The idea of making bamboo pipes has spread around the world, with groups and guilds in Great Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, the U.S.A., and Japan. All of the guilds are members of a federation, which meets every five years at an international course.

The bamboo pipe is a simple hand-made wind instrument, similar to a recorder but with a gentler tone. While looking for a recorder-type instrument to use with her schoolchildren, Margaret James stumbled across a Sicilian shepherd's pipe. After many experiments the simple treble pipe in D was perfected. Later a full quartet of pipes of alto in A & G, tenor in D and bass in G was developed. This range has since been extended to include sopranino in G, quartbass in D, and great bass in G. In addition, treble, alto, and tenor extended pipes with a range of an octave and a sixth or more are also made.

Many well-known composers have written for the pipes: R. Vaughan Williams, Imogen Holst, W. S. Lloyd-Webber, Michael Head, Elizabeth Poston, Claude Arrieu and others. Works have been commissioned from Geoffrey Winters, Alan Bush, Edwin Roxburgh, Curdin Janett and Betty Roe. Much music from the past (Bach, Purcell, Mozart, etc.) has been very successfully arranged. Early music, i.e. medieval and renaissance music, sounds particularly well on pipes.
Click on the button to go to 'The Sound of the Pipes' page.

First, for the satisfaction: there is a special thrill in using an instrument you have made yourself. Secondly, it makes you a craftsman as well as a musician. Thirdly, it is an ideal way of learning the rudiments of music. Pipes are made and tuned one note at a time; the complete beginner (of any age) learns to play their pipe as they make it. For more advanced players there is the pleasure of ensemble playing in trios, quartets and larger groups.

Click here to go to the Contacts page.

Graphics of bamboo courtesy of Kaleidoscope
Scrolling music graphic courtesy of Music Graphics Galore

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