10 Bagpipe Performance Goals for the New Year by Vince Janoski

Happy Hogmanay! The start of another year is upon us. As you reflect on the things that have influenced your bagpiping over the last ten years, you can begin the year by setting musical goals as part of your New Year’s resolutions. A good way to guide yourself through your next year-long ritual of bagpipe performance and competition.

Bagpiping New Year’s Resolution Week 2013 by Vince Janoski

Happy New Year! This week is Bagpiping New Year’s Resolution week at Pipehacker. A good way to kick off the first week of the new year is to take stock of your bagpiping achievements and goals and plan for a bigger and better year. There a plenty of helpful posts here at Pipehacker to help [...]

5 Steps to Building Your Bagpipe Music Repertoire by Vince Janoski

Developing one’s musicianship as a solo bagpiper or pipe bandsman can be hard work, and it’s easy to fall back on the competitive music that demands so much of our time to polish. But, as musicians, we owe it to ourselves to develop a broader view.

Glenfiddich Bagpipe Championships to be Streamed Live! by Vince Janoski

        O my gosh. It’s like Christmas, but better! I can think of no better way to ‘ush in the Celtic holiday of Samhain than to watch arguably the highest level solo Highland bagpiping there is. The National Piping Centre will be live streaming the Glenfiddich Championships from Blair Atholl Castle on [...]

The 8 Secrets of Success—The Bagpipes Edition by Vince Janoski

Pipesdrums’ recent brief interview with Denny & Dunipace Gleneagles PM David Clunie highlights the very important challenges that face a band making the jump from Grade 2 to Grade 1. Rightly so, a higher grade can certainly become a “graveyard” and mean certain destruction for some bands. Clunie covers the very important nuts-and-bolts that should [...]

Pipehacker Project: Recording Your Professional Personal Piping Performances by Vince Janoski

You’re serious about your bagpiping, right? Of course you are. You take all the necessary steps to treat your instrument with care and acquire all the skills and knowledge you need to play good music. So why wouldn’t you treat other aspects of your bagpipe progress with the same import? It always surprises me that, [...]

Cracking the Millstone II: Long Live Bagpipe Competitions! by Vince Janoski

Go back and read Part I: Bagpipe Competitions are Dead The merry-go-round goes round and round… The sheer monotony of bagpipe competition here in the US can wear you down after a while. As I mentioned in Part I of this piece, Bill Livingstone once likened competition to a “millstone,” and he’s right. Lots of [...]

Cracking the Millstone, Part I: Bagpipe Competitions Are Dead by Vince Janoski

It’s spring approaching summer here in the eastern US. And you know what that means? That means the Highland games and bagpipe competition circuit has begun in earnest. Many pipers are eagerly pressing their kilts, spending hours of practice time, and preparing their instruments for…well, another year of the same merry-go-round of MSRs, piobaireachds, and [...]