Her method, she acknowledges, is anything but traditional. I have utmost respect for him.”Ĭurrently, J plays a semi-electronic bagpipe called Redpipes – an instrument suggested to her by champion Canadian piper Jim McGillivray on a visit to Canada in 2013. He understood what I wanted to do with my piping, and taught me the appropriate techniques. Finlay would be the right instructor for me, as he employs a lot of unconventional styles of playing. Five days of instruction from Finlay MacDonald at Scotland’s National Piping Centre put polish on her basic mechanics, and she returned home ready to take the next steps. She credits strangers who responded to her e-mails and messages with guiding her through the early days of learning, when she often felt overwhelmed. “Learning to play without a teacher was no joke, and I knew I had to put in more effort and time than anyone else practicing twice or thrice a week was simply not going to cut it for me.” Within two years, she had a handle on the instrument. “They had a bagpiper – I had never seen or heard anything quite like it before.”ĭetermined to be “as cool as” that group’s piper, J gave up fast-tracking a career in international e-commerce and financing to teach herself to play the chanter in late 2012. “What completely inspired me and caught my attention was watching the folk-metal band Eluveitie on YouTube,” she shares via email. The daughter of a middle class family, the attractive 25-year-old was a well-known vocalist and an accomplished acoustic guitar player before the bagpipes captured her fancy. Archy J – aka The Snake Charmer, as she is known on social media channels – is getting rave reviews for her piping skills, particularly her unique takes on popular music, including songs from the Gladiator and The Walking Dead soundtracks.
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