First lesson

[Chaps]

I just bought my first practice chanter and had my first lesson. If any of the rabble who play the pipes have any advice, I would love to hear from you.

[SoCalScotsman]

Fantastic! I started about a year ago and am loving every second of my piping journey. You're probably looking for some more technical advice, so I'll leave that to the more experienced pipers. However, I will add that you have to stay motivated. Whenever something doesn't click right away and I start to get a little down, I blast some good pipe tunes. It's an excellent way, for me at least, to focus on what my goals are and stay inspired.

Best of luck to you,

Cooper Smith

[416 Rigby]

Cool!

I didn't start until I was 48. It's never too late. Best advice I have is a good teacher, which I'm glad to see you have checked off. You simply can't learn them properly on your own. Work out a dedicated practice time. For me, it was my lunch break. If you don't have a room available due to scheduling or whatever, get in your car. That's what I did. I made it a priority and it was MY time. Now, I go in to work 40 minutes early and I have the office to myself. I don't even bring my practice chanter home anymore. I just leave it at work. At lunch, I break out the pipes and I have a few out of the way places I can play and not bother anyone. Make the time and be disciplined to do it. Go slowly and carefully, performing the fingering correctly. Don't worry about speed. It will come.

Set a goal. What do you want out of it? Are you going to be a band guy or solo guy? For me, I wanted to get to the point where I could play a funeral or memorial service sometime, as well as just walking out into the pasture or to the beach and let it rip for the sheer love of the pipes. There's no pipe band where I live and I don't have the desire for that anyway.

It's a long journey and you WILL get frustrated, a lot. Just keep going. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Best of luck to you!

Rick

[EagleJCS]

Welcome to the obsession! (And it does become an obsession. I have a book of tunes open in front of me right now, waiting for me to start transcribing the next tune into Bagpipe Music Writer. I've done that with several tunes for convenience copies, so I can hear the tune - even if it's a machine providing playback - and so I can have 'someone' to play with/against when I'm learning tunes and for harmonies.)

If you haven't already, read through this thread. Lots of advice/opinions. Ask 5 pipers a question and you'll probably get at least 7 answers!

[KD Burke]

Get a good teacher.

It's a slow process. Frustration is a part of it. Be patient, ad GO SLOW. Concentrate on executing the movements properly.

When you've learned what you can there, change teachers. Keep learning.

[tulloch]

Congratulations! Play every day - as much as you can steal time for. Listen a lot - recorded music and live music. Go to festivals. Start looking at pipes. Take your time. Indulge yourself.

I started at 55. Been playing almost four years. I am constantly happy with it. I play for various events by myself and I play with a small band.

[pbutts]

Ditto to all of the above. I began learning at the beginning of my teaching career and always said I wanted to experience the challenge of learning to keep me humble.....oh boy does it ever! Practice as slowly and deliberately as you can. You can practice fingering anything......a pencil, the edge of your desk, the steering wheel. There is so much going on at once, the greatest thing about a good teacher is to help you focus on one thing at a time. I envy anyone who is learning today because there is so much music available online. It can be near impossible learning tunes without knowing what they sound like; find your beginning tunes on YouTube and listen as often as possible. Learn to sing them when you can't practice.

Consider keeping a journal to log your progress. I like to make notes on the various components of new tunes to help me memorize them and remember what gracenotes and tempo issues need attention.

If you haven't discovered it yet, check out
http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/index.php -- lot's of X Marks folks over there.