How to Use a Water Manometer to Find the Chanter Reed’s Sweet Spot
A water manometer is an extremely useful tool that can help us to achieve several fundamental goals in piping, including blowing at the correct pressure…
The Judges Speak! The Top 5 Reasons Pipers Fail to Reach the Next Grade Level
Finally, some answers! I recently spent some time "surveying" bagpipe judges from around the world, and taking mental notes on key concepts regarding pipers reaching the…
Stronger Body, Stronger Brain, Better Piper
Playing Highland bagpipes is a physical experience. To become better players, we often work to develop the the physical mechanics of playing the instrument. But how many pipers think that working out our brains can make us better players as well?
How to Thread a Drone Reed Seat
This post is written by Dr. John Holcombe.
One of the biggest fears some pipers have is that one of their drone reeds will suddenly come out of its reed seat and fall into the pipebag, leaving you with no ability to play. If this ever happens, trust me here, it will occur during one of your most important performances. But there is a way to totally eliminate the possibility of a drone reed becoming dislodged, and that is to “thread” the reed seat using a commonly found tool.
Throw Away Your Bagpipe Tuner!
Are you like many pipers who think that using an electronic tuner is the only way to get a great sound out of their bagpipe? Have ever told yourself that you simply don’t have “an ear” that is trained well enough to tune your own pipes?
Tunes For Improving Rhythmic Accuracy
Rhythmic accuracy, scale navigation, grace note quality, embellishment quality, and ALAP/ASAP, are foundation skills on the Highland bagpipe. We must be able to accurate navigate the notes on the chanter, we must have crisp, clean grace notes and embellishments, and we must imply dynamics through ALAP/ASAP.
The Quest for Meaningful Bagpiping
Gilbert Chesterton, the early 20th century English writer, once said "If a thing is worth doing it is worth doing badly." Chesterton was a staunch…
How to Use a Metronome to Learn a Reel
In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz. A reel is in 4/4 time, but when written out, reels are most often written in a 2/2 time signature, also known as "cut time".
How to Use a Metronome to Learn a Jig
When you are learning a new jig, do you often have trouble staying “on the beat” because you are using all of your concentration just to play all of the melody notes, gracenotes and embellishments correctly? Then, after you get those pesky things out of the way, are you still having trouble getting that “jig feel”? Using a metronome during your practice may well be a useful tool for you.
How to Use a Metronome to Learn a 2/4 March
When you are learning a new competition march, do you often have trouble staying “on the beat” because you are using all of your concentration just to play all of the melody notes, gracenotes and embellishments correctly? Then, after you get those pesky things out of the way, are you still having trouble getting that “march feel”? Using a metronome during your practice may well be a useful tool for you.