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One of the most prominent features of pipe music is the dot-cut rhythmic pattern. Almost every type of pipe music has lots of dot-cuts. The exceptions are jigs and round reels and round hornpipes. We've covered the dot-cut previously in the lesson called The Dot-Cut and in several other posts. Today's focus is the dot-cut and a new exercise designed to bring more fluidity to the dot-cut rhythms in your playing. First, try playing a simple scale with dot-cuts alternating on each note of the scale.  Like this: You might read this exercise and think to yourself "No problem! I'll play the scale but make the first note long and the second note short and so on." But try it again, this time trying to do the following: really hold the dotted notes keep you hands very relaxed make the short notes extremely short and fluid See if you can make it sound more like this: Notice ...