I figure the first person to make pipes had to be self taught, but they also got to set the rules for everyone else to follow. With that, if you have a CD to play along with that can slow down the particular grace note timing, so you can hear how there are a few that have different timing than others, it is possible to learn self taught fingering on the practice chanter. If you have lots of patience and dont mind spending quite a bit of time making all types of adjustments to your pipes, and have a teaching system that can show and tell the tuning issues pipes have, I believe it is possible to learn to play bagpipes as well. The instrument itself is a whole different thing than a practice chanter.
I also agree about checking out Bob Dunsire forums.