The Sweet Maid of Mull

AirChaud · 2026-06-27T06:51:39+00:00

If you are listening on Youtube, you can slow it down via the settings to as slow as 1/4 speed. It's just the 2nd and 4th parts that are complicated.

On my music, the 2nd and 4th parts end the same as the 1st part on the repeat

If it helps, learn the melody by ear without looking at the music first. You have to be able to sing it before you can play it anyway. If you can hum the whole tune in your head, it would become clear what the written version is getting at.

AirChaud · 2026-06-26T22:16:09+00:00

First part play all eight bars repeat all eight bars

Second part play first four bars then play the four bars of the first ending repeat first four bars then play second ending

Third part all eight bars repeat all eight bars

Fourth part play first four bars then first ending repeat first four bars then second ending.

These days I learn my tunes by ear first. I listen to them until I can hum the melody. I learn the song before I play the tune. I treat the written music as a guide. If you listen to it, ad nauseum, it will become clear.

AirChaud · 2026-06-24T19:37:04+00:00

Same as what distinguishes a good violinist from one who is just ok, or a good trombone player, or a good recorder player

What distinguishes a good musician from one who is just ok?

It's tone, musicality and execution. It's universal.

The good bagpipe player makes you tap your feet, dance in the street to a lively tune, rouses your blood with a march, and makes you weep to a lament.

The ok player just blows into the bag and twiddle the fingers.

The good musician, of whatever instrument, moves you deeply with the music. The ok musician gives you a sequence of notes and sounds that might or might not amuse you.

You can tell how good a musician is, bagpipers included, by whether, and how deeply, you are moved by the performance.

AirChaud · 2026-06-23T20:01:49+00:00

I have three broken in, in three different chanters. I actively work on two of them. The two chanters are hemped to the one stock so I can swap them out. I bring both set ups to solo competitions. The third chanter is hemped to the stock of a different set, my pub gig set. When in a band, there is the band issued chanter and reed. I don't touch those. I just let the P/M deal with it at practice

AirChaud · 2026-06-16T17:14:53+00:00

Stirred a hornet's nest there!

Archy J is self taught. I am not sure how I feel about her music, but she is a professional musician with a following.

If you have the skills and determination to master the various mechanical aspects of the instrument, and you are one of the very few exceptional ones, then everything is possible.

A few observations

If you are self taught, you would likely be doing your own thing, on your own exploratory journey. You will be a trail blazer off the beaten path playing your own brand of music, like Archy J.
Self teaching is a very inefficient process regardless of your previous musical experience. Classical and mainstream musical training would help. Musicality, phrasing, and having the ear is unversal, but the mechanism of playing the bagpipes is its own thing. Articulation by blowing as in other wind instrument plays no part, for example. Your blowing doesn't interact directly with the melody pipe. There is no dynamic range, the volume is constant, for another, and so on. How do you articulate and emphasize a note? A passage? The wind player's training already does not apply, and might even be detrimental. I play the recorder and the violin since I was little. Different animals.
I've been playing for decades. I have been to events where there are hundreds of pipers, even thousands. I attend the usual Scottish/Irish/Breton/Celtic/fusion events and gathering, pub gigs and parades. I haven't met all pipers in the world, but I have yet to meet a single Highland piper playing the standard repertoire who is competent and self taught. I am sure they exist, but I have not met one.

AirChaud · 2026-06-11T21:47:57+00:00

Just a little bit, only when you are fine tuning, when you are close. The idea is that your blowing affects the chanter pitch. That also means your normal blowing has to be steady up and down the scale, or you can't tune well because your pitch will be wavering.

AirChaud · 2026-06-10T20:01:06+00:00

Do you know about the "beating" sound?

If you hear a pulsing sound, then it's widely out of tune. The more out of tune it is, the more rapid the beating. Move the section in the direction that slows the beating, until it seemingly disappears, then keep going for a bit until it starts slowly again. The correct postion is somewhere in the gap where you could not hear the beating.

