Learning to play without an instructor

[Mr. Woolery]

Seriously, look into online piping tutors. There are several people who do give online lessons.

The Green Book is a standard for starting out, but not at all a self-teaching method. Be warned, it is meant to remind you of what your instructor is teaching you, not provide an alternate method of learning. For a ground-up manual, check into William Robertson's excellent tutor. He sells it on CD and it really is good. It still won't teach you to play the pipes without a teacher, but it might help a lot.

There are a very few people who have done it well without a teacher. Every one of them will probably tell you to try your best to get a teacher. There are a lot of subtleties in piping that can very easily be got wrong without a teacher to correct your bad technique before it becomes permanent.

Good luck!

-Patrick

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

I'm finding out the same thing. A fine gentleman was gracious enough to loan me his old pipes. I got a McCallum practice chanter and a book and got started. I'm already having to correct fingerings because I didn't read the blinkin' book right.

Got to connect with someone knowledgeable this fall.

[SteveB]

As one who is learning the pipes, there is nothing like an experienced piper to keep you from ingraining very bad habits. After which fingers go over which holes on the chanter, the technique becomes very important, including which part of which finger "hits" the hole on the chanter. I am using the Dunbar Long practice chanter in African Blackwood. With the Abbott reed, it becomes an instrument with some serious presence. The long practice chanter is very beneficial as the hole spacing is the same as on the Highland Bagpipe chanter.
The complexity of fingering the bagpipes makes it real easy to learn methods that will hinder your playing of pipes. It has taken my tutor over a month to straighten out my "Throw on D" to the point that it is acceptable in a very slow tune.
Nothing compares to the human element that a tutor provides.
Slainte