LAKEVILLE – Most novice bagpipers won’t be ready to lay their hands on the pipes until months after they start learning it. 

That’s how long it takes to learn the fundamentals, according to Diane Wood-Bielski, a 20-year bagpiper. 

Wood-Bielski is one of the founders of Old Colony Highlanders, a bagpipe and drumming band that practices in Lakeville. 

Mastering the technique is the most difficult part of playing the pipes, she said. Bagpipers also must fully memorize the music before they play simply because they don’t have a way to read music during a performance. 

“I often joke that I'll be the smartest octogenarian in the nursing home years from now because your brain gets so much work [playing the bagpipes],” Wood-Bielksi noted with a laugh. 

Just as the instrument’s name suggests, bagpipes create sound by forcing air stored in the bag that is tucked under the musician’s arm through pipes or “drones”. The bag is filled by blowing into a mouthpiece.  

Contrary to what it might look like however, pipers are not taxing their respiratory systems by blowing forcefully into the instrument; they’re using their arms to guide air through the bag and into the pipes, explained Wood-Bielski. 

According to Wood-Bielski, the instrument’s melody comes from playing notes on the chanter, the piece at the front of the instrument that resembles a recorder. 

Most Old Colony Highlander musicians are simply curious folk who have come to Wood-Bielski to check off “a bucket list item.” Learning the bagpipes “is something they’ve always wanted to do,” she noted. 

People also come to learn more about their Irish or Scottish roots or the heritage of their loved ones. 

Megan Chase decided to join Old Colony Highlanders a few years back because she’s always been fascinated by the bagpipes and wanted to connect with her Scottish and Irish lineage.  

Bagpipes are such a unique instrument that in order to play them “you have to forget everything you thought you knew about music,” she said. 

“The instrument takes a lot of fine-tuning and maintenance,” Chase noted.

Old Colony Highlander member Scott Clemmer picked up the pipes as a way to demonstrate his love for his wife, who is deeply connected to her Scottish ancestry. 

Clemmer practiced in secret for two years “to surprise” her, he recounted. 

Pipe bands consist of a section of bagpipers as well as a drum core. According to Wood-Bielski's son Ian, the band’s lead drummer, pipe bands are a cross between a jazz band and a marching band. 

The most challenging part during a performance is “moving with everything,” i.e. the instrument and parts of the uniform like kilts and harnesses, while also carrying a tune, he noted. “It’s like walking, talking and juggling at the same time.” 

The band wrapped up 2024 with one final competition at the end of September and was crowned Northeast Champion and Best Drum Corp in its division.