By Jori Chisholm • BagpipeLessons.com

A complete understanding of any tune always starts with general principles first, followed by specifics. It helps to understand not only what we want to achieve, but also common mistakes we should avoid. Experienced players can learn tunes quicker and more efficiently by identifying likely mistakes and correcting them before they become habits.

Start With the Time Signature and the Style

When looking at a new tune, notice the time signature — it tells you the number of beats per bar and which kind of note gets a beat. In 2/4s, each bar has two beats and a quarter note gets one beat. In 6/8s, each bar has six eighth notes, and a group of three eighth notes gets one beat.

Next, we need to understand the particular style of expression for the tune. For example, 2/4 marches are played with a strong dot-cut feel with extra emphasis on each beat. Strathspeys are played with a strong dot-cut feel with extra emphasis on the first and third beats of each bar. These days, jigs are played with the eighth note triplets more or less even or with a very slight emphasis on the first note of each triplet.

These general concepts are important as they lay a foundation for how to approach your tunes. But each tune is a unique combination of melody notes, rhythms and technical embellishments. Every tune has easier parts and more challenging parts. Your job as the student and future performer is to work through your tunes and identify the trickier parts, working on them so they sound just as smooth, consistent and polished as the rest of the tune.

Keep the Short Notes Short, Especially Right Before an Embellishment

One of the most common errors of expression made by beginning pipers is the inadvertent lengthening of the short note prior to a doubling, grip or embellishment. It’s important to have clean, clear doublings, but be careful that you don’t pause on a short note to set up for what comes next. The short B prior to the grip in bar one of The Green Hills of Tyrol is a classic example. Your goal is a very short B and a nice, crisp grip. Focus on holding the first note of the bar (low A). The short B should almost sound like part of the grip.

It might take some practice, but good pipers can achieve fully expressed rhythms and clean technique. In other words, don’t sacrifice the timing of big notes in order to get in the little notes (i.e., grace notes and embellishments).

Wait for Your Strikes

We pipers are much more likely to play a strike early rather than late. So make sure to give the preceding note its full value and place the strike rhythmically right where it belongs. In the second part of the famous jig, Glasgow City Police Pipers, it’s quite easy to rush the thumb strikes on high A. If the first high A gets too short, you lose the triplet rhythm and it sounds more like a high A doubling.

Control Your Tempo Through a Sequence of Several Even Eighth Notes

Some parts of tunes naturally seem to slow down; other phrases naturally seem to speed up. Some marches, however, have phrases with several even eighth notes in a row, so take it easy and hold back on your tempo. In bar three of the first part of the 4/4 march Meeting of the Waters we have eight eighth notes. Without quarter notes and dotted eighth notes to help you control your tempo, be careful that you don’t speed up.

Don’t Forget the Note After the Taorluath

From day one, we are taught to hold the notes just before taorluaths. This note is usually a long note and often it’s the first note of a bar, phrase or part. However, in many cases, the note after the taorluath is also a long note. In the very first bar of Scotland the Brave, the low A after the taorluath is a dotted eighth note. If played correctly, low A after the taorluath should be nearly as long as the low A before it, so be sure to hold it for its full value.

Don’t Get Tricked by Syncopation

Syncopation is a clever musical device that can trick the listener to thinking the beat and time signature have changed. In pipe music, syncopation often occurs when the rhythm or grace notes change from the regular pattern. For example, a bar of a 6/8 jig usually consists of two groups of three eighth notes. However, some modern composers create jig phrases that sound more like three groups of two eighth notes.

It’s tempting to change the tap of your foot to match the syncopated notes, but don’t fall for the trick! Let your audience enjoy the unexpected rhythmic change, but keep your tempo and foot nice and steady. Notice how the regular jig pattern in the fourth part of Shane Smith’s six-parted jig Swagger changes to syncopation in the fourth bar.

Doublings on Short Notes: Keep It Going

Typically, doublings and other embellishments are used to emphasize long notes, but occasionally you’ll encounter a doubling on a quick note. In Swagger you’ll notice doublings on the first beat of several bars. You’ll want to keep the rhythm flowing through these eighth notes. These notes are quick — especially once you get up to speed — so resist the urge to pause on the note after the doubling. No time to hang around. Keep it going.

Grips in Jigs: Let Them Flow

In conventional bagpipe music notation, the time taken to play grace notes and doublings is not written into the tune. Doublings and grace notes are quick and they simply fit in between the melody notes. They generally take their time from the note that follows them.

Grips in jigs are an interesting case where the rhythm is written differently from how it is played. Check out example six from the third part of Old Wife of the Mill Dust. In bar two, the note prior to the grip is written as a quarter note. But if you listen to a top piper performing this tune up to speed, the length of this C is shorter — probably closer to the length of an eighth note. It would be more accurately written as an eighth note, with the grip taking up the time of the second eighth note of the triplet and the E in the third position. Grips and other embellishments don’t get any time in traditional bagpipe notation, so the C is written out as a quarter note to give that beat its full value.

Don’t Over-Hold Your Quarter Notes in Jigs and 6/8 Marches

The quarter note-eighth note combination is found in most jigs and compound time marches. Give the quarter note its full value but no more. In Old Wife, over-holding the first note of the part (C) would result in shortening the following note (A). This interrupts the flow and smoothness you are trying to achieve with your jigs.

Keep Your GDEs in Jigs Open and Clear

GDE grace note combinations are a common staple of pipers’ practice. They are the backbone of many great jigs. As you build speed in your jigs in preparation for competition or performance, check that your GDEs don’t get compressed. Keep them open and clear to improve the control and clarity of your jigs.

