Step Two: Highlight the Rhythms, Not the Notes

There’s a second way to use your coloured highlighters that most pipers never try, and it’s the one that really opens a tune up. Instead of marking repeated phrases, mark repeated rhythms.

You’re not looking at which notes are the same. You’re looking at individual beats and identifying what the rhythm is, then colouring them accordingly. Take your default pattern — the dot-cut — and circle every single one of those in the tune in one colour. Then the reversed cut-dot gets a different colour. A double-cut beat gets another. Keep going until every beat is accounted for.

What you’ll see is that there is a definite pattern to it, often within each part. The rhythm pops out, because you can suddenly see where the composer flips the pattern to make things interesting. And the places where the pattern reverses are almost always the phrases that trip everybody up — now you can see them coming.

Highlight Three More Tunes

1. A tune you have been playing for a while — a tune you know well.
2. A tune you have been working on — a tune in progress.
3. A brand new tune — a tune you’ve never played or never even heard.

What did you observe? Was it easier or harder than you expected? Did you notice anything odd or unexpected? Did your tune follow a similar pattern of phrases as in The 79th’s?

Once you get the hang of it, print out fresh copies of the three tunes you selected for your self recordings and highlight them as well. You’ll find that this exercise can help you learn faster and memorize tunes with less effort.

Why This Works

Think of your marked-up sheet like a patient’s chart. A doctor doesn’t carry every detail about you in their head — they open the chart, look at it, and hit the ground running. You’re jogging your memory, and you have the information right before you need it, which is at your practice.

That’s the real point. Use your brain for memorising the music, not for remembering where the hard parts and the crossing noises are. Write those down and let the page carry them.

Related Guides

• Learn Tunes Fast — the common mistakes that slow down learning a new tune.
• How to Get the Most Out of Your Practice — how practice differs from just playing.
• How to Eliminate Crossing Noises For Good — mark the trouble spots, then fix them properly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why highlight sheet music before playing a tune?

Because most pipe tunes repeat far more than they look like they do. Marking repeated two-bar phrases shows you how much of the tune you already know, so you memorise structure instead of memorising every bar separately.

What should I highlight first?

Repeated two-bar phrases. Mark each phrase in the same colour every time it appears, working across the whole tune before you play a note.

What’s the difference between highlighting phrases and highlighting rhythms?

Phrases are about the notes — which bars repeat. Rhythms are about the beats — which beats share the same pattern, such as dot-cut or cut-dot, regardless of the notes. The second one reveals where a composer flips the pattern, which is usually exactly where players stumble.

Do I have to print the tune out?

Yes. Looking at it on a screen won’t work for this exercise. You need real paper and coloured highlighters, pens or pencils.

Should I listen to a recording first?

Not for this exercise. Resist the urge to play the tune or find a recording. The whole point is to read the structure with your eyes before your ears or fingers get involved.

Does this actually make memorising faster?

Yes. You end up with far fewer independent things to remember, and the marked page acts as a memory aid at practice time — jogging your memory right before you need it.

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.