching the audience how to dance along, making the event livelier than just a conventional concert. He went into detail about the difference between a reel and a jig, with one following a beat of four, and the other three. He explained this in a way that was accessible to the audience, even encouraging them to clap along to songs to see if they could figure out for themselves which type of tune it was. For 16 years, Allan has been a musician, even having played music for award-winning movies and TV shows. He moved from Scotland to Los Angeles in order to pursue his career in music, and has since then been incredibly successful. “When I was seven, I heard my neighbor playing the bagpipes, and have been obsessed ever since,” Allan said about getting his start in music. During a question and answer period at the end of the event, he was asked if he thought bagpipes were the hardest instrument to learn how to play. “Absolutely,” he said with confidence. “Bagpipes are definitely the hardest instrument. And I’m not being biased!”