In 1993, I began learning how to play the bagpipes at the ripe old age of 13 – and since the very first day, I’ve been working to improve my playing skills and find out everything I could about the “Great Highland Bagpipe”.

I’ve been teaching the pipes for many years now and since it’s a well-known fact that teachers also learn from their pupils, I’ve had the best of both worlds! I developed my own teaching methods over the years and visited many international schools to be trained by the world’s best teachers.

In 2007 I completed my training as a certified bagpipe tutor and in 2010 I was awarded the highest diploma of the ** PDQB (SCQF Level 8) at the College of Piping in Glasgow, Scotland.

Building on these foundations, I opened my bagpipe school in 2010. Since then I’ve been a professional tutor, teaching beginners, soloists and bagpipe band members all over the world.

Between 2012 and 2014, I published the world’s first DVD bagpipe tutorials. The DVDs cover all the fingering techniques and many exercises for the Scots bagpipe and they complement this book perfectly.

I really wanted to publish everything that I’ve ever learned about “the pipes” in this book. It’s a professional educational tool to help you to learn how to play the bagpipes – but it also goes beyond that.

When you’re learning how to play the pipes, you’ll not only need good teaching tools (like this book and the DVDs), but professional tuition is also crucial, because it will help you avoid getting into the habit of making unnecessary mistakes.

“Good music comes from the heart of the musician and lives in the hearts of the listening audience”

( - Andreas Hambsch - )

Description of the book

What you’ll need in addition to this book

An A4-sized music book with empty staffs (note lines). You’ll write your exercises in your music book and especially the tunes you’ll learn, because physically writing them down is really an enormous help for the learning process.
During your first year of learning, you’ll also need a practice chanter (exercise flute). You can find one in any specialised shop for bagpipes and accessories. The staff there will be able to give you the special advice you need. If you have a tutor, ask him or her to recommend a practice chanter and accessories.

You’ll learn the first fingerings and tunes on your practice chanter and after around 8-16 months (depending on the time you spend on the exercises), you’ll have reached lesson 21. Then it will be time for you to transfer what you’ve learned on your chanter to the “big” bagpipes – but the practice chanter will always accompany you when you’re learning fingering exercises and new tunes.

The Structure of the Book

Bagpipe music has melody notes (they’re the big notes, which represent the melody of the tune) and grace notes (the small notes), which “grace” or embellish the melody.

With its combi-method and twenty-nine lessons, this book is structured in such a way that you can absorb and memorise the melody and grace notes systematically and successfully.

The combi-method is all about learning the fingering technique and doing the exercises with their matching melodies. The DVDs contain the acoustic and visual versions of all the exercises in this book, plus the first five tunes played at different speeds. You can buy the DVDs in the online store at www.bagpiper-andy.de/bagpipe-shop.html. The combi-method consists of the book and the DVDs together.

Each lesson in the book will bring you one step closer to your goal of becoming a good piper. Work through the lessons conscientiously – only start the next one if you’re sure you’ve mastered the previous lesson’s exercises and can play them correctly.

By the time you’ve finished with this book, you’ll have learned twenty-one bagpipe tunes (yes, twenty-one!) with all their grace notes. But keep working on your fingering technique every day – and expand your repertoire using sheet music that you can buy in your bagpipe shop.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Description of the book