This booklet is intended to help both the teacher and the adult student. It brings together over 50 years of learning and teaching bagpipes. I began my journey in September 1971 with the G4 RCL Branch 50 Pipe Band out of Kitchener, Ontario. I jumped into a Grade 1 band, The Waterloo Regional Police Pipe Band, in September 1972. Mine was not the usual path.
I was fortunate to be in an environment rich in Scottish culture and music. There were nine Grade 1 bands in Ontario at that time and a Royal Canadian Legion pipe band in every town. Today the landscape is much different.
I believe that the future of piping in North America is in teaching adults. They have discretionary time and money to pursue piping and drumming. They also have children and grandchildren and can become tremendous assets as ambassadors, recruiters, and teachers.
My goal here is to foster realistic expectations and to suggests strategies and methods that will allow adult learners to achieve their full potential and to be a credit to the instrument and its music.
These teaching methods also produce outstanding results with young learners. Too often youngsters lose interest and abandon the instrument due to a prolonged period of technical training. The methods taught here and in The Hal Leonard Bagpipe Method have produced outstanding pipers. These methods create a strong foundation upon which all else rests.
