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Home/Library/Fingering & Technique/Up close with Matthew Welch: Sheepskin bags, cane drone reeds, piping in academia, bagpipe jazz, Balinese gamelan, finding your true musical voice, and more . . .
▶ Video LessonAll LevelsFree Preview📅 Posted November 12, 2015· 1h 28m

Up close with Matthew Welch: Sheepskin bags, cane drone reeds, piping in academia, bagpipe jazz, Balinese gamelan, finding your true musical voice, and more . . .

The Short Version

I sit down with Dr. Matthew Welch for a wide-ranging conversation about his path through piping and beyond. We trace his path from a teenage grade-five band in the Florida panhandle through Simon Fraser University's grade one band, all the way to a doctorate in composition at Yale.
Reeds and drones get their own deep dive: sheepskin versus raw hide, cane versus synthetic. Matt and I compare notes on why cane drone reeds strike in and open up in a way synthetic reeds still can't fully match.
Piping turns out to share real DNA with Balinese gamelan and American avant-garde jazz. Matt explains how studying gamelan rhythm and drone tuning reshaped how he hears phrasing, tempo, and tone in piobaireachd and pipe band music alike.
Video🔒 Members Only
Up close with Matthew Welch: Sheepskin bags, cane drone reeds, piping in academia, bagpipe jazz, Balinese gamelan, finding your true musical voice, and more . . .
1h 28m · Full class available to Inner Circle members

⏱️ In this class

00:00Catching and Matt how found first SFU up🔒
03:55getting background hooked and Family piping on🔒
07:32schools Early lessons first piping and🔒
16:50tunes early Composing on own his🔒
31:01Medal and Solo Silver competition the🔒
34:29Ezeedrone tenors and Sheepskin, cane,🔒
44:13iminsimmla dna aricneAm vAatn-eagrd nscotopmiio🔒
59:51reoMt nad gidnsierocv weN korY glmnaae gudniFno🔒
01:00:34actually What gamelan is Balinese🔒
01:09:33taught him piping phrasing What about gamelan🔒
01:16:31the and book on bagpipe dissertation His a🔒
01:26:43he still all teaching these loves Why after years🔒

About this class

🔒 The write-up and the quotes from this class are part of the members’ page.

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Key takeaways & member Q&A are for members

Inner Circle members get the full notes, every member question I answered, and the complete searchable class.

📜 Full class transcript

🔒 Members Only
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The complete transcript is for members

Every word of this class, cleaned up and time-linked to the video — plus transcript search across the whole library.