Many aspiring bagpipers around the world will try to transition from a practice chanter to a full set of bagpipes in the next year.

Unfortunately, many will give up in frustration, fail, and quit.

It's sad. It's frustrating for learners, tutors, and bands. And it's bad for the growth of our global piping community.

Let's be honest – the bagpipes can be a difficult instrument. At any one time, they have a lot of moving parts to manage, and traditionally, most bands and instructors have taught in a way that makes the journey from learning fingerwork on a practice chanter to playing on our full instrument... well, way more complicated than it needs to be. 

Here's just a few of the challenges that many players constantly struggle with on the Great Highland Bagpipe:

• Hemping
• Oiling
• Seasoning
• Tuning
• Marching
• Striking in without squeaks, squawks, or double toning
• Stopping without trailing drones
• Playing a setup that is too hard to blow
• Trying to blow steadily
• Playing with a reed that keeps 'choking out'
• Not knowing how to tune the chanter and/or drones
• Frequently 'ruining' reeds
• Having too much moisture in the bag
• Struggling to focus on tunes because the pipes are too hard to play...

This list could go on and on. We hear issues like these and many others raised by our students at Dojo University every week in our classes and courses...

If you're just getting started as a piper, this may be a list that you'll be all too familiar with in your future. And if you've been playing for a while... I'd be very surprised if you didn't identify with at least a few items on this list.

Well... it doesn't have to be that way.

Bagpipes are complex, but should never be complicated.

What's the difference? 

Complex = something with a lot of moving parts, which the bagpipe certainly has.

Complicated = something difficult, which requires a high level of skill to operate. 

And, I cannot stress this enough – the bagpipe is definitely not a complicated instrument.

When you break operating a bagpipe down into its components, and sequence the learning process in the right way, feeling comfortable and confident with the instrument is just a matter of time.

There's nothing hard about it. 

Just a few examples...

• Anyone can cut hemp off of a bagpipe joint and replace it with new hemp.
• Anyone can cork up a bag to check if it's airtight.
• Anyone can cork off all chanters and drones, put the pipes on their shoulder, and look in a mirror to observe the quality of their posture.
• Anyone can open up one drone to begin to learn the skills of steady blowing pressure (although going straight to opening up the chanter here would be a huge mistake). 

These are just a handful of the processes you'll become intimately comfortable and confident with in this course.

The problem with the way most of us currently learn the pipes is that it's disorganized and out of sequence! If you haven't quit yet, you're likely running around, being ordered where and how to play, doing as you're told, playing in bands and doing performances while – let's face it – you're probably utterly confused about how this thing should actually work!

In this course – the only one of its kind in the entire world of bagpipes – we will guide you incrementally through easy-to-follow, easy-to-replicate processes, explained in a way that's simple to understand.

Wouldn't it be nice to feel empowered as a piper?

Knowing exactly how your instrument works, how to troubleshoot issues, how to play it efficiently and comfortably, how to tune it accurately, and how to repeat the processes you've learned and be able to show them to others as well?

Let me show you the way.