May 26, 2016
How strong are you? When I ask people that question, they flex their muscles. If I ask that of bagpipers, it’s all about lungs. Let’s face it: Playing the bagpipes is a physical challenge. It takes not only lung power, but lip and arm power as well. My job as a...
Apr 23, 2016
Today, while playing at a funeral, I met the son of the one of the limo drivers, a man who I’ve come to know over the years since I’ve been playing for particular funeral home. The son is 41 and was just let go from his job and has moved back in with Dad. Dad was...
Jan 7, 2016
Crossing noises are a common problem in playing the bagpipe. They are false notes created between top hand notes and bottom hand notes when the hands open and close in the wrong sequence. For example: The first and most popular crossing noise happens between D and E....
Aug 5, 2015
Sometimes the behavior of my bagpipe students perplexes me. They work hard through the initial “honeymoon” phase, get past what I refer to as “the struggle”, reaching a success point where they are ready for pipes..and then they die on the proverbial vine. My students...
May 15, 2015
A mother of a perspective student called me the other day asking about my availability for lessons for her 10-year-old son. During the conversation, she gave me the impression that she was concerned about him “sticking with it”. That is always a concern for parents....
Feb 14, 2015
Do you have 10 years of experience or 1 year of experience 10 times? Interesting question, isn’t it? I have found in the music world that there is a difference between people who play instruments. In the bagpipe world there are people who have been playing 10 years...
Apr 16, 2014
A student came in last week with his new set of pipes. He had had them for only a few weeks. I asked him: “Well? How did it go?” He told me that he hadn’t done anything with them. After speaking with him for a few minutes I realized that he, like most people who get...
Mar 12, 2014
The greatest and the worst thing about teaching bagpipes is the amount of music written for the instrument. I personally love the amount and variety of music for our instrument. The problem is with new people. Because of the great variety of not only printed music but...
May 19, 2013
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...
Mar 13, 2013
In recent days, I have taken a lot of flack on the Bob Dunsire forums, standing up for a brand that I believe in. I feel that it is unprofessional and improper for people to voice their negative opinions about a product or company and not allow the vendor to redeem...
