Pipehacker

This Week in Ebay Bagpipe Finds

You just never know what you might find… Here is a “vintage” solo bagpiping medal from-a-way-on-back in 1987. Silver, so second place to a lucky guy or gal! The medal even comes with an embossed bagpiper and engraving on the back with the year. Ah, remember the days when you used to get custom medals specifically for the event? Good times. A cheaper second place I never saw…

Hack Your Practice: Being a Better Bagpiper with E’s

All of us want to be better bagpipers, right? Bagpiping is one of those art forms that never stops giving and compels people to never stop working. That is essentially what is at the heart of previous posts such as “5 Ways to Become a Better Bagpiper” and “5 Ways to Build Good Practice Habits.” Those posts gave the piper some handy exercises to collect and focus your thoughts about how you do this bagpipe thing. Here is another exercise: Take a piece of paper and a pen. Now, What is the next physical action you can take to be a better bagpiper? Spend 30 seconds thinking and writing the first thing that comes to you.

What did you write? Hopefully it was something that makes sense to you. Whatever it is, your next task is to actually do that thing before you do anything else piping-wise. Think about the other tasks or efforts that will be required to achieve what you wrote down. Overall, that thing may take a day, a week, or a series of practice sessions to accomplish. However long it takes you, no one can argue that you will be that much a better bagpiper after you’ve accomplished it. How can you not be? Read More