There may not be a cast or steady assured income in it but, if you love the music, there are satisfactions and a living to be had from a performing career as a piper.
Moreover, more and more opportunities are opening for pipers to become professional performing musicians, said piper Finlay MacDonald whose debut album - Finlay MacDonald - was recently released by Foot Stompin' Records in Edinburgh. "At the moment," he said, "I'm working on my band, trying to get that going, and getting known as a piper-flute player, travelling and touring. I'm always composing. I see myself in 5-10 years being able to do musically and having enough to live on from that. If not, I'll just have to do more gigs that I maybe don't enjoy so much."
Since he graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow in 1999, Finlay MacDonald has made ends meet through his music: "It's been two good years," he said. And it is getting better.The whole folk-traditional and crossover musical scene is a lot bigger. If you look at the Musicians Union book on festivals, there are hundreds of them. " I did 11 weeks in America last year, six weeks with a festival every other day and gigs every other day. You can do extra workshops and, if you go with product - a CD, a teeshirt and a hat - you can double your income from that alone.
"There is a lot more happening, and more funding. It's becoming recognised as a real style not just a bit of diddly stuff that happens in the corner of the pub," he said "The general quality of musicianship is getting better all the time… you have to be good - but there's room for more."His advise to any young piper who is thinking of a performing career comes from his own current experience: "Learn a second instrument. Get really good. Practise every day. Take the rejections. Seek work: the work's not going to come to you. Get out there and work: do the weddings, the ceilidhs… be reliable. Do the job; always work the contract.
"And don't forget: you're in it to play music "You need to see it as a career and constantly work at it."
Finlay MacDonald earned his first payments piping for weddings when he was 15 years old. "I'd go out and do a weekend gig or play at a wedding and get the same money as a pal doing seven-hour shifts at ASDA." But, as a full-time career choice, piping is harder work: "It's a thing you have to be in for the love of it.
"For me, it means doing more than piping. I play the flute, the whilstles and the uillean pipes as well. The more versatile you can be the better
"Musically, I wanted another instrument anyway, then I had to do a second instrument for the Academy.
"Since I've done that - flute and whistle - I've never looked back," Said Finlay MacDonald. "A lot of people think, 'och, you do the same kind of stuff', but it's completely different. " I think I've developed musically for it, and financially I've benefited. I've had loads of gigs because of it. But you have to reach a standard - you have to go for it, and get into that tradition as well."
"If you're a competing piper or pipe band member it's not the case, of course, but if you're playing with other instruments, you have to be in pitch: concert pitch. For any other instrument, it's just a normal requirement." Finlay MacDonald travels with an A chanter for his Highland pipes and a Bb chanter - "I get reeds specially made that bit flatter so I can play in Bb." He also has bellows-blown Border pipes in A, and whistles in D, Eb, F, G, A.
The work is not all live engagements, though they range from weddings to concerts. There are recording sessions, providing instrumental backing for other musicians, there is radio work and teaching.
"Some months you can make a huge amount and the next month just the bare minimum. Budgeting is important. If you have one great month you can't go and spend it all - you have to save some for the next month which might not be so good. "When you've had really busy times, then you get a really quiet month, but spend that time composing, practising, developing my repertoire, chasing up jobs, doing my accounts, tax returns… you always have things to do. " a musician with nothing to do is doing something wrong."
" You have to think about raising your profile all the time. I look for work all the time and I have an agent working for me. I've got promotion packs made up with photos, reviews, biographies and a CD. It goes out to venues, festivals, agents and promoters. I'm touring my five-piece band from that - Drums, bass, piano, guitar, fiddle and pipes - tours or single gigs.
" Word of mouth is important. But you have to spend money to make money.
" The rewards are playing music I enjoy, playing music with people I really enjoy playing with, going places I enjoy going to."
Sometimes, he said, it is important to say 'no'. You do have to say no quite a lot and, it's amazing that in this day and age, there are still people who believe you can just give a piper a bottle of whiskey and that's it. Maybe some people are happy to do that. I just tell them I'm not willing to do it. "But there are projects I've done because I've really wanted to do the project.
" It goes back to the whole thing about being in it for the music. A lot of the time it happens that the things you get the most satisfaction from are the ones that pay you the least and the more commercial ones, that maybe you're not completely artistically involved in, pay you well.
" As long as you keep a standard."