We met up with Ohio State’s resident bagpipe guy

The monotony and bitter chill of winter have many students longing for warmer weather. Faculty member Josh Whitson is also counting down the days until he can spend his afternoons outside, specifically on the Oval.

Many students don’t know Whitson personally, but they’re likely to know him by his alias: Bagpipe Guy.

Whitson began working in the Office of International Affairs in March of 2014. By the time campus thawed out that summer, only a handful of students were around to see him take to the Oval to practice his bagpipes. When the first day of the fall semester rolled around, “Bagpipe Guy” quickly became a campus celebrity. Even though he’s well known throughout Ohio State, a lot of people don’t know Whitson and why he’s playing his bagpipes.

Josh playing on the South Oval Sept. 2015

When was the first time you picked up the bagpipes?

I started playing the bagpipes probably 12 to 13 years ago now. One day, my friend said he was taking bagpipe lessons, so I thought that’d be interesting. I’d heard it before and thought about it, but they seemed pretty expensive and I didn’t even know how you would try to learn. There was a band that practiced in Cleveland, where I lived at the time, and we went to a band practice just to check it out. It was just really cool and I learned that you don’t actually need a full set of bagpipes to start learning. There’s a smaller instrument called a practice chanter that’s pretty quiet. You do that for like six months to a year before you try to play an actual set of bagpipes, just because they’re so loud and some people don’t like how they sound already. If you’ve ever heard someone trying to learn how to play the violin, it would be a thousand times worse than that because of how loud they are.

When did you realize this was something you continually wanted to pursue and improve upon?

I started with this band and, that was fun to do parades and different gigs and things like that, but what really got me interested was competing. I think it was like the second year I was playing, I started competing with a band, and also solo, and that’s what I found to be the most fun. I didn’t do very well that first year, but that inspired me to work harder. I did that for four or five years, then I took a little break to do grad school and everything like that, and then, when I was done with grad school, picked it back up again, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

What inspires you to keep improving your skills?

For me, it’s competition. The way that it works is, for solos and band, everything’s divided between grades. So for solos, you start in grade five and you go up four, three, two, one, to professional. The band is similar, just five through one. So every time you go up it’s more difficult, but you’re playing better, it sounds more musical. For me, both solos and the band, right now I’m playing up to grade two. I started at that bottom level and worked my way up, so it’s really nice to see that improvement.

I really like winning, I mean it’s a great feeling. At the end of a competition, all the different bands are playing together, so there could be 500 bagpipes playing at the same time. And then you’re sitting there in front of the stage and they’re announcing the winners, and then when they call your name because out of all the soloists, you had the most points for the day, and you come up and get a plaque. Just like any kind of sporting event, you’re motivating yourself to do better, get a better time than you previously had, and  play better than you used to. You have that championship at the end of the season kind of in your mind. For me, it’s actually very similar to playing a sport. I would describe myself more as a competitor than a performer.

What’s it like playing at Ohio State compared to other venues?

I got hired in March 2014, so it was snowy outside and the weather wasn’t nice. By the time the weather was nice enough that I could actually be out on the Oval playing regularly, just to practice, there weren’t really that many students here. Occasionally someone would stop by and say hi, but that was it. I could go an entire day outside and see maybe one or two people walk by. For me, it was the same experience I had previously practicing in a park or whatever, far away from people.

And then the first day of classes hit, and suddenly I realized, “oh this is kind of crazy” because I’m out here for 45 minutes practicing and there are literally a few thousand people that have walked by me while I’ve been standing here. So I was already used to going out there and playing every day before I realized just how many people would be walking around while I was practicing.

What’s the most memorable student interaction you’ve had while playing?

This past year, I did a thing where I filmed myself practicing every day for a whole year, and then I just did a highlights reel that I put on YouTube. And probably, the thing that sticks out the most would be the one time Brutus came charging over while I was playing. He came over and started dancing, and he actually tried to play, which sounded pretty bad. That’s probably the most memorable, but there’s a lot of funny students. Like right after the football season started, everyone started running by me and shouting “Brax spin!” There was also a student group, it was like a Peruvian music class or something, they came out and challenged me to a duel. I mean, people stop by and say hi all the time, but sometimes crazy crazy things happen.

It’s very cold outside right now, so you won’t be playing on the Oval any time soon. What are you most looking forward to this spring in terms of competing and being able to practice outside again?

All the above. Right now I just walk to a church a couple blocks away, but the Oval’s closer and I like being outside better, I think it sounds better and it’s just more enjoyable and you get to see people, so I’m looking forward to that. I think I’ll have a solo competition in Cincinnati in April. There’s also going to be a tattoo, which is when a lot of bands come together, in Virginia. They’re bringing in some of the top bands from Scotland. This is probably just going to be a one time thing, they’ve never done it before. It’ll be like a big arena filled with an audience and a ton of different bands competing and playing, so that should be pretty cool.