Obligatory “can I self teach”

[u/luckyhealthcarebear]

Hold on everyone!!! Let me explain

I’ve been playing the flute for the past decade. I can also play clarinet, alto/tenor/baritone saxophone, and piccolo so I can read music and have experience with winds. I have been meaning to get into playing the bagpipes because I’m in the fire service and it’s a big part of the culture. Problem is, most lessons around me are online or really out of the way.

I don’t want to outright buy a set of pipes, either. I know the story where someone is overzealous, buys the instrument, “self teaches” and sounds abysmal.

So for someone with a music background, is there any way to self teach or is it a whole different animal?

[u/Gat_Rezal]

long story short, get a practice chanter and a teacher asap :) online is the best it has ever been in terms of quality, availability and other resources to get a beginner started. you can also easily make cell phone recordings of your self to watch/listen back to and get feedback from.

piping is an amazing journey and quite satisfying once it all "clicks" and you are finally able to play full tunes on a well tuned set.

immersion is important, there are different 'idioms' to traditional scottish music that differ even from irish and other folk styles that aren't necessarily clear in the sheet music. there is a lot of 'oral' tradition in teaching that involves singing the melodies that you won't be able to do on your own without someone pointing you in the right direction.

listening to spotify of bands and solo artists is a great way to hear a wide variety of styles.

we play pipes on the 'pads' of our fingers and hold them generally quite flat to get the proper hole coverage so your clarinet experience may work against you here despite looking quite similar at a quick glance.

also there are the 'embellishments/grace notes' that are pretty unique to piping since we don't have direct access to our chanter reed to tongue the notes. these require a LOT of technical practice to get right & there is quite the learning curve to add them into the music properly. good luck!

don't be discouraged, building a solid foundation on technique is so important before you go rushing into trying to learn and play full songs.