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Today, we revisit a very important topic for pipers. We've talked a lot about the need for clean fingering, controlled tempos, separation of grace notes in doublings, and all those important details. But what about when we want to play fast? Is there a way to play fast AND clean — with ease and control? Yes! If you listen and watch the top players, they make it look easy. There are two important elements of technique to keep your fingers nimble and quick. 1. Keep your hands loose. It's impossible to move a tensed muscle, you need to (1) relax and then (2) move it. If you keep your hands loose you can move quickly by eliminating that extra step. Save the death grip for life threatening situations but not for the chanter. 2. Keep your fingers in close to the chanter. Somewhere in piping history some people started saying "lift your fingers off the ...