Am I Too Old to Learn the Bagpipes?
by Jori Chisholm, Founder of BagpipeLessons.com
Last Updated: November 11, 2026
Am I too old to learn the bagpipes? Is it too late? Could I really do this? If you heard the pipes somewhere and something about them called to you, this video is for you. The short answer is no, it’s not too late. In almost 30 years of teaching, I have never met anybody who wanted to get up on the bagpipes who couldn’t.
I’ve taught kids, people who started in retirement, people who mastered other instruments, and people who had never played a note of music in their lives. In this video, I answer the questions people are afraid to ask: your brain, musical experience, what it takes, lung capacity, your hands and fingers, memorizing tunes, being a beginner again, and finding a teacher.
Key Points in this Video:
- Can my brain still learn something new? (Yes. Our brains can learn at every age.)
- What if I have no musical experience? (It helps, but it’s not required.)
- Do I have what it takes? (Playing the bagpipes is not one skill. It’s many skills.)
- What about lung capacity? (You build it up gradually, starting on the practice chanter.)
- Are my hands and fingers nimble enough? (The answer is good form.)
- Do I have to memorize tunes? (No, and there’s no rush.)
- What will it feel like to be a complete beginner again?
- What about a teacher?
Links to Products Mentioned in the Video:
- Bagpipes at Any Age (free guide)
- Endurance Practice Chanter
- Infinity Pipe Chanter
- Bannatyne Hybrid Pipe Bag (Small)
- R.G. Hardie Adjustistick Adjustable Length Blowpipe
- Bagpipe Essentials Masterclass, free video 1: Master Top Hand Position
- Bagpipe Essentials Masterclass, free video 2: Master Bottom Hand Position
- Free videos, lessons and guides at BagpipeLessons.com/learn
- Join the Inner Circle
Chapters:
00:00 You heard the bagpipes. Is it too late?
00:49 Can my brain still learn something new?
01:28 What if I have no musical experience?
01:54 Do I have what it takes?
02:23 What about lung capacity?
03:02 Are my hands and fingers nimble enough?
03:58 What about memorizing tunes? (plus your free guide)
04:43 What will it feel like to be a beginner again?
05:33 What about a teacher?
06:00 What called you to the bagpipes?
06:31 Are you too old? Your free guide and the Inner Circle
Watch the video above, or read the full transcript below.
Video Transcript: You love the bagpipes. You heard them somewhere, and there was something about it. Maybe it’s part of your family heritage. Maybe it’s just something about the sound of the instrument that calls to you, and you thought, “I would love to do that. I would love to learn to play.” But you might be wondering, is it too late? Am I too old? Could I really do this? Or is it just a dream?
The answer is no, it’s not too late. In my almost 30 years of teaching, I have never met anybody who wanted to get up on the bagpipes who couldn’t.
I’m Jori Chisholm here from BagpipeLessons.com. I’ve taught kids, and I’ve taught people who started in retirement, people who mastered other instruments, and people who had never played a note of music in their lives. So here are a few questions people are afraid to ask, and my honest answers.
Can my brain still learn something new? Yes. We humans have great neuroplasticity. Our brains can learn at every age, and everybody can learn. What it takes is the inspiration, the motivation, the right tools, and the right support. I love hearing inspiring stories about what people can accomplish at every stage of life when they have the interest, the goal, and the drive to do it, and you need support. That’s what you’re going to have here. Learning takes what it takes at every age: repetition, attention, time, and occasionally sleeping on it. Don’t compare yourself to others. Start from where you are.
What if I have no musical experience? If you’ve played music before, that’s great. It definitely helps, but it’s not required. Lots of people learn to play the bagpipes at any age with zero musical experience at all. And you might have more than you think. You’ve been listening to music your whole life. Everybody knows Happy Birthday. That’s in your ear. Rhythm is learned by tapping your foot and by counting out loud. Pitch, the melody of the notes, is learned one note at a time.
Do I have what it takes? Do I have the skills and abilities? Here’s something I want you to know. Learning to play the bagpipes is not a skill. It is many, many skills: your fingers, breathing, rhythm, reading music, listening, patience, sticking with something when it gets hard. If you have a family, or built a career, or learned a trade, or can cook, or learned to drive, something in each one of those helps you learn something new.
