10 Personal Bagpipe Resolutions for the Coming Year by Vince Janoski

Now that we are on the brink of another year’s turn, it seems a good a time as any to refresh your list of bagpiping resolutions. A happy, healthy, and prosperous year to all! The hubbub of the holiday season is over. You can now focus more on bagpipes! Whether or not you are considering [...]

4 Steps for Getting Your Drone Reeds to “Point Zero” by Vince Janoski

“Point zero” is exactly what it implies. It is setting the strength of your drone reeds at the starting point before you begin adjusting for pitch and chanter reed strength.

Bagpipe Comix: PIPRZ by Vince Janoski

On Being an Authentic Bagpiper by Vince Janoski

We all live in our own reality bubbles. We become accustomed to thinking that the way we see things is how they are or how they must be. As active, competing bagpipers, I think we collectively form our own piping reality bubble that influences what we play, what we learn, how we play, and who [...]

Small Tunes: “The Favorite Dram” by Vince Janoski

Raise your glass and toast another St. Patrick’s Day! Do it and then play this slip jig “The Favorite Dram.” This lively tune breaks the “small tunes” rule a bit by being three parts, but what the hey. It harkens to a melody likely played to “Ho Ro Mo Bhobag an Dram,” a Gaelic poem [...]

Small Tunes Podcast: “The Witch’s Stane” by Vince Janoski

This moving and poignant slow march appears in only one place in print as near as I could discover, and that is in the J & R Glen Collection, first published in 1870. The witch’s stane mentioned in the title is a small stone that stands in the garden of a cottage in the western [...]

Small Tunes: Vintage Melodies from the Bagpipe Tradition 004 The Witch's Stane [ 4:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (742)

Chanter Reed Selection—The Match-Up by Vince Janoski

The ideal bagpipe sound starts with selecting the ideal chanter reed. Obvious? It is not always as easy as it seems. Personal preferences and taste coupled with what amounts to unlimited choice in makers and quality of chanter reed makes that initial task of selecting your ideal reed a bit more daunting. But unlimited choice [...]

Chanter Reed Selection—The Physical Exam by Vince Janoski

The ideal bagpipe sound starts with selecting the ideal chanter reed. Obvious? It is not always as easy as it seems. Personal preferences and taste coupled with what amounts to unlimited choice in makers and quality of chanter reed makes that initial task of selecting your ideal reed a bit more daunting. But unlimited choice [...]