Jul 30, 2019
I find that my students come in on a regular basis and say “this is what I did this week”. If you have been reading my blog, you know that I ascribe to the premise that my job is to teach my students how to practice this week. The growth happens between lessons. I...
Jul 7, 2019
In my last blog post I told you about my student (the flight attendant) who was having a problem trying to find time to practice her bagpipe. We went back and forth on that for some time, trying to find her a solution. Just to recap: My flight attendant student...
Jun 23, 2019
Well, does it? I have spent the last 22 years teaching (mostly) adults how to play the bagpipe. Most of my adult students work 9 to 5 Monday thru Friday. The students who succeed are the students who blow their pipes regularly (at least 3 to 4 time per week). If you...
Jun 17, 2019
After starting my bagpipe career at Helix High School in La Mesa, California in 1972, my family moved north to Newport Beach. The month before Helix had just put on their Highland Games. As I was licking my wounds from the move and looking at the games brochure that...
Jun 13, 2019
After 22 years of teaching bagpipe students of various ages, I am now teaching mostly adults. One of the characteristics of being an adult student is that a lot them think that learning to play the bagpipe will be an easy task…until they get started. I always tell...
Jun 5, 2019
Though Christmas seems eons away, it’s really just around the corner. And perhaps all those Christmas in July sales put you in the holiday mood. That means now is a good time to start thinking about Christmas Carols. How is your Christmas Carol repertoire? Can...
Mar 18, 2019
If you were like most bagpipers during the St. Patrick’s holiday, you spent a lot of time blowing your instrument. In spite of having a moisture control system, your bagpipes are probably water logged at this point. I tried tuning a fellow bagpipers drones over the...
Jan 28, 2019
Over the years, there have been groups that have formed on Facebook looking for free bagpipe sheet music. Most people wouldn’t think anything of that. It’s free so it can’t be bad, right? Not necessarily! I’d like to take a moment to explain to you why those groups...
Dec 5, 2018
A lot of people think they want to play the bagpipe. How about you? How long have you been thinking about playing this instrument? Are you concerned that you won’t have time to devote to instruction? Are you worried about commitment? Indeed, the biggest concern for a...
Nov 30, 2018
I find that in teaching bagpipers how to play the bagpipe, I need to remind them of what a bagpiper is. “A bagpiper is person who can play a list of bagpipe tunes on the bagpipe by memory, who can develop their own music, and who can maintain their own bagpipe,” I...
