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Pleasant Hills police officer discovers a love for playing bagpipes
Wednesday, July 11, 2001 By Jim McMahon, Tri-State Sports & News Service
As a child, Jim Agnew loved the sounds his grandfather could squeeze from bagpipes, but never thought he'd follow in those musical footsteps.
"Heck, I never had any inclination to play any musical instrument, let alone the bagpipes, and I couldn't even read music," the Pleasant Hills police officer said.
But, Agnew, 29, has been learning the art in the two years since his father James Sr. admonished his three children essentially to "use it or lose it."
Several days each week, when his work schedule permits, Officer Agnew takes both group and private lessons. For him, the hardest part is committing the music to memory, not manipulating the strange-looking instrument.
Patrick Regan, instructor of the Macdonald Pipe Band and director of the Blue Bonnet School of Bagpiping and Drumming, described Agnew as "a very sharp, enthusiastic and hardworking student who will be a good bagpiper."
"Jim is very dedicated, has a good sense of music and has a good mastering of the instrument," said private instructor Bob Blachley, who has served 11 years as pipe major for the 35-year-old Macdonald Pipe Band.
He noted that Agnew qualified this year to perform in parades and should advance to participate in the solo competition section next year.
For six years after grandfather Hawthorne James Agnew's death, his instrument sat unused in a lovingly crafted handmade case in a bedroom corner of his son's West Jefferson home.
"My father told us he would give the musical instrument to someone who would use it if none of us would," said Officer Agnew, now one of 20 members of the well-known Macdonald Pipe Band. "So I decided to give it a try, and I love it."
His grandfather probably acquired the taste for the pipes from his Scots-born parents and displayed his talents with several marching bands including the Shriners.
"I'm so pleased this musical tradition is being passed down in the family," said his dad, who noted that for some reason it skipped his generation. "I think he's very good."
The new bagpiper participated in this year's St. Patrick's Day parade and played last week in Canonsburg's Fourth of July parade.
For the last two years, he has piped at the annual police memorial service at South Park and has played, attired in his kilt, at roughly a half-dozen funerals of retired police officers including last month's funeral for former Whitehall police Chief Willard Schauer.
"I enjoy every opportunity I get to play," said Jim Agnew, whose twin brother, Jeff, has expressed an interest in learning the pipes. "It would be great if both of us played in the band."
Their sister, Jennifer, 27, an audio engineer living in Columbus, Ohio, plays six musical instruments but apparently will pass on the bagpipes.
Officer Agnew plans to order a kilt with the family tartan, or colors, and wear it next May at his wedding, where the Macdonald band will entertain.
"I think it's in the blood," he said of his talent with and love for the bagpipes.
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