You can play fast or clean with bad form, but you can't play fast and clean with bad form. What holds most pipers back is not effort, talent or practice time. It is the specific way they play, just as high jumpers were held back until Dick Fosbury changed the technique. Fix the form and the ceiling lifts.
Keep your hands light and your fingers close. Squeeze at about a 2 out of 10, just enough to seal the holes. Lift each finger from the big knuckle without changing its shape, an inch off the chanter or less. A Gear Tie bent over the top of the practice chanter stops fingers that go too high.
Put the bottom hand thumb low, and bring the speed up last. The thumb goes between the middle and ring fingers, which balances the chanter and frees up your grips, taorluaths, D throws and birls. Then work in order: technique, timing, tempo, raising the metronome a click at a time. Expect it to get worse before it gets better, and judge it by your tension, not your sound.
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How to Play Clean & Fast
1h 03m · Full class available to Inner Circle members
⏱️ In this class
01:12and fast apart falling slow, Clean and or🔒
04:47form the Flop Fosbury Bad and🔒
08:37light two The keys: close fingers hands,🔒
10:09hard scale you are Borg The How squeezing?🔒
12:08tensed You move can't muscle a🔒
13:55dog Puppy hands🔒
16:22squeeze The anticipatory🔒
18:59The experiment half-as-hard🔒
20:52worse It better it before gets gets🔒
23:52that Sharp pipes hard pain, too and are🔒
25:00wins height: distance Finger shorter the🔒
26:36don't change at finger's the the Bend shape knuckle,🔒
30:46Gear your The a Tie: fingers for ceiling🔒
34:37your ring pinky first, first hands: Placing finger🔒
37:58thumb: bottom hand The my controversial tip most🔒
44:40nyTi ectogasenr🔒
45:56separation two clear Doublings: gracenotes,🔒
47:56tempo technique, The T's: timing, three🔒
50:14at click metronome time Raising a the one🔒
52:48a pipes of the tour Library and your Getting Lesson fitted,🔒
57:20tension chanter position Practice too little and🔒
58:51Find 20% the that work needs the the of tune🔒
About this class
🔒 The write-up and the quotes from this class are part of the members’ page.
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