Bagpipes

[OC Richard]

I understand that with bagpipes it is nearly impossible to learn to play by ear

That's not the case, for example we have an excellent piper here who is totally blind.

Here he is. Anyone tells you that you need to read sheet music to learn pipes, tell them to listen to Austin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUSmYKKLGAQ

It's odd, the relationship between sheet music and Highland piping.

Very few pipers actually know how to read music, in the usual sense of being able to sightread a piece of music they have never seen or heard, cold, at first sight.

Likewise few pipers have developed their ear well enough to be able to play a tune upon first hearing it.

Most pipers exist in a strange place between ear-learning and eye-learning: to learn a tune they need to hear it AND have the sheet music in front of them, each being a crutch for the other.

Due to my playing Irish Traditional Music, which is learned by ear, I've developed the ability to quickly pick up tunes on the fly by ear. In our pipe band I'm the only one who doesn't want to look at the sheet music. The benefit of ear-learning is that I have the tunes mostly memorized by the end of the first rehearsal, while some of the pipers take weeks or months.

I do not have direct access to a teacher

Skype is an excellent way to go! I second the recommendation of Neil Clark.

A good teacher is tremendously helpful. For one thing you learn much faster due to focusing on the important things and avoiding getting bogged down in the unimportant ones.

Another thing is that self-learners usually waste huge amounts of time practicing their mistakes. The danger is having these mistakes becoming so ingrained that proper technique can never be acquired.