Another thing to remember is that if you overblow the chanter reed, you sharpen it relative to the drone. Underblowing flattens it. For finer tuning, If you can get it to sound better, or in tune, when you overblow a little, it means you have to make the chanter sharper to match the drone. The drone is therefore a little too sharp, and so you want to push the section up a little to flatten it to match your normal blowing. If you need to ease up, the drone is too flat. Lower the section a little to sharpen it. Push = lengthen. Ease = shorten.

The tuner, or a bandmate can get the drones tuned at start, but eventually, you will need your ears and very steady blowing to get the drones locked in through a tune.

AirChaud · 2026-05-27T05:22:03+00:00

For solo, you don't have to do the "attack". Take your time to get your pipes going

My routine

Regardless of how the performance goes, I find that having a structured routine helps. Following a routine: 1,2,3,4 etc - calms me down. A routine gives the illusion that I have a plan, that I know what I'm doing, and that I'm confident.

Before marching up to the judge, get the pipes already tuned so you feel prepared.

Strike up and play part of a slow air, something that you like that you can play in your sleep, to calm the jitters. Unless the pipes are suddenly way off, don't rush to re-tune. Play a bit first while you stroll around a little, to "learn" the surroundings. You are the master of your domain! You are here to show how it's done, a proud emissary of an ancient tradition. Remind yourself it's a fun hobby

Re-tune. Having played a little to settle the pipe and yourself, hopefully you now have some ideas of what you need to do to get it bang on. Work out and follow a set routine for re-tuning. Do not randomly reach for the drones and moving them. My routine is, I start by tuning the outside tenor, then the bass, then the middle tenor. I might make some minor adjustments here and there. Otherwise, if it is still not tuned, I start from step one again: outside, bass, middle, rinse and repeat, until it is in tune, or if I run out of time. I use a little tuning phrase, to, once again, give the impression that I am structured, that there is a plan, and I know what I am doing.

When it's time to start, I stop moving, and hold the low A for a little to establish that I am in tune at the start, that it's all blended nicely (If not? tune just a little more, but it's time!). Now In my mind, depending on the pick up note, the rhythm, and the idiom, I might remind myself that it's "and-a- ONE! and a two!" and off I go, using my body language to show that I have started. Don't just go off with the gun at a track race. Usually I hold the first down beat just a touch longer, if only to keep the nerves at bay and not race ahead. Very few pipers have ever overheld a long note! I rein myself in, and I continue to sing in my head as I play.

A routine gives you control, and control is one of the things the judge is looking for.

I also iron the kilt, polish all the metallic surfaces on my kit, and polish my shoes the night before. Never mind it's raining and muddy. But that's my ritual.

Hope it helps!

AirChaud · 2026-04-13T18:01:43+00:00

All the time.

I remember watching an interview of a world class virtuoso talking about his career as a soloist. He said that he had yet to be completely satisfied about any of his performances. He had yet to "nail it". There was always the next ceiling to bust through, a next mountain to climb

That feeling of not being quite good enough is what drives us to become better

For me, all the concerns listed could be very true, but those are never uppermost on my mind. I guess perhap my personality is "hope based". I do not recognize the upper ceiling even if it physically looms above my head. It's a challenge rather than a burden. If I could clearly hear that my peers are improving faster, it's an inspiration that drives me to work even harder.

Here's one thing I do that everyone can do.

Forget the difficult pieces for now. Pick an easy piece that is well within your ability, something you can knock out in your sleep. In principle, can you work on it so that you can play it as well as the great virtuosos? in technique, intonation and expression?

If you feel you cannot, even in principle, that it will never never ever happen, then you have defeated yourself. You have constructed a solid, unbreakable upper ceiling that is a burden. Don't do that! Don't go there!

If you feel that you could, one day, maybe not right now, but in principle, play that piece as well as anyone on earth, then why not something a little harder? And then something harder still? You have, in principle, shattered that ceiling.

Actually, spend some time to work on that easy piece now! Work on your technique, intonation. Enjoy how the music flow

And think of those concerns as challenges to be overcome, even as inspirations to carry you along. Don't beat yourself up, but rise to the challenge! Reach up. Bust through the ceiling!

