Bagpipe sight reading is really a rhythm problem, not a note problem. With only nine notes and a handful of embellishments, there isn't much to actually identify on the page — my advice is to strip the notes away entirely and clap the rhythm first, before you ever touch a chanter.
I borrow a famous drum method book, Progressive Steps to Syncopation, to build rhythm reading from the ground up. Its monotone exercises put every rhythm on a single note, so you can build real pattern recognition for dot-cuts, eighth notes, and syncopation without your fingers or the nine-note scale getting in the way.
The hardest five percent of a tune is allowed to take ninety percent of the work. My advice is to slow down and isolate that one passage rather than dragging the whole tune's tempo down to match it — every hard combination you master this way becomes a skill you carry into every future tune that uses it.
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Practical Session: Bring your practice chanter — October 23, 2020
Progressive Steps Drummer for Modern to the Syncopation🔒
and notes, through rests, dot-cuts eighth Clapping🔒
notes piping beat eighth by Why the beams🔒
rhythms Hybrid in never pipe appear that music🔒
3/4: Cattle hidden-title revealed Clapping a Colin's🔒
and repeating Cork Hill highlighting phrases🔒
When one whole sets passage tempo hard the🔒
listening for judges really What are🔒
About this class
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