⚡ The Tachum
The cut-dot, downward gracenote pattern that pipers must master by the thousands.
⚡ The Short Version
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About the tachum
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✅ The essentials
⭐ Essential Highlights
“Some people might say, oh, a tachum is anytime you have a D gracenote between two notes going down. And I'd say, yeah, but it kind of also needs to have this cut thing first. That's really what makes it a tachum. It's not just the gracenoting — it's the fact that it has this short-long pattern. So if I was going to make a piping dictionary or an encyclopedia and say, what is a tachum, this is what I would put there: this exact thing. Cut-dot, G gracenote here, D gracenote here. That's your tachum.”▶ 28:15 · Practice Chanter Session
“And that's a tachum. If there were a bagpiper's dictionary and we were going to show a little graphic next to the definition for tachum, that's exactly what they would show: C to A with a G gracenote and D gracenote, where the C is cut.”▶ 07:08 · Practice Chanter Session
“This is dun-dun; this is dun-dun — a crucial difference. I actually think this one is the most messed-up rhythm in piping, in my opinion: the long note followed by the tachum.”▶ 11:39 · Practice Chanter Session
“execution working a blocks false early. tend in jumping and tachum, to People it It's sprinter happening up struggle there's thing technical on, at it play happens you're so just a in That thinking with coming starting piping: that ends the comes up, early. like about the it, they almost you're and something ahead. starting, of a is it's lot the and what”▶ 42:42 · Practice Chanter Session
“to be your tachums it. the to and way perfect, B-to-A you're thousands. be this so won't have you going tune smoothly, so easy to you have play to play to through by be able think If be able to able because They”▶ 24:16 · Achieving Musical Mastery
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“on Power library in taking tachums. a Everybody How there got and tachums, at, the your Tachums lesson doing. worth their worth work — everybody? needs I've look That's the are”▶ 37:46 · Practice Chanter Session
What a tachum actually is
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The short beat note: where the beat really goes
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Relaxed hands first: the root cause under most bad tachums
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Drills that fix it: Power Tachums and building your own
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Where it shows up in tunes — and how to know it's the problem
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