I love hymns. After 32 years of going to church with my wife, I have become addicted to hymns. They are a lot like bagpipe tunes, which has made it an easy task to arrange 65 of them for the bagpipe.
I wanted to do something else along with that. I still feel that the biggest challenge in the bagpipe education market is the lack of rhythm training. This instrument is still being taught by rote, much like any other folk instrument. In the lyric line of each hymn, I have inserted the rhythm syllables so that you can sing along. I have also recorded each hymn on the practice chanter. If you learn to sing the syllables along with the CD, you will not only learn to sing the hymn, but you will learn to read rhythm by association. If you aren’t sure what I mean, you can go to https://www.bagpiperhythm.com and take a couple of free lessons in rhythm training to get you started. If you combine fingering the tune while singing the rhythm, you then shorten the length of time that it takes to memorize a tune. After 15 years of teaching this instrument on a full time basis, these are the results that I’ve seen.
Here is the information about the book:
What do you do when your family calls your bagpiping into service?
It’s been my experience that most of my students don’t become bagpipers because they want to play at events. My average student comes to me because he/she is curious about playing the bagpipe. Once I get them to the point where they can play something, a family...
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