First lesson

[KD Burke]

Get a good teacher.

It's a slow process. Frustration is a part of it. Be patient, ad GO SLOW. Concentrate on executing the movements properly.

When you've learned what you can there, change teachers. Keep learning.

[tulloch]

Congratulations! Play every day - as much as you can steal time for. Listen a lot - recorded music and live music. Go to festivals. Start looking at pipes. Take your time. Indulge yourself.

I started at 55. Been playing almost four years. I am constantly happy with it. I play for various events by myself and I play with a small band.

[pbutts]

Ditto to all of the above. I began learning at the beginning of my teaching career and always said I wanted to experience the challenge of learning to keep me humble.....oh boy does it ever! Practice as slowly and deliberately as you can. You can practice fingering anything......a pencil, the edge of your desk, the steering wheel. There is so much going on at once, the greatest thing about a good teacher is to help you focus on one thing at a time. I envy anyone who is learning today because there is so much music available online. It can be near impossible learning tunes without knowing what they sound like; find your beginning tunes on YouTube and listen as often as possible. Learn to sing them when you can't practice.

Consider keeping a journal to log your progress. I like to make notes on the various components of new tunes to help me memorize them and remember what gracenotes and tempo issues need attention.

If you haven't discovered it yet, check out
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/index.php -- lot's of X Marks folks over there.

[scottmphoto]

While I don't play the pipes (yet), I spent eight years in my schools band program. The secret to success is practice. Finding someone to teach you is fantastic and will get you much farther than trying to do it on your own. Just don't give up when something doesn't go your way and doesn't sound right. Keep at it and it'll come.

[OC Richard]

2014 makes 40 years piping for me!

You don't say your age, but I've observed over the years that the adult learners who succeed (becoming decent pipers) have these things in common:

1) prior musical experience
2) fanatical dedication
3) large amounts of free time to practice
4) excellent instruction

I can't think of anybody I know personally who has succeeded without having all four.

Two people who got good as adult learners were stay-at-home moms who had been music majors or music minors in college (trumpet, both of them, I think). When their kids were off at school they practiced, two to four hours a day, five days a week. (Not together; these women didn't know each other, but happened to have similar paths.)

Three were guys who had very understanding families and/or were able to practice at work (having private, and sound-isolated, offices!) and had played other instruments since their youth. These guys would put in each at least an hour a day Monday through Friday.

Set up against these success stories are untold dozens of adult learners with crazy-busy lives who simply didn't have any time to practice and the time and cost of their lessons was, in truth, wasted. A half-hour or hour lesson, once a week, accomplishes nothing if there's not several hours of practice in between.

Things like being stay-at-home parents, or being retired, or being laid off from work, are the bagpipe teacher's friends!

The Scottish pipes might be unique (or at least unusual) in having a number of different fields of knowledge/skill-sets that the truly well-rounded pipers masters (or at least knows something about)

1) the fingering of the chanter

2) the winding of the instrument or blowing technique, what pipers call "blowing tone"

3) tuning

4) the vast complex lore concerning reeds and the instrument itself (choosing and adjusting reeds, doing the joints of the pipes, choosing, maintaining, and tying-in pipe bags, knowing about different pipe makers, etc etc)

5) repertoire (ceol mor, ceol beag, etc)

6) knowledge of the heritage of the instrument (famous composers, various schools of teaching, the various milieus of the pipes etc etc)

7) knowledge of Scottish and Highland history and culture and perhaps at least a smattering of Gaelic (long the language of the pipes)

Now, there are plenty of pipers who don't know anything about 6 and 7. There are very good players who play in very good pipe bands who only have mastered 1 and 2 (all of their reedwork and pipe maintenance and tuning done by their Pipe Major).

I have seen some very good players (excellent fingerwork and blowing) who couldn't tune their own pipes.

So the list is longer than it perhaps need be; however the 'old guys' knew the whole lot, and many were (and are) fluent Gaelic speakers.

One thing that I've come to appreciate more and more over the years is the value of a good instrument (not necessarily expensive or by a famous-maker) and the value of an excellent set-up (the right bag and reeds and everything adjusted optimally). So many things that beginners struggle with, such as blowing tone, getting good strike-ins, and getting good cut-offs, are so much easier on an excellent and excellently set-up pipe. Such a pipe is a joy and pleasure to play.

[GrainReaper]

I have long wanted to take up the pipes, I'm 41 and have sporradic but precious spare time..

I do have musical training playing the trumpet, tuba, trombone, French horn, etc.

A plus is I was blessed with absolute pitch. I can play songs by simply hearing them once or twice without struggle once I know how to play a scale on the instrument.

I hope to one day get a chanter and take up the pipes.

What is a good chanter at an affordable price?

[KD Burke]

I'd like to chime in on behalf of the adult learners. My own prior musical experience was an abortive attempt to learn guitar when I was eight. I started on the chanter at the age of 45. My practice time is somewhat limited, but I do practice faithfully every day for at least a half hour. When I can I play more. My practice time is divided between the pipes, practice chanter, goose, and an electronic chanter. Each has its place.

I do have good teachers, and I suppose, persistence. After four years I am far from a "great" piper, but I can, and do maintain my own instrument, select my own reeds, tune both chanter and drones, and play ceol beg tunes correctly and musically. I'm I the process of learning my first piobaireachd, "The Company's Lament".

I have competed in Grade IV senior for the past year. So far, I have not placed above 5th place, but I have received encouraging comments from the judges on my tuning.

By OC Richard's definition, I have not been "successful" in learning the pipes, but I have had a hell of a lot of fun.

So, the only person keeping you from learning, is you. If you want to learn, I for one don't think it is too late!

[OC Richard]

I have musical training playing the trumpet, tuba, trombone, French horn, etc.

A plus is I was blessed with absolute pitch. I can play songs by simply hearing them once or twice without struggle once I know how to play a scale on the instrument.

I hope to one day get a chanter and take up the pipes.

What is a good chanter at an affordable price?

Your musical experience and ear will be a tremendous help in learning the pipes.

The thing that will take the most practice, I'm pretty sure, is getting the finger dexterity and muscle memory to play the ornamentation, which has always been deemed part-and-parcel to playing the pipes idiomatically.

The ornaments consist of single notes and groups of two up to six or seven notes, all of which occurring more rapidly than any note any orchestral instrument is called on to play, and more rapidly than many orchestral instruments are capable of playing (many not having quick enough response time).

The secret of mastering these is a vast amount of repetition.

About practice chanters, I really like the Gibson long PC. It's more free-blowing and musical-sounding than most traditionally made PCs (which tend to sound a bit like kazoos).

http://www.hendersongroupltd.com/car...idcategory=220

In our pipe band most of the people use McCallum long PCs. The plain poly ones sound as good as any and are less expensive

http://www.thepipershut.com/product-p/pc4.htm

[Macman]

I love this thread and hearing everyones' stories. You've received excellent advice. I'll throw in my perspective. I started nine years ago at age 50. I don't compete, but play in a street band populated by a range of pipers going from newbies to Grade 1. I go to band practice and have a lesson almost every week. I would guess that I play at a grade V level, and my slow progress has been solely due to lack of practice time. I find that when I can practise more, I progress faster. When I can't (mainly due to work demands), I get worse. I can hardly wait until I retire, and then I will be able to devote the time I want to this fabulous instrument.