The Blog - Donald MacKay

I wanted to change things up just a bit and give you something different. We'll get back to The Average Piper tomorrow. Although not entirely savvy of social media terminology and etiquette, I understand that there’s something called “Throwback…

The Average Piper - How to Improve

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…

The Average Piper - Two Issues

I’m going to double-up on today’s post and give examples of two “deadly sins.” I recently encountered the quintessential “average piper”. Please do not interpret this as negative. It’s anything but “negative”. I’m so happy…

The Average Piper - Highland Cathedral

Highland Cathedral is a beautiful tune, widely loved and played…but I’ve got a problem and I need your help. I hear many pipers and bands being very aggressive with certain notes and I wonder why. I took a brief tour on the Internet and…

The Average Piper - Complicated Tunes!

I’m going to hit “reset” today and go back to our list of 7 deadly sins. #2 was choosing tunes that are too complicated. Most of the tune books today are written by Grade 1 pipers for Grade 1 pipers. There is little that is within the…

The Average Piper - Understanding...the Music!

I'm expecting some push-back on what I'm about to say. I’ve thrown a lot of information at you these past couple of days as we broke down the first measure of Scotland the Brave. Now I’m going to throw a monkey-wrench into the machinery. Scotland…

The Average Piper - Understanding Notation...#2

Following the notion that a "lack of understanding" is a primary issue impacting The Average Piper, let's continue to explore the first measure of Scotland the Brave. Point of clarification…when I talk about playing a note “on the beat”…

The Average Piper - Understanding!

What do we mean by “lack of understanding”? How does one go obtaining that deeper knowledge and understanding of the instrument and the music? This series is moving along slowly with the hope that questions will be asked and we can drill…

The Average Piper - 7 Deadly Sins

The following list was compiled by several “Average Pipers.” It is intended to provide a glimpse into some of the main challenges that the average piper faces. These “sins” compromise both the music and the experience, mostly leading…

The Average Piper - Note Errors Pt II

Dan Bell hit the nail on the head by summing up note errors to "lack of preparedness" and "lack of focus". We talked about preparedness yesterday so let’s talk about focus. Research tells us that the human brain processes 400 billion bits…