Are you interested in playing Piobaireachd, but the mystique of it makes you hesitant to dive in?  

I’ve been teaching and performing bagpipes now for about 20 years all over the world. I’ve taught countless individual players, been a full-time instructor of junior bands, pipe-majored a grade 1 band that qualified for the world-championship final, taught workshops for dozens of intermediate bands - And, you know, one of the biggest "sore spots" for pipers of all ages and stages is - you guessed it - fear/dislike of Piobaireachd.  

Join the club! Piobaireachd is a very difficult aspect of piping to get involved with because, frankly, at the outset it’s a bit much to soak in. 

Take me for example. When I was a kid (see my picture to the right), I frankly didn’t like piobaireachd at all. I knew I needed it to be successful at solo competitions, but the whole thing was boring to me. I just didn’t get it. I liked the fast tunes. Reels, Hornpipes, Jigs, Marches. You know, the good bagpipe music!  

But, I had to take my lumps. I was in grade 3 solos now, and that required a full Piobaireachd. Most of my lesson time with Donald Lindsay and Jim MacGillivray was spent playing my Piobaireahcd over, and over, and over again. Try it this way, try it that way, this variation needs to be faster. Open up your Crunluaths. Etc, Etc, Etc. Somebody kill me now!  

The hard work paid off to be sure - I was winning my Grade 3 solo competitions - even in Piobaireachd. That part was fun. But the music of Piobaireachd was so hard for me to enjoy at all. 

A few years later, I had an interesting experience at the Invermark Summer School - Paula Glendinning, a famous piper from the Baltimore area said to me after I played the Battle of Auldearn (a fairly demanding Piobaireachd): “You know, even though you love the fast tunes, you are going to be known for your Piobaireachd playing.”  

This really kind of struck me, and it has stuck with me to this day.  

As much as I tried to put lots of feeling into my Piobaireachd playing, I really didn’t consider myself to be a Piobaireachd player. It was a chore to me. Something I had to do as a competitor. Still boring. Still not fun - not really, anyway.  

In retrospect - I was just a kid, and I think I was looking at piping the way many of us do as we learn - a two-dimensional pursuit consisting of playing marches with great rhythm and technique. It’s high intensity - kind of like you’re trying to tame an aggressive beast.

But piping is not just that. A type of serenity can be found with the bagpipe. A meditative, zen-like quality. Sometimes you can find that playing marches, but over time it’s occured to me that Piobaireachd is about seeking out this third dimension.  

There’s no way to properly explain what Piobaireachd is really all about. BUT! What I can tell you is, if you dive in and let it be part of your daily bagpiping life, it will open up a whole new aspect of playing that will transform your playing - and heck, it may even transform you as a person.

But here I go again - getting ahead of myself. Let’s do some brief Piobaireachd background before we go too much further:  

What is Piobaireachd? (in 30 seconds) 

You’ve probably heard the word “Piobaireachd” be thrown around here and there, but what is Piobaireachd, really? Here’s a super quick version for you.  

So, Piobaireachd is actually an entirely different paradigm than bagpipe “light” music. It existed before “Western” music had influence on the bagpipe music of Gaelic cultures. It was possibly less about music as it was about storytelling, socializing, and just plain entertainment.  

Piobaireachd probably, in many cases, evolved from traditional songs of Gaelic culture. These songs were probably not originally played on the bagpipes.  

Piobaireachd is just plain different from “Light Music” (you know, marches, jigs, reels, strathspeys, etc). The vast majority of light music tunes were composed post-Culloden, with plenty of western music influence. Also, these “light music” tunes had a heavy military influence - strong beats, high tempos, etc. are REQUIRED to fulfill a specific purpose.  

So, as we dive into Piobaireachd playing - realise that it’s completely different from what you’ve done before. Approach it with fresh eyes, be patient. If you don’t like it at first, that’s normal - piobaireachd is like wine, single malt, fine cheeses - an acquired taste.  

A super-brief History of Piobaireachd:

No one really knows for sure where piobaireachd came from. However, it’s generally accepted that, in the early 1600s (and probably earlier), the MacCrimmon family from Skye possesed the world’s best pipers, and as time moved forward they passed their knowledge of piobaireachd down the line (through family and their famed piping school in the highlands), in an unbroken line, all the way until the mid 1700’s.  

After the last Jacobite rebellion was put down at the battle of Culloden in 1745, Gaelic culture was heavily weeded out of Scotland. This isn’t to say that all of the Gaels were wiped out, but the pressure to conform to the new English way of life both socially and economically was quite literally impossible to withstand for most, and so, over time, the population of definitively gaelic people drastically diminished.  

Although it’s been disproved that the pipes were officially banned after the ‘45, it’s doubtless that being a piper was heavily frowned upon --- and this squelching of the culture of pipers that had existed up until this point continued for generations.  

Today, we play a form of Piobaireachd that has evolved through the efforts of groups of people (like the Highland Society of London and the “Piobaireachd Society”) to preserve the art form. Miraculously, the playing of Piobaireachd has survived, in an unbroken line, all the way to the present day.  

Indeed, if you were to take up Piobaireachd today (from here at the Dojo or elsewhere), you’d be connecting yourself to great teachers and performers of the past - perhaps more than 500 years in the past!

The Introduction to Piobaireachd Course is:

• 5 Extensive Core Modules
• 300+ Video Lessons / Demos
• All tune classifications, special embellishments
• PDF Lesson "Handouts"
• Quizzes after each lesson
• Final exam at the end of the course

Course Details:

Level: Intermediate through Advanced (you should have a few years of experience on the full bagpipes before attempting).

Setting: Online/Virtual

Course Length: 25-30 Hours

Expected Completion Time: 1-3 Months