Piper's Dojo Audio Experience Andrew Douglas and the Piper's Dojo Team

This week, we're welcoming special guest Ed Best – Dojo U's drumming instruction lead, rhythm guru and dad joke connoisseur – to chat about his approach to helping drummers find their own musical freedom. We dive into the ways piping and drumming can be similar (and how similar approaches between the two corps can benefit a band); how rhythm is the crucial foundation to all music; how drummers approach writing their scores compared to pipers; and how great players don't always make great teachers. Plus some incidental parenting hacks for good measure!
Interested to learn more about Dojo U's Drumming program? Check it out for free for the first week: pipersdojo.com/drumming
Got a question you'd like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or shoot us an email at support@pipersdojo.com. 

Do your bagpipes fit your body – or do you make your body fit to your bagpipes?
 
Continuing last week's conversation about posture, this time Andrew and Jim challenge the idea that bagpipes are hard to play – according to Andrew they should be easy to play, always, but we all know that's often easier said than done... especially for newer players. So they follow up with some great tips on how to work on your posture, whether you could 'wear your bagpipes to outer space', and how to improve your maintenance systems to make sure you never have to worry about playing a 'hard' instrument ever again.
 
Got a question or topic you'd like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or email it to support@pipersdojo.com!

"Multitasking is a way of fooling ourselves that we’re being exceptionally efficient."

Did you learn to play exclusively on a practice chanter, have to get a few tunes (with all embellishments included) memorized, and only then transition to the bagpipes – where you then had to juggle posture, blowing steadily, and many other skills at once?

Like in every other walk of life – for bagpipers, multitasking doesn't work. So is there a better way to transition from practice chanter to bagpipes?

In this first instalment of a two-parter, we explore how many traditional methods can be overwhelmingly complex for beginners, and how a singular focus can help actually help pipers speed up their progress – without ingraining bad habits. We also look at how the mystical Joe Brady helped with the missing piece of the puzzle, and try not to get too bummed that we'll never be as happy looking in a mirror as Lincoln Hilton...

Got a question or topic you'd like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or email it to support@pipersdojo.com!

Pipers everywhere struggle with seemingly perpetual problems like crossing noises, often doing 'reps' to fix them. But they're not even close to working out the actual cause of their issues...

This week, we dived into the ups and downs of scale navigation (see what we did there?) – and along the way, took some wild turns into the history of gracenotes, the frustrations of teaching, how to progress from parade piping, and even Oprah...

Got a question or topic you'd like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or email it to support@pipersdojo.com!

Ever noticed there are certain bagpipe tunes that seem to become – and stay – wildly popular?

This week, we're chatting about "viral" bagpipe tunes and trends. Where do they come from, what causes them, and why do certain tunes become so popular when there are other arguably "better" tunes out there?

Got a question or topic you'd like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or email it to support@pipersdojo.com!

Playing the bagpipes is a complex thing – so when figuring out where to focus on for improvement, maybe we can learn some lessons from the emergency room...

This week, we're discussing how to triage your "performance killers", by diagnosing the most fundamental issues in your playing and prioritising what to work on in iterative rounds of improvement.

Pssst – we’ve recently launched our new, comprehensive bagpipe tuning course, “The Great Bagpipe Tuning Algorithm”, which contains everything you need to know about the theory and practice of bagpipe tuning, as well as a 300+ page textbook, 90-day training plan, and 11+ hours with some of the world’s top players! Check it out here: pipersdojo.com/tuning

Got a question or topic you'd like answered in a future episode? Leave a comment or email it to support@pipersdojo.com!