Try Playing It By Ear

Have you ever caught yourself humming along to John Denver's "Country Roads" or tapping to the theme of "Star Wars" and wondered how they would sound on the bagpipes?

Pop music is popular for a reason, and it can be fun to play around with modern tunes on our ancient instrument.

But sheet music for new tunes isn't always easy to find. So what do you do when you can't find the dots for your latest earworm from friends, bandmates, or online forums?

The best solution is the most low-tech of all – try playing by ear. 

Picking up tunes by ear might sound daunting at first, especially in an age where sheet music for almost anything can be found with a few clicks. But when was the last time you challenged yourself to listen deeply, to experiment, and playfully explore the scales until you found the melody lurking within your memory?

Translating "The Flintstones" or "Country Roads" to bagpipe music without the sheet as a crutch is not just an exercise in musicianship; it's a journey back to the roots of musical storytelling. Before the widespread availability of sheet music, musicians learned and passed on tunes by listening and recreating. 

Sight reading is still an important skill for any musician (piper or drummer!) to master – and by constantly varying your sheet music you'll develop that skill well. But learning by ear nurtures a different kind of musical intelligence, sharpening your sense of pitch, rhythm, and harmony in ways that sight reading never could.

So why not challenge yourself? Pick a tune, any tune, and play around with scales and settings to see if you can get a tune you like to work on this instrument we love to play.

Check out this Dojo Conversations podcast (link below) as we discuss this topic and many more during a Reddit Q&A deep dive...