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ARCHY . J India ' s first Female Bagpiper
Known to be India ' s first female bagpiper , tell us about your start and how you chose to pick up this instrument .
As a person , I have always been drawn towards uncommon things , things that are different and that everybody isn ' t doing , something that stands out from the crowd . That ' s just always been a personality trait . So when I first saw Bagpipes being a played in music video of a Band from Switzerland it was instant love to the magnificent instrument , its sound and how different it looked from the other instruments I ' d seen . The characteristics of Bagpipes and my trait of being drawn to uncommon , different things just found each other at a common spot and started to shape a story . I looked on the internet relentlessly on how to learn this instrument , emailed several Bagpipers unknown to me seeking some guidance and help on how to learn it since there was no teacher I could find locally . It was very exciting yet disappointing since my excitement would make me do a lot of research but my lack of knowledge or contact would yield me very less results in getting started with learning the Bagpipes . Finally , after then receiving my initial guidance from a veteran piper in the US over emails , I knew that if I was going to learn this instrument , I had to learn it myself and so with the help of an E Book and some guidance online I started to learn . It was really difficult , probably the toughest and bravest thing I have done . An instrument that was regarded as one of the toughest and physically demanding instrument I had to learn via a book . There were times when I wouldn ’ t understand anything , I ' d cry alone because I ' d get stuck and have nobody to help me but the intense love for learning this instrument and making a mark in this world with something different always motivated me to continue and not give up besides the circumstances . This proved to be the best thing I decided to do , unknowingly I happened to become " India ' s 1st Professional Female Bagpipes " and received a National recognition and award recently from the President of India under the " First Women Achievers Awards " .
In a country where this instrument pretty much doesn ' t exist , how did you manage to break barriers and learn the art of playing this wonderful instrument ?
I believe , that one of your biggest barriers is yourself , your thoughts and your own beliefs about you . Once you learn to deal with that , everything else can be dealt with .
You are a self taught musician . What were the challenges you had faced when you were learning the instrument ?
Not having a teacher physically to monitor your progress and to check your mistakes and just trusting yourself and the material you have , to do that is one of the biggest challenges .
You ' ve played covers of popular songs and have reached out to many thousands of people . How did you promote your music at a time when Internet and social media was still not a big thing ?
I still remember putting my first video ( cover of Inis Mona ) out when musicians and bands were still only putting out their music on Soundcloud . I had only told my close friends and immediate family about the pivot in my career from being a Vocalist to trying to learn a completely different instrument so not a lot of people knew . Hence , I thought that when I do decide to tell people about this , I will not just post an audio but make a video showing this great instrument and the new side of me being a " Bagpiper ". That was the first idea when I posted a video . It was for my friends , the music community I knew to " watch and hear " the new
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