Bagpipe is a verb

Over the weekend our band performed in a parade through downtown Mountain View, CA. During a break in the parade, one of our wonderful tenor drummers pulled out a card game called Anomia. The game has players matching game card symbols and whoever answers the category named on the opponent’s card wins that card. While playing the game, the card flipped up listed “Adjective” which took me too long to think of an adjective, so I lost my card and “hung my head in shame.” Actually it’s a hilarious game. And now on my Father’s Day list (hint, hint!).

Later in the day I thought back about the game which triggered an earlier memory: When my kids were in early elementary school, one ‘school’ game we played while studying English was called noun or verb; adjective or adverb. We used this to think about words that describe things versus describing actions. As we played, one of the kids noted that some words can be both a noun and a verb. We noticed that some words do fit both categories: fly, bowl, love, ship, cook and drink, to name a few. This was a great observation for young students. An epiphany of sorts. So where does bagpipe fit in?

First thought is about the gangly five tentacle wheezing creature played in the highlands and in pipes and drums bands. I can touch it, squeeze it, make sound come from it; it is a thing. One can buy it, own it and covet it. It crafted of hard wood and be hand turned (on lathe) with silver engraved mountings and covered in velvet or tartan. All physically solid to the touch. So it is a noun.

Second thought is that bagpipe, as a verb, is to create music from the noun of the same name. There is both physical and mental effort, measured in years of study to make music that may be enjoyed. Audience members who have watched either a young or experienced piper, bagpipe sees the amount of air needed to play, physical strength to control the instrument and the finesse of finger work on the chanter to make music. And that performing on the noun’s chanter is a mental exercise focusing on playing a tune well with proper musical timing, cadence and tune embellishments.

I guess my kids would have said bagpipe is loud and noisy (then laugh). The parent / teacher in me would (in an affirming voice) acknowledge that they are correct but point to the noun-verb nature of all musical instruments. In my mind the noun is secondary to the verb in the world of music. The instrument does not make the music, only the bagpiper can. So the bagpipe is def., def., definitely a verb.