Command Your Bagpipe # 2: Tactics to Improve Your Practice! - Bagpipe Lessons 

Glad you liked it!

You're welcome! Glad you are finding the videos helpful and keep on piping. It'll keep you young (or so I've heard)!

Ha! If you watch my 60-minute practice video, you'll see I do micro-tuning throughout... And recording has never been easier with everyone now owning a smartphone!

Glad to hear you got something out of it!

Thanks! Hope it helps you maximize your practice. 👍👍

I appreciate that!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks! I started college as a theater major, so...

Glad you found this useful. And I like to say "make the time" as I can never seem to find it!

Great suggestion!

Good on You Heather. Now it all makes sense to Me. I've noticed whenever I have practiced near the cemetery in geelong that People well up and begin crying. Nice to think My music is stirring emotions. ) Wish I was back in the hills . 64 yr old GrandFather picking up after a fourty five year absence )) warm regards Stephen

One of the most important things is not to be shy when practicing outdoors ...I play at beautiful old cemeteries standing on a hill etc, and to begin with I was very embarrassed to be a plump little gran mid 70s with white hair ...not a bit like a picture book piper! But as I watched the reaction of visitors in the distance, standing listening, hugging, getting teary and waving etc I realised that the music was healing them, healing me. It’s not about yourself,it’s about the pipes, the emotions they send out. When the pipes are playing they own the valley, they have life, and they are so powerful a messenger that the person playing them becomes insignificant. Now I let them have their head and I feel very privileged to be able to help them. It was never about me. Since feeling this way I have played in lots of places overcoming my self doubt. New pipers may find some benefit from schooling their mind set this way. My pipes have become a person to me, some days tetchy and ill mannered, some days sweet and co operative..and some days downright show offs! I talk to them when I set them up, but that’s what dotty old grans are allowed to do.

Your welcome! Glad you found it useful.

Good to know! I'll definitely check those out!

Had to look these guys up, but they're pretty funny! Do they reference something along those lines (if you can't play it slow correctly, you can't play it fast correctly)?

@@MattWillisBagpiper They agree with you 100%! Its a running joke on their channel hahaha. I started learning on practice chanter last summer and recently found your videos. Very informative and helpful!

Your practice "layout" sounds good, with probably one day a week of a warmup followed by working through all your repertoire. And don't forget to occasionally pick them up to just "play" them; it should be fun too! I just don't call my fun time on the instrument "practice".

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of latency in the bluetooth ES215's... I don't think they'd be usable as monitors. I can't even use them visually with my metronome, as they are off by quite a bit (though I rarely look at the metronome while using them).

Good to know!

Tempo by Frozen Ape, but any metronome should do. Soundbrenner is another good one.

Not stupid at all! It really depends, but if the tunes are all the same tempo (like a set of marches, jigs, or whatever), 6-8 total parts is about the max before your audience may start to get disinterested. So that three or four 2-part tunes, or two 4-part tunes (though if there are key signature changes between longer tunes, three 4-part tunes might be okay). When you introduce tempo changes (like an MSR or medley, you can go significantly longer, as there are more points of interest in the set.

That’s “A Trip to Miss” by The Killdares from our 2005 album _Any Given Element_ (and yes, that’s me from 15 years ago on the recording).

Matt Willis Bagpiper Thanks Matt, you’re the best!

Binder clips and/or gaff tape have help immensely on windy outside days! I've had far too much music blow away. Even the stand would often blow over. But I could always tape the music to my car's windows in a pinch

One of our pipers used her jumper cable clips to hold her music down. :D