What about lung capacity? There is a physical conditioning component to playing the bagpipes, but that is true of every sport and most musical instruments. You have to build up parts of your body, and you build it up gradually: blowing, squeezing, your lip muscles, your blowing muscles. You start on the practice chanter, which is a small recorder-like instrument that takes very little air, and then eventually you get on the big pipes. And bagpipes today are way more comfortable and way more efficient than at any time in the past. We have modern bags and modern reeds, and once you get them set up, it is totally doable to play the pipes at any age.
What about my hands and my fingers? Are they nimble enough? Pipers at every age have to work on this. The answer is good form. You keep your hands light and loose. You keep your fingers close to the chanter, no clenching, and you develop good form and good fundamentals from the very beginning. And there are so many beautiful tunes, tunes that pipers love to play, that audiences love to hear, that don’t need speed at all.
Now, if you have small hands or hands that hurt, good form helps with all of this, because light hands make it easier to play. If you have smaller hands, I recommend you get the regular practice chanter, not the long one, and a small pipe bag is a great option. And we have adjustable blowpipes, and my favorite pipe chanter is the Infinity chanter. It’s got smaller holes that are closer spaced, and it makes it way easier to play. These days, we have so many options to make sure that your pipes sound great, feel great, and fit you regardless of your age or your size.
What about memorizing tunes? Memorizing tunes is not required. Now, if you’re going to be performing in public, you will want a few tunes under your belt, so you’re not reading from sheet music. But many pipers, most pipers, when they’re practicing at home, they have a music stand, they have their music on their phone or iPad, or they print it out, and that is totally fine. There is no rush to get your tunes memorized. In my experience, if you’ve really spent the time it takes to learn a tune properly, and figured out all the technique and the rhythm and the timing and the expression that goes into it, by the time you’ve learned all that stuff, the tune is mostly memorized anyway.
I’ve written a free guide you can download all about this. It’s called Bagpipes at Any Age. The link is in the description below.
What’s it going to feel like to be a complete beginner again at my age? Maybe you haven’t started something completely new in a long, long time, but here’s how it’s going to feel. It’s going to feel fun. It’s going to feel exciting, and at times it will feel challenging and maybe a little frustrating. And it’s even more fun if you trust the process and try to enjoy the journey. I feel that regardless of what level you’re at, you want to be good at that level. So even when you’re a complete beginner, you want to play well, which is learning the scale, learning your notes, and doing it properly with good form. You take it slow. You don’t get ahead of yourself. You keep things clean, and that gives you confidence, so that no matter what stage you’re at, you feel confident because you’re doing a good job. And once you’re on the pipes, having bagpipes that sound great and feel great to play gives you a lot of confidence, whatever tune you’re playing.
What about a teacher? That’s what BagpipeLessons.com is for. My Inner Circle membership is where I teach live weekly classes on Zoom for all members, and there’s a huge library of lessons, videos, tunes, exercises, product demonstrations, and more. Plus, you get feedback from me regardless of where you are in the world. I also have tons of free lessons on my YouTube channel and on my Learn page at BagpipeLessons.com/learn. All the links are in the description below.
Learn From the Best
I'm Jori Chisholm. I created BagpipeLessons.com to help you fulfill your dream of becoming a piper. I hope to see you soon at weekly online sessions of my Inner Circle.
But first, I want you to think about what it is about the bagpipes that called to you. I started playing when I was eleven years old, but I did not come from a piping family. I did not grow up in a town that was a hotbed of bagpipes. But I heard pipers when I was young. I loved the sound, and I thought, “I want to learn to play the bagpipes.” I found a teacher, I started taking lessons, and it changed my life. And I feel so lucky, so fortunate, to be in a position where I get to share my love of the bagpipes and everything I’ve learned with you.
So are you too old? No. Is it too late? No. Could you really do this? Yes.
Thanks for watching. Download my free guide, Bagpipes at Any Age. And if you love this video and you want to learn more from me, subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the little bell. And when you’re ready, join my BagpipeLessons.com Inner Circle for all the live classes and the amazing lesson library. You can start with one of my first lessons from the Bagpipe Essentials Masterclass. It teaches you how to get your hand in the proper position on your practice chanter, because good form and good finger position is where this all begins. The link is below.
And if you have any questions, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you. And tell me in the comments, what is it about the bagpipes that called to you? Thanks for watching. Happy piping. Mahalo!
