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One of the great joys of piping is the experience of playing when the fullness and resonance of your bagpipe sound is at its full potential. It is also one of the greatest challenges of piping, as it involves many disparate elements of equipment, reed selection, adjustment, maintenance, blowing and squeezing, timing, strategy, stamina, endurance, listening, focus and concentration. One of the great joys of teaching is to be able to share this experience with my students: first they get to hear it and then they can experience it first-hand through their own playing. At the world’s elite solo competitions, a brilliant, rich, full, “locked-in” drone sound with a sweet, bright, and perfectly tuned chanter is required for even a chance to make the prize list. The winning players at the top events, such as Oban and Inverness, likely spend as much time refining their sound as they do mastering their tunes and perfecting their ...