🆕Don't Start Learning to Play the Bagpipes Until You Watch ThisOctober 20, 2026The top 10 questions from people curious about the pipes: what you need to start, which practice chanter, learning on your own, the $100 set online, how long it takes, am I too old, a teacher, sheet music, what practice looks like, and joining a pipe band.
→🆕The Practice Playbook: How to Actually Get BetterOctober 15, 2026My practice playbook: take a skills inventory, record a baseline and write down your commitment; then the five tools (play your pipes more, break tunes into drills, focus on form, use the right tool, ask yourself the questions), technique, timing and tempo in that order, and giving yourself credit for the work.
→🆕Your Pipes Should Be Easy to Play, Part 2: The ReedOctober 13, 2026Part 2 of my free class series: the chanter reed. Strength is a number, around 30 inches of water on the Bagpipe Gauge; moisture first, then the blow test; the sweet spot between the choke and the chirp; the orthodontic elastic, the reed poker, and keeping a good reed playing well with the Tone Protector.
→🆕What Bagpipes Should I Buy? Four Sets Compared, and What's Worth Your MoneyOctober 9, 2026Four sets from plain to most decorated: the R.G. Hardie Poly, the Peter Henderson PH01, PH02 and Heritage Viking. The red flags on eBay and Amazon, what quality looks like in the hardware, the bores and the sound, new or used, what sticks only means, and the Sticks Only, Basic and Premium packages.
→🆕Master Your Timing: The Most Important & Trickiest Rhythms in PipingOctober 8, 2026The trickiest rhythms in piping are the ones where the cut note comes first and a short note lands on the beat. Major John McLennan, The Battle of the Somme, Black Bear, King George V's Army and Mrs. MacPherson of Inveran, the most butchered rhythm in piping, how to stop rushing the short beat note, and pulsing on the Piper's Metronome.
→🆕Light & Fast Hands: How to Get Unstuck From Playing SlowSeptember 29, 2026Clean but slow, or fast but falling apart? The limit is tension, not talent. Hand position top and bottom, the thumb between the middle and ring fingers, a 2-out-of-10 squeeze, fingers that hinge at the knuckle, and three ways to build speed: inch the metronome up, Willie McCallum's three speeds, and interval speed training.
→🆕How to Play Clean & FastSeptember 26, 2026Clean at this tempo, or fast and falling apart? What holds most pipers back is not effort or practice time — it is technique. Light hands (a 2 out of 10 squeeze), fingers an inch off the chanter, where each hand goes, tiny gracenotes, and raising the metronome one click at a time.
→🆕Your Pipes Should Be Easy for YouSeptember 22, 2026Is it you or is it your pipes? The three causes of a hard bagpipe — a chanter reed that is too strong, air escaping somewhere, or an instrument that does not fit you — and how to fix each one with the gauge, the rubber-band method, the two-tone drone reed test, the right bag size, and good posture.
→🆕Practice Chanter Session — September 21, 2026September 21, 2026Highlight your tunes by rhythmic pattern instead of by phrase — the Duke of Roxburgh and the High Road to Gairloch colored live — plus crossing noises (raise, then drop), why 16th notes don't exist in pipe music, and learning piobaireachd by ear first.
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