I Made the Front Page of the New York Times — How I Started Online Bagpipe Lessons Which Took Off
by Jori Chisholm, Founder of BagpipeLessons.com
Last Updated: January 13, 2026
This video reflects on a remarkable milestone in the history of online bagpipe instruction—my appearance on the front page of the New York Times in 2012 for teaching bagpipe lessons over Skype.
I share the behind-the-scenes story of how the article came together, why online music lessons were truly groundbreaking at the time, and how that early experience helped shape what would become BagpipeLessons.com. I look back on more than two decades of teaching online, the evolution of technology, and how global access to expert instruction has transformed the piping world for the better.
Watch a short clip of the original lesson.
Watch the video below.
Read the full video transcript below.
Video Transcript: Big headline is Mitt Romney is the winner in New Hampshire. Something about South Carolina.
And just then we have a crisis in South Africa. And just below the fold, we have a headline.
“With enough bandwidth, many join the band. When Dr. John McClure, a pathologist in Edina, Minnesota, was pondering his wish list several years ago, he added something a little out of the ordinary. Learn to play the bagpipes. But his goal seemed like a long shot after a friend who’d been teaching him moved away. Now he’s getting lessons from a top tier teacher, Jori Chisholm, whose resume includes a first place award at the 2010 Cowell Highland Gathering in Denune, Scotland. Mr. Chisholm lives in Seattle, but distance is no longer a problem. Dr. McClure now takes lessons over Skype.”
So there it is. 14 years ago today that was a front page article in the New York Times and I think I looked it up back at this time, over a million close, to a million and a half people read the New York Times every day.
Photograph caption says, “Dr. John McClure practiced the bagpipes in Edina, Minnesota while his teacher Jori Chisholm watched online from Seattle.” And there it is. There’s John playing in his room, in his piping practice room, and there on his laptop is my face doing a lesson on Skype. Remember Skype? Skype is not even a thing anymore.
So, I put a link in the description below. You can read the whole article, but it goes on to talk about how Skype and other video chat programs have transformed the simple phone call and venturing into a new frontier. It is upending and democratizing the world of music lessons.
So, this was a really cool experience to be part of this story in one of the world’s most well-known newspapers and I just wanted to share that with you. You can check out the link below for the whole article and read it.
What I didn’t realize at the time when this article came out was that Skype music lessons were becoming a big thing. I was doing it. I’d been doing it for several years and here at BagpipeLessons.com and the reporter reached out to me by email and we had a couple email exchanges and then she interviewed me over the phone and then we scheduled a photo shoot and I said, “Well, sure. Well, you just tell me, you know, how you want to do this photo shoot and I’ll make myself available.” And she said, “No, that’s not how we do it at the New York Times. You don’t do this, it is not a staged photo op. We’re going to send a reporter to you or to your student’s house, wherever they are in the world, and when you’re doing your lesson that’s previously scheduled, we will take some photos and video of it.”
So, that’s exactly what we did. And I thought John would be a great example of a student. So, they sent a photographer to his house in Minnesota. And I remember having the lesson, and I was actually upstairs in a room, which is now my son Duncan’s bedroom. That was my office at the time doing the lesson on my iMac and John was in Minnesota and in the background in his practice room was a photographer taking these photos.
And then there’s maybe a couple more emails back and forth with the reporter. And then I remember getting this email and she said, unless barring any major international incident, the article will be in tomorrow’s newspaper on page 1A.
And I wrote back and said, page 1A, that sounds good. What is that? And she wrote back and said, it’s the front page. So I wrote back and said, “Wow, that’s amazing. Have you ever had an article on the front page of the New York Times?” And she said, “No, this will be my first one.” So there was some congratulations all around.
And then actually the night before on Tuesday, January 10th, my website traffic started to really go up. And that was because the online version of the article had gone live on the New York Times website. And then the next morning, web traffic went crazy and I started hearing from friends, family, people I hadn’t spoken to in years. Old teachers from grade school hadn’t spoken to in decades were reaching out to me and saying, “Wow, so cool seeing you in the newspaper this morning when I was drinking my coffee.” So, very cool thing. Check out the whole article.
