Are Your Bagpipes a Money Pit?
If you are serious about playing pipes, how much should you consider spending on piping? Chanters, reeds, pipe bags, and private instruction all add up. Is the cost reasonable?
Bridging the Gap Between Old and New Chanters
Do you need to buy a new chanter to play with a band? Can your old chanter match the new poly band chanters? Can a band sound amazing with all different chanters?
Andrew has a surprising answer to this question.
Is Circular Breathing Necessary?
Have you tried circular breathing? Do you need to know how to circular breathe to become a better piper?
Solar Eclipse That Thang
Are you hitting the beat accurately? Are you like most pipers who struggle with this piping fundamental? Can you easily identify what exactly should be on the beat?
How to Find Your Perfect Practice Tempo
Do you play your tunes too fast so you can’t hear your mistakes? Or maybe you always keep the metronome at the same easy tempo for every practice session? How do you know what tempo to choose to improve your playing?
What NOT To Do When Piping in the Cold
Scheduled to play a parade in the next month or so? Preparing for that graveside memorial and the temperature takes a nosedive? How do you play in cold temperatures and stay in tune? Most pipers have been given the wrong advice!
Why You Can’t Just “Blow Tone”
Have you been told to blow tone or blow steady? Does your chanter reed cut out or squeal? Is it hard for you to tune your drones to your chanter? Does this whole concept of great tone seem ambiguous?
Why Can't I Memorize My Bagpipe Tune?!
How long does it take you to learn a tune? Do you work on it for weeks without much progress? Does it take you months to memorize a new tune and still have parts that cause your fingers to stumble?
Join us as Andrew walks you through a simple process to learn a tune. Practicing is not enough. Follow this foolproof method to have any tune up and running in one week!
My Most Painful Performance FAILURE Story
When I was in my late teens, I made a mistake at the Worlds playing with the SFU Pipe Band. A bad mistake. There’s a…
Bagpipers: How to Play FAST
Some pipers think that it is really hard to play fast, but they’re wrong. It’s very easy to play fast, even at a tempo that comes close to matching that of Stuart Liddell. Thus, a fast tempo is really no problem at all. The problem arises when we expect to play fast and at the same time make anything that sounds close to good music.