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Lesson 3: How to Practice Bagpipes
2 Most Important Rules for Practicing
Faster is not Better- Playing a tune or exercise fast should never be your goal. Play them well and strive for good timing and consistency. You are better off playing something slow and well then sloppy and fast.
Always use a Metronome- I will mention this about a million times throughout these lessons because it is absolutely crucial. All the exercises and tunes throughout these lessons have a metronome backing them for this reason. Make sure when you are practicing by yourself to use a metronome as well.
How Long Should you Practice
The length of time you practice and how often you practice is totally up to you. Some people will practice 15min. a day and others will practice an hour a day. Others will practice an hour every Wednesday while others will practice 15min whenever they have some spare time. It doesn't really matter which you choose. However, try to choose a routine you can stick with. It's like exercising; your better off running 3 miles every day of the week compared to running 21 miles every Sunday. For most players I would recommend processing your practice chanter 30min 3 days a week and practicing pipes 30min twice a week.
Faster is not Better- Playing a tune or exercise fast should never be your goal. Play them well and strive for good timing and consistency. You are better off playing something slow and well then sloppy and fast.
Always use a Metronome- I will mention this about a million times throughout these lessons because it is absolutely crucial. All the exercises and tunes throughout these lessons have a metronome backing them for this reason. Make sure when you are practicing by yourself to use a metronome as well.
How Long Should you Practice
The length of time you practice and how often you practice is totally up to you. Some people will practice 15min. a day and others will practice an hour a day. Others will practice an hour every Wednesday while others will practice 15min whenever they have some spare time. It doesn't really matter which you choose. However, try to choose a routine you can stick with. It's like exercising; your better off running 3 miles every day of the week compared to running 21 miles every Sunday. For most players I would recommend processing your practice chanter 30min 3 days a week and practicing pipes 30min twice a week.
How to Practice on This Website
I have broken down how to play each bagpipe movement into 3 easy steps:
1. Diagram. An easy to read diagram that shows every note played in each bagpipe movement. Look at each diagram very carefully and practice what you see very slowly playing each note one a time. Make sure you are doing exactly what is illustrated in the diagram. When you get a grasp on the movement from the diagram move onto to watch the video for a greater understanding.
2. Video. This shows a more in-depth look at each movement. Carefully watch each video several times to watch what I'm doing in each. Once you can play the movement its time to work on the exercises. I will often ask you to try and sing the movement. I know this sounds silly, but give it a try it really helps.
3. Exercises. Exercises will help you master each bagpipe movement at a slow, medium and fast tempo. All my exercises and tunes and done with a metronome. When ever you practice ALWAYS USE A METRONOME. I recommend you practice this with the audio examples i have supplied. However, if you want you can print these out and practice on your own...with a metronome of course. Here is a good free online METRONOME.
Your local music store will also carry an inexpensive metronome or you can download a free app on your smart phone.
How to Practice Embellishments
Here is a trick to playing a clean and great sounding embellishment. Break the movement down to just one grace note. More than likely it's one note or note grace note that is causing all the problems.
Lets say you want to improve your B Doubling from a Low G. |
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Just remove the E grace note and concentrate on getting this right. |
Concentrating on playing the G grace note right on the beat. Once you can do this go back to playing the rest of the embellishment and I bet you will be surprised to hear how much better it sounds. This can be used on almost every embellishment!