The Highland Bagpipe

(Instructional). The Hal Leonard Bagpipe Method is designed for anyone just learning to play the Great Highland bagpipes. This comprehensive and easy-to-use beginner's guide serves as an introduction to the bagpipe chanter. Video lessons of demonstrations of all the examples in the book are included! Lessons include: the practice chanter, the Great Highland Bagpipe scale, bagpipe notation, proper technique, grace-noting, embellishments, playing and practice tips, traditional tunes, buying a bagpipe, and much more!

Combining newspaper and manuscript evidence from the pipers themselves with a range of historical sources, the author harnesses the insights of the practical player to those of the historian and provides a fresh account of the players and their musical traditions, which have previously been the subject of much myth-making.

The Highland Bagpipe Tutor Book 2 – Transition to Bagpipes builds on and develops the knowledge and techniques relating to playing the Highland bagpipe, which are introduced in Tutor Book 1. For many learner pipers the biggest hurdle they encounter is making the transition from playing tunes on the practice chanter to playing tunes on the bagpipe. Th ere is a lot to contend with, such as mastering the blowing technique, getting used to the bag and drones, building stamina, learning how to maintain and care for the instrument, tuning, reed manipulation and how to perform in public as a soloist or with other groups of pipers and musicians. This book follows the step-by-step approach of The Highland Bagpipe Tutor Book and each skill is taught in a logical, progressive manner using tried and tested methods gleaned from the combined experience of the teaching staff at The National Piping Centre. Of course there is no substitution for good teaching and so it is recommended that you use this book in tandem with lessons from an experienced teacher where possible. In offering this book we believe that there is much to be learned, not only for the learner piper but even for experienced players. It is a manual for good practice in terms of the care, maintenance and set-up of the bagpipe. The old adage “if a job is worth doing, then it is worth doing well” still holds true and those who apply this philosophy to the care, maintenance and tuning of the bagpipe will reap the benefits and enjoy the rewards of playing great music on a great instrument. Roddy MacLeod MBE BSc Former Principal - The National Piping Centre

The Scottish Highland Bagpipe, now heard around the globe, has long enchanted musicians and listeners for it's brilliant tone, humming drones, and its profoundly stirring music. Mirroring Joseph MacDonald's unprecedented and encyclopedic treatise of staff notations of the Highland bagpipe (1760-1803), Dr. Matthew Welch's A New Compleat Theory for The Highland Bagpipe charts the complete (or the archaic "compleat') trajectory of the use of the Highland Bagpipe up to 2020. Terse and insightful, this treatise will educate both the piper and composer. Included in Part II is a selection of Dr. Welch's original and inventive compositions for the bagpipe in an array of traditional and modern forms."It seems in the world of music connected to the Great Highland Bagpipe a book comes along every 250 years or so that offers up a fresh view of the music - and its place in the world. In his "A New Compleat Theory" noted performer, composer and scholar, Matthew Welch succeeds in doing just that: a remarkable and rare amalgam of ideas that respect tradition while showcasing the broad - and exciting - potential of the instrument. A must-have for anyone who has ever held - or heard - a bagpipe." - Michael Grey, acclaimed composer and piper, Dunaber Music"As a composer of new music for the highland bagpipe, Matthew Welch is a bold pioneer, an explorer of uncharted territories. Many of Matthew's compositions explore ideas new to the world of piping; often unique and exciting, always mindfully crafted and thought-provoking. Although Matthew often builds on the established idioms of the traditional piping repertoire, ranging from jigs and reels to piobaireachd, he produces original new music that progresses piping to new realms. An examination of the music presented in this book will reveal a sense of humour, a sense of madness - a mad genius!" - Mark Saul, composer-piper and electronic musician

Pipers takes the reader inside the world of the performer community of Scottish piping, introducing the instrument itself and the various different repertories. It also discusses piping techniques as well as information on some of the great piping dynasties and individual pipers. Dr Willie Donaldson shows how 'traditional music', often assumed to be the anonymous product of a dim and distant past, is the creation of gifted individuals operating in a sophisticated and vigorously ongoing enterprise. Since pipers have often been skilled also on the fiddle, keyboards and small-pipes, or as singers or dancers, their story offers fascinating insights into the whole traditional music and song repertoire of Scotland. Pipers is a well-informed and highly readable account by a prize-winning author who is a piper and composer of pipe music as well as an internationally recognised historian of Scottish tradition.

(Music Sales America). This book includes instruction as well as a selection of marches, quicksteps, laments, strathspeys, reels and country dances for bagpipe. It was entirely revised by Captain John MacLellan, M.B.E., Chief Instructor at the Army School of Piping at Edinburgh Castle.

Presents the history of the origins and music of the bagpipe - Scotland's most famous instrument. This book covers both Ceol Mor and Ceol Beag, Piobaireachd, dance music, martial music, music for competitions and music for pleasure, music for pipe bands as well as a commentary on the state of contemporary piping.