Back in 2012, I think internet speeds typically in the United States were like less than 10 megabytes per second. Now I’m close to 800, I think, on my home broadband. Skype doesn’t even exist anymore. I was teaching on Skype until about six years ago and then switched over to Zoom.I still have students all around the world, but the business has also evolved.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that online music lessons really were a thing. And in the article they talk about, it’s not just me and bagpipes, but it’s guitars and other instruments.
And what taking lessons allows you to do is get that one-on-one personalized feedback from an expert, someone that you trust, someone that you can connect with. But doing it online, that person doesn’t need to be in the radius of where you live and where you can drive to.
In the old days, a music teacher probably would have pulled from just their neighborhood or maybe the neighborhood nearby. But really, we’re talking about having a yellow pages ad, maybe putting business cards on bulletin boards and coffee shops. That sort of thing, of course, still happens. But for music teachers who teach online, you can find students anywhere in the world and students no matter where they live can connect with the teacher for great instruction.
So I just think it’s really a cool thing that what I started to do has now become a big deal. And I’d love to hear from you if post in the comments if you’re taking online music lessons or if you have taken them, just put a little comment in there about how long you’re doing it, where you live, where your teacher is, just something so we can get a discussion going and people can find out just really what a big deal this is.
By the way, for kids, parents love the online lessons because they don’t have to drive their kids around. You can do it from the comfort and safety of your home with all the stuff that you have around.
I wrote a document called “How to Get the Most out of your Online Music Lessons.” The link to that is in the description below. Free document. Just some things I’ve picked up over the years about how to be ready with your camera equipment, your computer setup.
The technology has made it so much easier and so much better with internet speeds, with great built-in cameras. You can have a great music lesson with your iPhone. You don’t need a special microphone, don’t need a special camera, just pop it up with a selfie camera. It’s really amazing.
For any of you who were doing online video chat, video lessons back in 2012 and even before that, you remember it was an issue to get a good sound, especially with the bagpipes. But these days, it’s just really amazing. The built-in features on your iPhone or your iPad are going to be just great.
Even though this article came out in 2012, I’ve actually been teaching lessons online with the webcam since 2003.
And I know exactly when it was because I think I was involved in the very first ever bagpipe webcam lesson in the history of everything. And I was actually the student.
So at that point, I was taking lessons from Mike Cusack. And Mike is a great friend and the greatest American piper. And Mike was one of my teachers and mentors. I lived in Seattle. He lived in Houston. And I would see Mike in person several times per year. We’d be teaching together. We’d be somewhere together in the world at a piping event where I would fly to his home in Houston and have lessons, a whole weekend of lessons. And those were great. I really learned so much from him and I really have great memories of all those experiences.
Then Apple released their FireWire webcam called the EyeSight camera. I’m a Mac guy. I’ve always been an Apple guy. And I thought, “Wow, this is cool.” And they released it with an AOL based instant messaging thing called AOL instant messenger, AIM.
They released an update to Messenger that had video chat with this EyeSight camera. And I knew Mike was an Apple guy. So, I bought two of those cameras. I don’t remember how much they were, but they were expensive, but they were a lot cheaper than flying to Houston for the weekend. So, I bought two of those EyeSight cameras. I sent one to Mike. He got it. We got online and we did the world’s very first-of-all-time-ever bagpipe internet video lesson with I-chat AV on our Macintosh computers.
And I remember thinking, “This is really going to work. This is going to change my life to be able to study with Mike online and it’s going to change the world for bagpipers.”
And right away that day, I updated my website to say, “Now offering interactive webcam-based lessons.” And now we just call them Skype lessons or Zoom lessons or online lessons. It’s just online, right?
So really, really amazing. Somewhere I have a recording. I actually recorded that first lesson and I can’t remember if I have a video recording. I definitely have an audio recording because I found a way to record the sound on my Mac when I was having that lesson. But a really really cool thing.
So I want to hear from you if you’ve been taking online lessons. Maybe you’re watching this, you’re not even a bagpiper, but if you’ve ever taken an online music lesson, I’d love to hear from you and hear how that’s going, how long you’ve been doing it.
I’ve been teaching online lessons since 2003, which is just amazing. Here we are in 2026.
