Clean 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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