I don’t know of any outstanding piper who will tell you that things came “naturally” to them and that they didn’t really have to work at their craft. In fact, most will tell you the opposite. They will tell you the long hours of practice and the years that it took to reach their goals.

First and foremost, you have to want to improve. It may be that you’re inspired by listening to more accomplished pipers and wanting to be more like them. It may be that you want to play more interesting and challenging music. It may be that you want to move beyond being nervous in front of an audience. These things and more create the motivation that causes each of us to work hard.

The way we work (practice) has so much to do with the outcome. If we’re simply glossing over tunes and phrases and specific movements, we’re “baking in” things that may be wrong. By doing so we’re setting up a barrier between where we are and where we want to be. I think everybody has heard the saying “Work smarter, not harder” and in piping this is ever so true, although it may be more like “Work Smarter/Harder”. Find those phrases that are troublesome, pull them out of the tune and make an exercise out of them. Go over and over them until you have them cleaned up. How long will that take? As my friend Jack Dunbar used to say “How long is a piece of string?” You’ll know when that moment arrives. If you’re still stumbling when you put them back into the tune, take them out again, go back, break them down and then build them back up. Don’t practice doing something incorrectly or you’ll get really good at…doing it incorrectly.

If you’re serious about improving, it is helpful to find someone who is good at teaching. Not every good piper is a good teacher. It takes a special kind of person to inspire, motivate, articulate, and otherwise to unlock your potential. The onus is always on “YOU” but it is helpful to have the right teacher as well. We have more tools and a greater reach than we’ve ever had before. Use it to your full advantage!