When this article came out in the New York Times, I had no kids. Now I have two. My son Colin is about to be 14. He’s still 13 and he’s in eighth grade and my son Duncan is 11.
These are in the early days of BagpipeLessons.com.
I didn’t have all the products that I have out now. This was before the Tone Protector, before the Bagpipe Gauge, before the InTune Mic, before the Endurance Practice Chanter. Before I had really expanded my offerings of my own invented retail products and my curated selection of other products that I love and trust and recommend.
So, it’s just been fun to reflect on how much the world has changed in the last 14 years. How much BagpipeLessons.com has changed, but also how much the piping world has changed for the better.
We have to think about all the great material that we have available online through your favorite social media groups. There’s a lot of activity on these different social networks.
Just yesterday I was looking up a really cool old tune written by the Scottish piper who then came to Canada, John Wilson. And he wrote this really, really cool and hard tune called “Tom Kettle’s Reel.”
Hop on the internet, search for it, and then find a whole article about it. A blog post about it. The really high resolution scan of John Wilson’s own handwriting writing out the tune and then a link to listen to the tune being played.
So, it’s just so amazing that for this niche thing that we do. There are many, many pipers in the world, but a lot of us live in places where there aren’t a lot of pipers right where we live.
I live in Seattle, not exactly a piping hotbed, though we do have a community of pipers here who are good and very enthusiastic. But you can connect with pipers from around the world online and you have access to so much great music and recordings. I love going and finding great recordings of the great pipers from the past and you can do that and most of it’s free.
I sent out an email to my list at the end of last year saying, “Thanks for a great year, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year’s.” And I really want to say thanks to everybody who’s watching this video, if you subscribe to the channel, if you’re on my BagpipeLessons.com email list, if you’re watching and subscribing and commenting on the videos, thank you so much.
I don’t obsess over statistics and marketing statistics. Really, the reason I love doing what I do is I love music. I love writing tunes. I love playing tunes and practicing and getting better. And I also love creating tools and resources, information, so that you can enjoy your piping more, so you can find ways to make better progress, make your pipes easier to play, and have them stay in tune. I love doing that.
But it’s pretty amazing. I was looking at some of the statistics from my channel. Over 350,000 views on YouTube last year for BagpipeLessons.com and then on Facebook and Instagram, 2.3 million views. Over a thousand people downloaded one of my tune lesson downloads last year.
So thank you. Thanks for making last year a great year. Thanks for making all of these years since my New York Times article came out in 2012. Thanks for making a great 14 years. And thanks for supporting BagpipeLessons.com since October of 2000. So we’re 25 years and still cooking here. Thanks for that.
Lots of cool exciting things I’m looking forward to in 2026. I’m not the type of person to throw out teasers and hints and talk about things before they’re ready for you, but I’ve been working hard and got some exciting things for you coming up this year.
So, thanks for watching on the YouTube channel. Please subscribe if you haven’t. You can sign up for my email list, a link is in the description below.
If you like what I have to say, if you like my style, if you want to learn more from me, if you want to get some one-on-one connection with me and my online community of pipers who love piping, who want to get better, all around the world of different levels, check out my BagpipeLessons.com Inner Circle. You get access to a lesson library with hundreds of lessons. I do a live Zoom class just for my members almost every week and those are all recorded and archived. So, if you’re looking for something fun and interesting to do with your time and you’re tired of just surfing the internet and doom scrolling and watching dumb shows on Netflix, not all shows on Netflix are dumb, but if you’re just looking for something that’s maybe more engaging and more productive, consider joining my Inner Circle.
Hundreds and hundreds of hours of these online lessons that I’ve done over the last five plus years. You can watch them anytime on the replay from any device.
So, you can also check out all my products, the Tone Protectors and all that other stuff at https://bagpipelessons.com/shop/
So, from the cover of the New York Times, no longer teaching Skype lessons, but still here on YouTube and Facebook and on your favorite internet browser, on your favorite device at BagpipeLessons.com.
Thanks everybody. Make a comment. Where are you? I want to hear from you. Where are you watching from?
And thanks for being part of it. See you next time. Mahalo.
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