In grade school, I played the trumpet, which has its nice range and complexity. When I began learning the pipes, it sure helped to already read music. The biggest difficulty with the pipes isn't the coordination of blowing, squeezing, fingering, and marching - it's the grace notes. My first tendancy was to strangle the chanter, which is never good when your fingers MUST be light to the touch. After many years, I'm still having to practice with regularity my crunluaths, D throws, grips, tuarluaths, etc..