<p>Awww . . . it’s already been done 
:</p>
<p>“Rufus Harley, Jr. (b. near Raleigh, North Carolina, May 20, 1936; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 31, 2006) was an American jazz musician of mixed Cherokee and African ancestry, known primarily as the first jazz musician to adopt the Scottish great Highland bagpipe as his primary instrument.” - Wikipedia</p>
<p>Haha, I just looked Rufus Harley up myself too since I’ve never heard of jazz piping before.</p>
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<p>I disagree. I submitted a recording of myself playing bluegrass and swing fiddle music and was accepted. If they don’t want to listen to it, they don’t have to, but it’s nice to have a recording available so that they can tell if you’re a hack or not. IMO even an admissions officer should be able to tell the difference between a rank beginner and Gordon Duncan, and if they can’t, and are serious about your application, I bet they can find someone in the Celtic Studies department who can. From what you’ve said about your level of experience, I think submitting a recording can only work in your favor.</p>
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<p>OH MY GOD. </p>
<p>Native American: check.
African American: check.
Play an eccentric instrument: check.</p>
<p>If he had a 2100/3.7+ he’d be a shoo-in for HYPS.</p>
<p>(PS: I’m kidding. Or not. I’m not really sure.)</p>
<p>I think jazz piping would be fun…and it would definitely be one of those things that an interviewer would ask you about. Just trying it would be interesting, even if you didn’t make a recording.</p>
<p>I only know second-hand about the bagpipe scholarship, but I understand there were several colleges interested in the kid for his piping skills. I think Notre Dame was one of them, but that’s not where he’s going.</p>
<p>PS. My son is a freshman at Yale, and he knows *two *undergrads who play the musical saw.</p>
<p>I knew someone at Harvard who played didgeridoo. But I think he picked it up during college.</p>
<p>“if they can’t, and are serious about your application, I bet they can find someone in the Celtic Studies department who can.”</p>
<p>Yes, they will find someone who knows decent bagpipes from great bagpipes, even if they have to go outside Harvard to do it.</p>
<p>Bagpipe story digression: my college boyfriend, who went to Oberlin, was a bagpiper. When he came to visit me at Bryn Mawr (once or twice each semester), he would pipe his way from the train station to my dorm. I thought this was awesome and romantic – I could hear him start playing at the train station blocks away, and it was like he was heralding his arrival.</p>
<p>Years later I met a Bryn Mawr grad at a party in Chicago, and we commiserated about the down sides of that particular dorm, which was known for attracting eccentrics. She said, “Oh, and there was always some freak playing bagpipes outside my window! Yech! I was so glad when I got the chance to move away!”</p>
<p>Did you ever see the Daffy Duck cartoon in which he uses all kinds of musical instruments to calm down the Tasmanian Devil? The only one which has an opposite effect is the bagpipes.</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t have claimed to have been a master of courting rituals anyway, but all of us guys have to step back and bow to the genius of this one. I’m not sure I’d have had the chutzpah even if I’d known how to pipe, but this move was indeed awesome.</p>