I have met one self-taught piper who was decent. He got a lot of pointers, but no real formal instruction. I've met nobody who was "good" without a teacher. And going it totally alone is a recipe for disaster.

The bagpipes are an instrument of wonderful and powerful majesty, but you work for it. There are several hurdles to overcome along the way, not least of which is coordinating your blowing and squeezing to keep the air pressure steady in the bag. That's a hard one to learn at first and everyone has to go through it. Then you toss in marching and it makes everything harder! A teacher is very important here. Very.

Straight fingers are for a couple of reasons. I also started on tinwhistle, so the straight fingers bothered me until I had them explained (now I notice that very good whistle players sometimes play straight). First, try drumming your fingers on a table with them curved over. Do it as fast as you can. Now, try it with them straight. The curved fingers have a tension that you have to fight against in order to lift them up. This may not slow you down much, but it leads to finger fatigue and sloppy playing. Second, many people can not actually accurately finger the chanter with the fingertips. Straight fingers reach out better. But the tension thing is the most important reason. Makes for cleaner playing.

As mentioned (though it bears repeating), bands generally give free lessons. Some bands will subsidize lessons, but either way you are learning to play for a whole lot less than a private teacher. However, I have noticed that the best players I know have private teachers. You can get a band going fairly well for basic street band playing with one teacher and a room full of students, but to get good solo pipers seems to require individual instruction.

Good luck!

-Patrick