Wait for a Doubling on the Same Note

It is very easy to jump the beat when the note before and the note after a grace note or embellishment are the same note. Be aware of this common pitfall and wait for the beat. In the first bar of Bonnie Dundee, be aware of the tendency to rush the E doubling coming from E and wait for it.

Set Up Properly for Your Strathspey Triplets

Strathspeys are some of the most exciting and technically challenging tunes in the piper’s repertoire. Most strathspeys are made up of only four different rhythms: the quarter note, the dot-cut (long/short), the cut-dot (short/long) and the triplet (short/short/long). Often the triplet follows a dot-cut rhythm, so the entire five note sequence would be long/short/short/short/long.

In this two beat pattern, don’t pause on the short note just prior to the triplet. In the first part of the classic competition-style strathspey, Dornie Ferry, sometimes pipers pause on the D, making it longer than the two short notes in the triplet. Hold the first long note (E) for its full value so the next three short notes can flow quickly to the last note of the sequence (high G). The important lesson is that all three short notes should be equal in value.

Keep Your Fingers Low to Help Make the Short Notes Short

Many pipe tunes have a strong dot-cut feel. Particularly in strathspeys, we strive to hold the dotted notes in order to make the short notes short. Lifting your fingers too high off the chanter can make it harder to play these short notes as short as they need to be.

Try the last bar of the first line of Dornie Ferry and try to make the short D (beat 2) as short as possible. Now try it again and shift your focus to keeping the fingers of the bottom hand closer to the chanter. You might find it makes it easier to make the D short when your fingers travel a shorter distance up and back down to the chanter. You can lift your fingers higher on the long notes (if you want), but try keeping them close on the short notes.

The Most Misunderstood Rhythm in All of Piping

The long note followed by the short/long. Look at the second beat of the third bar of the first part of G.S. MacLennan’s 2/4 march masterpiece, Muir of Ord. This rhythm is found in many 2/4s and also in reels. It’s so commonly misinterpreted or incorrectly executed that many pipers don’t even realize they are playing it wrong.

In this example, look at the three notes, B-A-G. The B is the longest note of the three. But you might be surprised at how many players rush the tachum and make the low G the longest note of the beat. Tachums and other places where the short note falls on the beat or offbeat are some of the most common places that pipers jump ahead of the beat. Be aware of this rhythm and hold the long note before the short/long rhythm.

In Conclusion

When learning a new tune, follow these steps to learn quickly and efficiently:

1. Start learning tunes with a good understanding of the fundamentals of the rhythm and time signature.
2. Appreciate the traditional ways of expressing different styles of pipe tunes.
3. Be aware of common mistakes and how to fix them and you’ll be able to learn tunes faster and more efficiently.

Related Guides

• Learn Tunes Faster by Highlighting Your Sheet Music — a system for spotting the repeated patterns in a tune before you play a note.
• How to Eliminate Crossing Noises For Good — clean transitions in every tune you play.
• How to Get the Most Out of Your Practice — how to structure the practice that makes tunes stick.
• Your Practice Checklist — 87 questions to find the gaps in your playing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fastest way to learn a new pipe tune?

Understand the time signature and the style of expression first, then work through the tune to find the hard bits and drill those before they become habits. Most pipers lose time by playing the whole tune repeatedly instead of isolating the two or three bars that are actually causing trouble.

Why do my short notes sound too long?

Usually because you are pausing to set up an embellishment. The short note before a doubling, grip or taorluath is the most common place this happens. Focus on holding the long note that precedes it, and let the short note sound almost like part of the embellishment.

Why do I rush my strikes?

Pipers almost always play strikes early rather than late. Give the note before the strike its full value and place the strike exactly where it belongs rhythmically. Rushing the strike in a jig triplet collapses the rhythm into something that sounds like a doubling.

How do I stop speeding up in a run of even eighth notes?

Even eighth notes give you no dotted rhythms to anchor the tempo, so the tempo drifts. Practise those bars with a metronome and hold the tempo back deliberately — it will feel slow before it is correct.

Should I change my foot tap for syncopated bars?

No. Syncopation works precisely because the underlying pulse does not move. Keep the foot and the tempo steady and let the listener enjoy the surprise.

Why do my jigs sound compressed at speed?

GDE grace note combinations tighten up as tempo increases, and grips get squeezed. Keep the GDEs open and clear, and don’t over-hold the quarter note in the quarter-eighth combination — that is what interrupts the flow.

About Jori Chisholm

Jori Chisholm is a world-renowned American professional bagpipe player and teacher. He played with the six-time Grade One World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band for 19 years and was a featured solo performer for the band on multiple occasions. He is a successful solo competitor, winning the United States Gold Medal four times and winning top prizes at many top competitions including the Northern Meeting at Inverness, the Argyllshire Gathering in Oban, the Royal Braemar Gathering, and the Cowal Highland Gathering.

Jori started BagpipeLessons.com in 1999, in hopes of bringing pipers of all levels and experience valuable, trusted information, tools, support, and inspiration. In 2003, Jori was the first piper to teach bagpipes online. He has been featured in a New York Times front page story about the growth of online music lessons. Jori also founded the world’s first online-only piping and drumming competition, the World Piping and Drumming Championships, which has become a highly popular and celebrated event.

Jori has invented several popular, award-winning, and patented products for pipers including the Tone Protector™ chanter cap with two-way humidity control, the Tone Protector™ Reed Case, InTune Mic™, the Bagpipe Gauge, the Piper’s Ultimate Reed Poker, the Piper’s Advantage™ Bagpipe Phone Mount, and the Piper’s Metronome™. Jori lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two sons and enjoys traveling, exploring the great outdoors, and of course, music of all kinds.

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