Breathing Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Performing and competing can be stressful. Have you felt that moment (or many moments) of panic and anxiety before performing? Dojo U has some great…
Category: Solo Piping
When Should I Buy My First Set of Bagpipes?
If you're just starting on your piping journey (or you're coaching someone along who is), this is a common question to ask. After all, usually…
Band vs Solo Chanter: What's the Difference?
If you're learning or playing the bagpipes with a band, it's common to have a pipe chanter handed to you to play when you're playing…
Advanced Piper? Great...Prove It!
If you're new at Dojo U, it's a lot like your first day at any other school. You check your class schedule, look at the…
Crossing Noises: More Than You Might Want to Know
If you are relatively new to piping, you might be trying hard at this point to eliminate crossing noises as you transition from one note to another. But even for more experienced pipers, a pesky crossing noise may find its way into our piping. Here are some thoughts on how to analyze and get rid of crossing noises.
Chanter Tuning Brain Games
Chanter tuning is a skill that can take a while to develop. At Dojo U, we cover this regularly in live classes, in detail in…
Compound Interest on the Bagpipes
Just like police recruits often get tased before graduation, I've insisted that our entire Dojo U teaching team needs to personally work their way through…
The Best Seasoning for a Sheepskin Bag
You’ve just purchased a sheepskin bag, and you’re excited to tie it in and get playing. You’ve gotten suggestions for different types of seasonings including glycerine based solutions. Should you try it?
The Best Tune to Play for Your First Competition
Are you planning to compete as a soloist for the first time this year? What tune should you play? What are the good standard tunes that work best for beginning soloists?
How to Use a Metronome to Learn a Strathspey
When you play a strathspey, does anyone ever tell you that it “sounds like a march”? Is it difficult to get the correct strathspey rhythm, no matter how many times you play through the same tune? One method of learning a strathspey correctly is to use a metronome from the outset, and hear your playing improve.