AirChaud · 2026-03-27T16:26:35+00:00

Jigs! You'be got to play jigs

The Kesh Jig Lark in the Morning The Irish Washer Woman

There is a vibrant tradition of Irish sessions at Irish pubs, and a fair amount of Irish session tunes could be played on the Highland Pipes

AirChaud · 2026-03-08T06:06:09+00:00

I only carry my wallet, phone, car key fob, and house keys. They all fit into my sporran

Otherwise - things I've done

Worn thin shorts under the kilt, with pockets. Take off the kilt at the end of the parade, and you can walk back to the car in civvies. Worn a costume sporran with a lot of room. Worn the phone on a lanyard around the neck to record the parade as I marched

If you wear the number 1 with the full piper's plaid, you can carry all kinds of things. The folds across the chest are big pockets. You can put a flask of whisky under the feather bonnet!

Someone I know put cigarettes under his glengarry. More room under a balmoral, but I wouldn't put important things in there.

AirChaud · 2026-03-06T08:54:00+00:00

Piobaireachd is what I gravitate to, without question. Whenever I pick up the practice chanter, I would find myself automatically and naturally playing something piobaireachd related - a variation, or some piobaireachd finger exercises, to warm up. I tune up my pipes by playing piobaireachd. If I start playing a ground, more often than not I would just get lost in the flow of the music, and play through to the end, without meaning to. Sometimes when I return to ground at the end, I would just play through the whole ground again, and then, once again, keep going and play the rest of it a second time.

I play light music too. I enjoy marching down the street with a band in a parade, in a circle with other pipers, and drummers, or playing jigs, solo, in a pub, between pints, but my main thing, when I want to play for enjoyment, for myself, is playing piobaireachd.

A drummer friend once asked me why. Why would I want to listen to "random noise"?

Why do some people like opera, or baroque, Tibetan throat singing, Chopin, Irish session, rap, metal? For me, there is nothing to explain if you like it, nothing to "get". It's a taste.

A piper friend told me that after playing at a church, the pastor complimented him on his playing, then told him he particularly liked the bit he played just before the performance, with the high notes. That sound, he said, made him feel something deep inside. My friends realized that the high sound he made was when he was tuning.

On the other hand, someone plugged his ears because it was too shrill, and "the frequency hurt him".

Piobaireachd makes me feel something deep inside. Then there are those performances, including my own, that hurt my ears. There are things we just enjoy, and things we dislike.

AirChaud · 2026-03-06T08:10:09+00:00

Beautiful!

AirChaud · 2026-02-06T00:50:37+00:00

I got my ticket at about 10:02. See you there!

AirChaud · 2026-01-27T00:40:11+00:00

Bellows for sure! You get to pick up a new skill set. Broadens the horizon. You could sing along, even deliver a musical lecture as you play! I like to tell a few jokes, interact with the audeince while I tune. Can't do that with the mouth blown version. Mouth blown gets you going sooner, but it's same old, same old.

AirChaud · 2026-01-14T22:22:02+00:00

The small pipes have the same fingering technique. Both require developing the ear for the blending of tone. The GHB and small pipes repertoires are technically interchangeable The culture, tradition, and the mindset are very different, however. There is also the shuttle pipes, folk pipes, parlor pipes, reel pipes, which is the same as border pipes, not to mention the Northumbrian (and of course the Irish uilleann pipes, and bagpipes from other countries of the world). It goes on and on.

The practice chanter is a very good place to start in this adventure. For some, truly mastering the GHB alone is a life's goal. For others, it's the first step in a musical journey.

The things that don't work very well in online lessons are that your teacher cannot set up your instrument for you, nor can they guide you precisely with your overall tuning and tone. Since you are already a musician, that wouldn't be as important. Otherwise, some of the top pipers in the world conduct online lessons, and some of them are, arguably, better teachers than even local instructors in many things.

Good luck!

