Some high schoolers may spend their free time playing the guitar at a local music store, and others might play the drums in their garage.
What the average high schooler might not be able to say, especially a student at Mount Carmel, is that they play the bagpipes.
Senior Marty Mann is a unique exception, as he took up the woodwind instrument just over a year ago and recently showed off his musical talents at multiple St. Patrick’s Day events.
“I was sitting in Spanish class last year and just had this random thought of playing the pipes,” he said. “I texted my dad and told him it would be cool to try and play them. Then he texted my uncle, Tim, who plays, and the next thing I know I’m walking to my next class and get a text from my uncle who set me up with a band and told me that practices were on Tuesdays for newer learners and then band practices were on Friday. I’ve been going to almost every one that I can for the past 13 months.”
Mann’s uncle set him up with the Chicago Stockyard Kilty Band, known for its participation in St. Patrick’s Day parades and dedication to honor traditional pipe band music.
Mann went to as many of those Tuesday beginner classes as possible and made sure to soak up as much knowledge as he could. After all, learning to play any instrument can be a challenging task, especially for someone who has never tried before.
“Every new piper starts off with a practice chanter,” he said. “A chanter is one of the parts of the instrument behind the bagpipes that has the nine holes which allows you to make nine different notes, but the practice chanter is just that part on its own without the whole bag and drones. Once I got my own practice chanter I started going to Tuesday practices and started learning tunes and notes. My goal was to eventually make it to Fridays when the band would actually practice with the full instrument, but I wasn’t there yet.”
As Mann progressively learned more songs, notes, and felt more comfortable with the practice chanter, he also worked his way up to getting his own instrument. He sat on the practice chair from last February to June until Pipe Major Mr. Matt McKee gave him a temporary set of bagpipes.
“Mr. McKee was able to get me a temporary set while in the meantime I was caddying as much as I could to try and save money for one of my own,” Mann said. “I saved up and in early August my actual pipes came in.”
Ever since his pipes came in in August, Mann has been practicing for at least three days a week, whether that be at the American Legion where the Stockyard Kilty Band practices, at home, or even at MC.
Mann then began telling a lot of his classmates and teachers that he had been playing the bagpipes, and even played before a few home football games when the team had some down time.
Eventually, he felt comfortable with putting on a performance.
“I like to call it my first unofficial first performance when I played some Christmas tunes at the Malloy family Christmas Eve party,” Mann said. “Looking back on it now, I don’t think I was very good, but around January and February is when I started to really get the hang of it.”
After feeling like he had really gotten the hang of it, St. Patrick’s Day was just around the corner, which was perfect timing for a first-year piper.
“March 1st was when I had my first gig with the band,” he said. “It was at a fundraiser event for the South Side Irish Parade at [115 Bourbon Street in Merrionette Park]. That was also when I was given access to the band’s app, which is used to organize all our events. When you’re given access to that it’s like a ‘you’re in the band’ sort of thing. Now if I want to I can go to any gig that the band openly does.”
After playing at 115 Bourbon Street, Mann had his eyes set on St. Patrick’s Day festivities. While initially he had only thought about what he would be doing with the band, something came across the table that he knew he had to go through with on his own.
“I don’t remember how it exactly came up, but I do remember someone saying how it can be kind of awkward when the Baldrick’s participants walk out and just have to stand there for a little while,” he said. “It’s obviously a cool moment but the thought of leading the guys out there while I was playing the bagpipes made me think it could be a lot more enthusiastic.”
Mann is of course referring to MC’s annual St. Baldrick’s Day event, which is one of many across the country that aim to raise money for childhood cancer research by having people shave their heads.
The event is loosely connected to the holiday of St. Patrick’s Day and usually takes place on or near that day, which is another reason why Mann thought it would be fitting to lead out the shavees with his bagpipes.
“I was a little nervous,” Mann said. “But I knew I was going to play well because I probably played the tune (Scotland the Brave) over a hundred times. I walked out into the gym playing with the shavees behind me and then people started cheering so loud that a lot of guys couldn’t even hear the music. My goal was to make the shavees’ walkout a little more enthusiastic and I feel like I definitely did that.”
After performing at MC, Mann still had his hands full with the pipes. He went on to play at the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown, as well as the South Side Irish Parade, which starts in Beverly where he lives. Mann also played at the Oak Forest Fleadh, Lemont parade, and Tinley Park parade earlier in the month.
“The parades were really cool,” he said. “But obviously the South Side one was my favorite to play in. I woke up on Sunday and it honestly felt like Christmas. I took a two minute walk from my house to 103rd and Western where it started. After the parade I walked around the neighborhood playing for everyone. There’s really no other way to describe the day other than I had a cool feeling the whole time.”
Mann will continue playing the bagpipes even after these St. Patrick’s Day festivities. In fact, there’s a good chance he’ll be using his musical skills come this fall.
“The Notre Dame bagpipe band reached out and said I should try and play if I end up going to school there,” he said. “That’s definitely something I might do in the future.”
