Why You Should Play Without Embellishments

“You’re not a ‘real piper’ unless you play all the embellishments.”

Ever heard this one before?

Many bands still stick to this idea – that to play in the circle you need to be able to play all of their sets with every embellishment as-written.

But is this a reasonable or achievable goal for newer pipers? Or even for pipers who have been playing for a while, but who have much, much more foundational skills that need attention?

When attempting a new tune for the first time, most pipers will try to play it with all of the embellishments included. And, especially in a band setting, most will charge through, sight-reading these complex settings at a tempo much higher than practical for their skill level, if they are even thinking about tempo or rhythm much at all.

In the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, the intricacies of expression and embellishment are the least important things most pipers should work on. They’re very important eventually, of course, and fun to think about once you have a handle on the basics, but they're the furthest thing from high priority for a typical piper's development.

You can't play embellishments without excellent scale navigation, gracenote quality, and a strong rhythmic accuracy. So how can you play embellishments well when you can't even clap accurately to a metronome?

First, you need to build a strong foundation – and if you’ve been playing for a while, that likely means stripping back embellishments to reinforce your basics, so the rest of your established habits and technique have a more solid structure to build up from.

Knowing how to simplify the more complex movements can be a bit daunting. So check out this Dojo Conversations podcast for a step-by-step guide to simplifying tunes effectively (with a side order of dad jokes for good measure).