Wednesday, July 1, 2009
With bagpipe in tow and kilt swinging around his knees, Chris Hannemann goes to work. He has played the bagpipe since his fresh¬man year of college, and playing at public events is his main source of summer income.
Hannemann, Wichita junior, said his interest in learning to play bag¬pipes was sparked because he grew up next to a neighbor who would play the bagpipes with windows open.
Photo Gallery
Bagpiper performs at Campanile
Hutchinson junior Chris Hanneman performing at Campanile Sunday June, 28.
Video
Chris Hannemann, Wichita junior, plays "Going Home" and "Lord Lovett's Lament" on the bagpipes.
“I would just sit in my house and listen to him play from across the yard in his house,” Hannemann said. “And I could, because the pipes are so loud.”
After deciding he wanted to learn, Hannemann said, the perfect opportunity came along when his friend started a bagpipe band. He began taking lessons from William McCollum, a professional bagpipe player from Wichita.
McCollum said Hannemann told him he was already a musician, and that playing the jazz guitar was his first love.
“I told him he would probably give up the guitar,” McCollum said. “When you start doing bagpipes it gets into your blood.”
After working with Hannemann for about a year, McCollum said, he asked him how his jazz guitar playing was going. Hannemann said he had not picked up the guitar in months.
“Nine months later I was in a bag¬pipe marching band,” Hannemann said. “The hardest part is the road to getting there, it takes a lot of practice. It’s like you have four little brains doing four different things at once.”
McCollum said the more musi¬cians get to know the bagpipes, the better players and entertainers they become.
“Chris has the ability to be enter¬taining and a great musician,” McCollum said. “He is a dynamic man who looks to go far.”
Hannemann said he had learned from McCollum that he could make a good amount of money playing if he was good enough at it.
“He is a professional bagpiper and makes ridiculous money doing it,” Hannemann said. “No one does it — how many people do you know who play the bagpipe?”
McCollum said that after teach¬ing Hannemann for about a year, Hannemann told him how much he appreciated every¬thing he had been taught.
“I told him to promise me some¬thing,” McCollum said. “Teach some¬one else, just like the way I taught you. To keep the music alive.”
For two and a half years, Hannemann has played on Massachusetts street with a tip jar and business cards.
To advertise his business, Hannemann is on Craigslist, and gets hired most often at funerals and weddings.
”I advertise because a lot of people don’t even know it’s there and avail¬able to them,” Hannemann said.
Josh Connor, Lawrence resident, ran into Hannemann in February when they were both advertising their instruments at the Lawrence Arts Center.
“Chris called me about my drum lessons, told me about his bagpiping, and we started playing and listening to Zeppelin together,” Connor said.
On St. Patrick’s Day, Connor saw Hannemann playing near The Replay on Massachusetts Street and told him he would love to play his drums with him sometime. The first time the two practiced together a neighbor called the police on them, Connor said.
“I looked back, and there was an officer standing there,” Connor said. “He said, ‘Well boys, you sound good, but we do have noise com¬plaints.’”
Hannemann said he has played at about 10 events in the last year, and his most memorable was a military funeral.
“I was playing and everyone, even tough generals, started crying,” Hannemann said. “It’s a really pow¬erful instrument.”
Although Hannemann said that business was sometimes hard to come by, and that it was a spur of the moment kind of thing, he said he loved doing it.
“I will have two gigs in a month, then none for another four months,” Hannemann said. “It always comes in waves.”
Hannemann said that his audience ranged from 6-year-olds to 60-year-olds, and that his outfit caught many eyes.
“I get asked from women more than any other question ‘Are you wearing underwear under there,’” Hannemann said. “I say, ‘You wear skirts with underwear; I wear a kilt with underwear.’”
Seeing how people react to his outfit is a highlight to Hannemann’s job, he said. However, the technical side of his job is not.
“It takes a lot of work to keep it sounding good,” Hannemann said. “Bagpipes are a very technical instrument.”
Hannemann said that when the nice weather came this summer, he began playing on the hill by the Campanile every Sunday at 8 p.m.
“People say they’ve heard me from like a mile and a half away,” Hannemann said. “Younger people come see what it is, hide behind bushes, then run away.”
After hearing Hannemann play from across campus and around town, J.R. Harper, Lawrence resi¬dent, decided to stop and listen.
Harper said he became interested in bag pipes because of a bag pipe marching band back in his home¬town.
Harper said that last weekend was the second time he had gone to the Campanile to hear Hannemann play, but that it wouldn’t be his last.
“He plays really well,” Harper said as he listened to Hannemann play. “I’ve heard him a lot of different places. It’s awesome.”
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