buying a chanter kit

[porrick]

Thats a great website! Id suggest you get a full size chanter and hammer the scale grace notes and doublings until you can do tham cleanly from every melody note, then youve made a start, its not like a guitar where you can whack out a tune immediatly

How true that is!

Personally, I break up tedious exercises with playing a few tunes only using G grace notes and the occasional light throw on the D. Playing the main notes without ornamentation is not that big of a deal - but it does sound boring and unispiring compared to the real thing. Anyway, never having played an instrument before, there is a good feeling being able to sound out e.g. Amazing Grace or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star well enough for my 6 year old to recognize...
I try to get in 3 x 20 minutes of practice per day, and there is actually improvement to be traced.