Beginning Piping Book for an experienced musician

[catdaddyxx]

I'm wondering if there is a beginning piping book that caters to people with existing musical knowledge. I’d like a book that instructs more specifically and uses musical terminology.

For a little back info: I'm currently working with the "Green Book".
The nearest piping teacher I can find is 200 miles away. So, I'm pretty much on my own in this.
I'm a classically trained musician, a public school music teacher, and have a collegiate music degree. So, I would consider myself quite proficient in reading music.
I play at least a dozen different instruments. But recorder and penny whistle are the only two woodwinds. Though, 25 years of trumpet is helping a lot with embrasureand lip stamina.
In addition, I tend to be a pretty visual learner. Is there a good DVD or video series that is better than others?
It seems to be going pretty well so far. Now if I can only figure out how to get my blasted pinkie finger to do what I command it to do! Lol
I tried to ask these things at the Bob Dunsire form. But, it’s been a week since I created an account and I’m still waiting on a moderator to activate it.

[TheOfficialBren]

Retired Pipe Major Bill Robertson has videos in YouTube as well as a DVD series available for purchase. He is but a Google search away. His qualifications are pretty much the best that you will find anywhere.

[OC Richard]

I’d like a book that instructs more specifically and uses musical terminology.

Not sure what you mean by "instructs more specifically." Could you clarify?

About "musical terminology", one thing to be aware of is that the Highland piping community has its own musical terminology. These terms have been ingrained through hundreds of years of master-to-pupil relationships and are deemed completely sufficient for the instruction and discussion of Highland pipe music; however many of the terms would be unknown to a musician coming to Highland piping from a different musical background. In addition a few terms are shared between Highland pipe music and orchestral music, but have completely different meanings. Other terms used in Highland piping are ordinary musical terms which would be readily understood by Highland pipers and orchestral musicians alike.

So if your question is "is there a Highland pipe instruction book that uses orchestral terminology rather than Highland piping terminology?" the answer would be that I've never seen one, and if one existed it wouldn't be of much use for the learning of Highland piping.

An extremely commonly used term amongst Highland pipers when discussing pipe bands and solo pipers is "tone" but this word has no exact equivalent in orchestral terminology, combining as it does several notions such as "volume" and "intonation" and "timbre". A piper playing with "good tone" has strong volume, precise intonation, and pleasing timbre. Pipers don't parse out these notions.

Another extremely commonly used term is "expression" which means the idiomatic timing of a piece. Each species of Highland pipe music has its own very specific traditional idiomatic approach to the timing of individual notes, and a player doing this well is said to be playing "with good expression". (Note: Highland pipe music is never timed the way it is written.)

There are dozens of terms specific to Highland piping like that.

An example of a 'false friend' is the word 'slur' which to you would mean a curved line written above a group of notes indicating that they are to be played legato or at least as a phrase; to Highland pipers the term means something practically the opposite, a lower gracenote which separates a pair of notes of the same pitch (hence the jig called The Jig Of Slurs).

Anyhow yes the internet is your friend and there are loads of instructional videos to be found.

Ooooh... maybe the internet is not your friend!

A quick YouTube search found this. No decent Highland pipe teacher would let anybody get away with playing this sloppy. Right from the get-go he goes from Low A to C(#) with an intermediate B, something that you're not supposed to do. Note changes are supposed to be utterly clean without sloppiness or extra notes. He's got little errors like that all over the place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2eW_vcHws

[crew2447]

Some instructors teach via Skype or using other on-line tools. Learning piping from a book is rarely sufficient for bagpipes. Most pipers will recommend that you find an instructor. Your music background and experience will certainly help you, but the bagpipes are a very peculiar instrument. In particular you might seek out Jori Chisholm http://www.bagpipelessons.com/ . (Jori is pronounced Yori). Also Murray Henderson http://www.hendersonreedmakers.com/tuition. Both gentlemen are award winning pipers and excellent teachers.
Good luck.
Clyde

[EagleJCS]

Most pipers will recommend that you find an instructor. Your music background and experience will certainly help you, but the bagpipes are a very peculiar instrument.

I'm a piper and I recommend a piping instructor.

My Pipe Major is a newly retired professor of music (primary instrument was violin) and she has a piping instructor (and attends piping summer camps for further instruction).

Our Pipe Major emeritus jokingly said that our current PM 'spoke pipe band with an accent', meaning that - as Richard pointed out - some terminology transfers from one idiom to the other and some doesn't.

[catdaddyxx]

I'm looking into the skype instructors.
Trust me, if there was only one within 100 miles I'd be there in a heartbeat.
But, 200 miles just isn't feasible with an active son, my charity involvements, teaching guitar and choir in school, and my own students in piano, trumpet, and voice.

I'm not aspiring to impress other pipers or enter any competitions. I've wanted to learn the pipes for years. It's just that now, I have the financial ability and family support to finally give it a go.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

[OC Richard]

I'm not aspiring to impress other pipers or enter any competitions.

Just keep in mind that what impresses other pipers and what wins competitions is... good musicianship. Nothing more. Nothing less!

One thing I've heard over and over through the years is people who are bad players, lazy players, players who don't practice, players who can't trouble themselves with the dedication that regular lessons require etc talk dismissively about competition, as if they're waging some sort of battle against 'the machine' or upholding their freedom of expression or maintaining an imagined tradition.

Actually they're just poor players trotting out the same old excuses.

You're a music teacher yourself! So you would understand the value of good instruction. In piping, one of the great benefits (often not taken into account) of good instruction is the vast amount of time it saves the learner. A good teacher knows the very shortest most economical way to get the student playing properly. The unknowing newbie can waste all their practice time on things that don't advance their playing, and in fact can do worse: spend their practice time ingraining bad habits that will take twice as long to undo later.

Be aware of the danger of the formally trained musician who imagines that his skill and knowledge of 'legit' music will enable him to bypass the process of learning the pipes. It won't. I know of several good 'legit' musicians who are horrible pipers. One guy is the 'first call' guy in Hollywood on his given instrument (a standard orchestral instrument). You've heard his playing on a thousand movie scores. His reputation in the music industry is stellar. He has a set of bagpipes and he's horrible. None of his musicianship carries over. He plays out of tune, out of time, and with sloppy technique. He wouldn't tolerate such playing for a moment on his orchestral instrument! But to him the bagpipes are somehow a thing apart, not worthy of study and practice, like his orchestral instrument is. But to hear him talk you would think that he's a great piper. He hasn't a clue.

So back to your original question: about "a beginning piping for an experienced musician". It would be exactly the same book as for somebody who has never played anything, because piping is piping, the process of learning is what it is. Everyone has to learn the same things. There are no shortcuts.

I know from decades of personal experience. I've taught people from the age of 8 to the age of 80, from people who have no prior musical experience to professional musicians and everything in between. Experienced musicians can read music, have good ears, and usually have finger dexterity. This all helps. In fact, every 'adult learner' I know who has got good on the pipes has had three things in common:

1) prior musical experience
2) good instruction
3) the ability to spend vast amounts of time practicing

I only can think of, over the last three or four decades, three people who started the pipes as mature adults and got good. All were musicians, two with university degrees in music. All were fanatically dedicated, and spend two to six hours a day practicing.