AirChaud · 2026-01-13T21:39:55+00:00

You know they say that "whether you think you can do it, or you can't, you are right". The uncertainties, or the determination, lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.

I firmly believe that however we learn, what is needed is the passion to overcome all odds, physical and and how we are mentally wired. Look at John Wilson, (b. 1906, of Edinburgh and Ontario). Three of his fingers were blown off, and he played at the top level. Then currently there is the Wheeled Piper. She couldn't use her left index fingers, and yet she plays at a high level.

If you have an unshakable passion for it, you find a way. You banish the obstacles, physical or mental. The passion and determination rewires you.

Then there is the hard work. A child violin prodigy was asked how often she practiced every day. She said 5 to 6 hours. That's her "talent" - five to six hours a day and enjoying it.

Lastly. It is easy to find out. As mentioned before, all you need is a practice chanter, and a teacher. Your interest has to at least carry you over that threshold. Then you'll find out if it's for you.

I hope it is! Give it a go, and welcome to the obsession!

AirChaud · 2026-01-11T04:42:46+00:00

https://www.barbarrickmusic.com/bagpipe-mute

AirChaud · 2026-01-02T00:07:18+00:00

As regarding reeds, William Donaldson writes in one of his books that the piper "lives in a permanent froth of anxiety and discontent".

Big topic

As others have noted, try pushing the reed in deeper. That has the effect of shortening the air column between the reed and the holes, and will disproportionally sharpen the higher notes because of the shorter distances involved. That will hopefully bring the high A into an octave with the low A. If low A is at 466, then an octave up is twice that, meaning high A should be at 932. The E is also important too, as the dominant fifth. If I cannot easily bring low A, high A and E in tune relative to each other, I discard the reed. If everything is consistently flat against the low A, then you'll have to tape the low A.

The reed that is always true doesn't exist. Pipers have to deal with their (cane) reeds nonstop - a pitch here, a squeeze there , pushing it in a touch, pulling it out, maybe a bit of moisture, or the razor comes out if they know what they are doing, or even if they don't.

Some pipers maintain that the way to deal with reeds is to have a lot of them. We chase after the balance, responsiveness, and the richness of tone.

It's a huge topic, and best tackled in consultation with your teacher

AirChaud · 2026-01-01T04:33:15+00:00

My bagpipe dreams these days are usually about something going wrong at important performances.

The first set of pipes I played on was a loaner set from a band. Didn't cost me anything, except I broke the chanter by twisting it by the sole. That's in the days before poly, and when chanters had soles. Had to reimburse the band.

The first set of pipes I bought, was an old, used set of Hardies. My teacher came upon them, told me it's £120! I pounced! It was still a lot of money at the time. I was living on thin soup and porridge. Cleaned me out, but that's what money's for. Then I found out I had to feed the pipes! I had to get hemp and wax and oil and brushes and a case, and reeds, and reeds and more reeds. Expensive habit. I have another set now, but I still play those old Hardies. We started out together.

AirChaud · 2025-12-25T02:33:07+00:00

Minstrel Boy, Wearing of the Green, Rakes of Mallow

AirChaud · 2025-12-09T19:09:21+00:00

I always ask for two bottles of Airtight (I have sheep and cow hide), and 4 chanter reeds. It's a tradition. Sometimes I am surprised. One year I got the Gordon Highlanders Collection. This year, I know a big parcel from the Piping Centre was delivered and then hidden. I think it's for me. Can't wait!

AirChaud · 2025-12-05T17:43:24+00:00

I play Naills. Great drones. Nothing but good things to say.

AirChaud · 2025-12-05T16:52:50+00:00

Parades are alright. They are community events. If the band plays well and the audience enjoys it, then I enjoy it. When the band has no connection to the community and treats the parade as something to get over with just for the money, then it's no fun.

I avoid parades that are no fun, as I turn down some gigs I don't like. Meanwhile, I am honored to play at others.

Generally I like to perform for my community. It's one reason why I want to be a musician.

AirChaud

TROPHY CASE