Andrew's Tips: Bagpipe Journey FAQ

Looking for general bagpiping FAQs? Scroll to the bottom.

Why do you spending your time doing this?

I want to be a rotten piper, so I avoid practice at all costs by spending hundreds upon hundreds of unpaid hours on the computer doing research, typing up articles, and answering e-mail. (Honestly, I like to get e-mail.)

How do you pay for your site?

My younger brother Michael (echoalley.com) created the currently-used site redesign for as a birthday gift back in 2002. I have donated over a thousand hours creating the content of the site, so feel free to send me a monetary donation, or reeds, or goodies!

Back in May 2003, we added our first site sponsor, Edinburgh Bagpipes. This helped a bit toward a new digital camera so I could add images easily to new pages. They are under new ownership since that company ended sponsorship of my site in 2005.

In June 2005, we had a new sponsor, Sandy St. James known for very competive prices, particularly on excellent quality kilts and band supplies.

In July 2007, we added two additional sponsors, McGillivray Piping and ToneCzar both operations run by highly respected pipers and judges, the first by Jim McGillivray and the second by Christopher Hamilton.

In July 2008, we added another two sponsors, L&M Highland and Lyons Bagpipes/Moose Products who both make highly respected bagpiping products and I've personally been very happy with them in my own experiences.

In January 2010, Kinnaird Bagpipes & Reeds replaced ToneCzar as a sponsor since Chris Hamilton shut down his retail business after about 10 years. The Kinnairds are great folks who make the Kinnaird Drone Reeds and Piper's Pal products which I personally have used for years.

In July 2010, L&M Highland stepped down and License to Kilt, a full-service highland supply, came off the waiting list as a new active sponsor.

I'd like the five sponsors to continue to "re-up" so please visit their sites and if you like what you see, heck, buy something and let them know I sent you!

How often do you update your site?

It varies, but usually little tweaks at least once every week or two—sometimes as often as every day of a given week. Major additions (completely new articles) are usually 3-6 months apart, but can be as often as a few weeks apart. If you have suggestions for new pages—I'm always looking for ideas—let me know.

If you want to receive notices of additions to this site, sign up at the BagpipeJourney News Yahoo Group.

I don't remember this site years ago, but you say it's been around for since 1998?

This piping reference site was originally part of my personal site on a free University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) CSE alumni account, of which the bagpiping portion started in 1998. But as time went on, it was getting too big for the disk quota, so it was moved to its own domain (BagpipeJourney.com) and made "live" on July 22, 2002.

How many visitors do you get?

Well, after only two months at the new URL, BagpipeJourney was averaging over 500 visitors a week, now we get that about every 36 hours. We passed 1,000,000 hits (not visitors, but hits) after about 9 months. We passed 80,000 visitors in less than a year, and had over 100,000 visitors for 2003. I'm pretty pleased.

It's interesting to note that free web counters can be wildly inaccurate. The commercial counter installed on my host server used to show twice the traffic and visitors as the free counter. The free counter I still show on my site has a manual correction figure added to it so it reflects a more accurate count. And then there's the issue of caching of sites on ISPs' servers—it gets pretty complex.

Can I link to your site?

Of course! I'd appreciate you dropping me a line if you do. If you want a "link button" there's a couple of images at the bottom of my links page for you to place on your site.

What does that little box with the arrow mean?

The "" icon just lets you know that any link that it's next to will take you off and away from my site. Nothing too fancy. That information lets you take advantage of the option of opening a new window in your browser for that link—hold down mouse button, right click, whatever—if you want keep my site open in your browser's window instead of replacing it with the linked site.

How do I become a piper?

Find an instructor. I'm serious. (Finding the Right Bagpipe Instructor.)

How do I become a rotten piper?

Don't find an instructor. And read my article on How to Become a Rotten Piper.

Which way does a drone reed go in?

The end with the big hole in it fits in the matching hole in the bottom of the drone. It's been asked.

What does bag seasoning taste like?

It tastes like chicken. Everything tastes like chicken.

Why are these weird answers?

Because it's 12:44 a.m. and I'm exhausted. Plus this page is imaginary.

Check back later...

http://www.stanford.edu/~wrinnes/BagpipeFAQ/index.html

http://www.xmission.com/~redbeard/rmmb_fom/cache/1.html out of date for some information

and an FAQ of sorts by Steve MacLeod:

http://qanda.themacleods.net/qanda/

If this page was useful to you (or you have comments), please contact me so I know and I'll be inspired post more pages.

This page last modified on Tuesday, September 21, 2010.
This page first added to the site on Saturday, July 20, 2002.

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