Those who frequent Bethesda Avenue for morning bagels or coffee have likely heard the Scottish hymns coming from the bagpipes of Ben Williams.
Actually, if you’re within three blocks of Williams you’ve probably heard him.
Williams is the guy who occasionally hits Bethesda Avenue, usually near the Quartermaine coffee shop, for an impromptu performance on the reed-fed wind instrument. It can be loud and quite a morning wake-up call for many in one of downtown’s busiest areas.
“There are people that love bagpipes or hate them,” Williams said. “I just enjoy playing a lot.”
The Wheaton resident was on Bethesda Avenue with his pipes on Tuesday morning. He has a performance later in the day on Capitol Hill. This morning’s performance was really a warm-up session.
He asked the manager in Quartermaine for permission before he got going in front of the store.
“Your pipes are such that you’ve got to warm up the pipes, make the reeds work,” Williams said. “People play when they haven’t tuned properly. Beginners will play before they tune and it sounds bad. People will go, ‘Ooh, are they in tune,’ or think you can’t tune bagpipes.”
You can tune bagpipes. Williams does it often. He started playing because of his grandmother, who was of Scottish descent. He plays for weddings, birthdays, parties, dedications, reunions, funerals, you name it. He even does piper-grams.
“That’s what I do,” Williams said. “I do it for my own entertainment.”
(h/t Ronit Dancis)
