A Mom's Ode to Bagpiping

Tracey Cowart considers herself just like any other Naperville mom.

She volunteers in her community, helps her husband with his business and makes dinners for her family.

Oh — and she plays the bagpipes.

When asked to describe herself, that's exactly how she does it. As if playing the bagpipes — an instrument she often spends hours a day practicing — is an expected, minor detail.

"I'm really not all that interesting," the 51-year-old mother of three says with a laugh. "This is just one way I spend my time."

Playing the bagpipes isn't Cowart's only quirky hobby. She also loves entering contests — or, as she calls it, "sweep staking" — in hopes of winning various prizes. And she's good at it.

Her husband, Don, says he wasn't shocked when one day a refrigerator showed up in a delivery truck at his Naper Boulevard chiropractic clinic. Tracey also has won numerous all-inclusive trips to destinations such as Hollywood, Calif., and Aruba, and she's been given an opportunity to participate in training camp with the Chicago Bears. In 2004, she was a contestant on the game show Wheel of Fortune.

"Every day is different with her," says Don Cowart, 52, who wears a permanent smile when he talks about his wife of almost 30 years. "All the days are good. But they are all different."

Tracey knows Don is her biggest fan. She often hears him clapping from their upstairs bedroom when she finishes playing a tune on her bagpipes in the kitchen, she says. And he didn't bat an eye when, back in 2000, she told him she'd like to begin taking lessons.

In fact, he helped her search for more than six months to find a teacher in Naperville. The Cowarts eventually happened upon an 80-year-old former bagpipe major who was willing to guide her, despite his feeling that bagpiping should remain a male-dominated hobby.

"His opening line to me was, 'I will teach you to play, but we will never march together,'" Tracey says.

She later learned he was "full of hot air." The two became and remain great friends, though the gentleman no longer teaches lessons.

Today, Tracey is a member of the Firefighters Highland Guard of Naperville. She joins 15 other bagpipers in the group, 14 of whom are men, and about a dozen percussionists to play at local funerals and weddings and to march in parades.

But remaining part of the band is demanding. Bagpipers must regularly take lessons, Tracey says, because tunes get increasingly difficult and require new techniques. Since there is no way to carry music while playing the instrument, every melody must be memorized, note by note.

Songs are typically learned on what's called a chanter. It's a flute-like component of the bagpipes that is used for at least six months before musicians try using a bag.

Tracey estimates she knows between 50 and 60 tunes by heart. And she loves them all.

"It's just an instrument that when you hear it, it truly speaks to your soul," she says. "It just resonates with me. I don't know why."

She recognizes that some people loathe the what they perceive to be the screechy sound of the bagpipes. "You're either on one side of the spectrum or the other," she says.

It's quite clear which side Tracey's on.

But there are two aspects of the hobby she admits she could do without: crowd members shouting for her to play Freebird, and the bulky kilt she sometimes has to wear.

"The outfit was definitely designed by a man," she says. "No woman in her right mind would wrap eight yards of tartan plaid around her hips and wear it to march in a parade."

With a price tag of about $1,200, the outfit is tailored for each musician's body. The kilt alone costs $450 and weighs 16 pounds, Tracey says.

But her passion for the sound of the bagpipes makes both the garb and all the practicing worthwhile, she says.

The entire Cowart family has embraced Tracey's hobby, and her neighbors — who happen to be Scottish — have too. Even her 11-year-old dog, Maggie, seems to like the sound. Every time Tracey begins to play, Maggie howls and barks in accompaniment.

"I used to think the sound hurt her ears," Tracey says. "But she'll come over to the noise and kind of lean into it. She's singing."

Tracey is motivated by the constant challenge that comes with playing the bagpipes. She says they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

"It relaxes me to play," she says. "It makes me feel good."