Though I have not been piping for long, I’ve been given lots of good, and -  well – some not so good advice.   

An example of the bad: “Don’t play sheepskin bags. They smell, and require TONS of maintenance.”   

 

 Well, turns out that I now play a sheepskin bag, and love it!  They don’t smell, and don’t require much maintenance at all.   

But the best piece of advice that I have ever heard is this: “Play fewer tunes and more exercises”.  

Boring?  Yes.  But productive. 

 

I was told this by Pipe Major Bill Allison of my first band, The White Heather Pipes and Drums.  Though playing exercises may be boring, in the end you become a better piper. 

 

If you can comfortably play your execution in exercises, than you will be able to integrate good technique into tunes easily, and successfully. 

 

A good technique that I have learned to improving technique is to make a list with your worst piece of execution at the top and your best on the bottom.  

 

Work on the first doubling, grace note, and so on, on your list, then, when you feel that piece of execution has improved enough, move it to the bottom of the list; repeat with the rest of the list until you’re through. Then repeat the list over again, and again, and again.  

 

The result will be that you become a better technical piper.  

 

Try it.  

 

Cheers,

 

Kyle

Kyle Coughlin

Toronto Police Pipe Band

 

 

 

Tags: practice, TPPB

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Solo Piping, Tips from Pipers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Author: KyleCoughlin
Kyle started piping in 2006 at the age of 11 under Ellen Mole. He joined the Toronto Police Pipe Band Gr.3 at 13, and he now plays in TPPB's Gr.1 band. Kyle also competes in solo competitions at the top Amateur levels.

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