428 - 11 Simple Habits That Will Overhaul Your Piping (Dojo Conversations Episode 98)

What if 11 small changes could make an enormous difference to your piping progress?  

This week, Andrew and Jim dive into the 11 commandments of mastery – Andrew’s blueprint of habits that lead to great bagpiping, but are applicable to all mastery-oriented pursuits. They look at the importance of mastering fundamentals to achieve creative freedom, common pitfalls that learners face, and why a growth mindset is essential to any form of progression.  

Here’s what we cover in this episode: 
00:00 Setting Up the Scene 
00:53 The 11 Commandments of Bagpiping 
01:11 Universal Concepts in Mastery 
02:05 Disagreements in the Bagpipe World 
04:20 Finding Reliable Advice 
05:29 First Principles and Growth Mindset 
12:00 Parenting and Teaching Analogies 
21:13 Empowering Through Fundamentals 
24:14 Discovering the Power of Chords 
24:41 Applying Chord Theory to Bagpipes 
26:01 The Trap of Linear Learning in Bagpiping 
27:36 The Role of Fun in Learning 
28:22 Photography and Bagpiping: A Creative Parallel 
31:32 The Golden Rule of Creative Freedom 
34:28 Specialization vs. Generalism in Bagpiping 
40:30 The Danger of Goal-Oriented Mindsets 
42:47 Overcoming Common Pitfalls in Bagpiping 
48:18 Introducing the 11 Commandments of Mastery