I’m going to encourage those reading The Average Piper to incorporate these lessons into your daily practice regimen. Never practice without a metronome. Rip the tunes apart and understand exactly where the notes are supposed to land. Practice this over and over and over again. It you accept mistakes and errors in either technique or timing, these flaws will become “baked” into what you do. In order to correct this, you need to do things correctly several times in succession. As a very wise man once told me “hurry along slowly”.

I used to play a game with myself. When practicing, if I made a technical or musical error, I would pull that phrase out and go over it several times until it was locked in. Then I’d put it back into the tune. If I stumbled or failed to meet my standard, I’d repeat this exercise until I was able to do it correctly “ten-out-of-ten” times.

This leads me to a related topic and then I’ll circle back. These skills build very slowly…and erode very quickly. To quote Russian composer and pianist Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894) “If I miss practicing one day, I know it; if I miss two days, my friends know it; and if I miss three days, the public knows it.” This is equally true of bagpipes.

If you don’t practice daily, you’re working against yourself. For every day that you miss, you take two or more steps back. When working with students, I can tell within a minute whether or not they practiced daily since the last lesson. It’s just that obvious.

I learned long ago that personal organization played a major role in my ability to accomplish goals. If I took a haphazard approach, I’d spin out of control and wind up blowing an assignment. On the other hand, if I laid out a plan first and set specific goals along the way, I was much better able to stay on task and achieve the desired outcome. I think it’s all a matter of personal motivation and dedication.

With “Glasgow City Police Pipers” and other similar “round” tunes, (reels and jigs) they provide the best means with which to improve the discipline of proper note placement. I’m going to let this lesson “marinade” for a week. I’ll introduce other tunes that can also be used in this manner. Next week we’ll start dealing with other note values, dots, and cuts. It should be fun.