The Saturday Sessions

for Students and Teachers

Welcome to the newest classroom ! This is the home of the Saturday novice's session. It is here that you will start a program from scale exercises to grace noting to doublings that will guide you to a higher level of playing. As in the other rooms of the school house, we rely heavily on your input, so please contact the Captain for lessons specific to your stage of development.

A brief Menu will help to see where we are going:

The Scale
The Scale exercises
The Scale with G grace note only
Exercises with G grace note
A first tune to build strength - Farewell to Lewis
The G and D grace notes
The Doublings
The Tachum
Tunes for G and D grace notes only
The birl
The Grip
The Taorluath
The Metronome
Playing in time
The Rhythms
Slow integration to band playing
Use of the ear and the mental part of learning
Proper place for sight reading
Sight reading techniques
When is it time for the pipes
First pipe lesson
Special pipe technique
focus on blowing
Focus on playing
The next level

All lessons will be introduced with symbols that you click on

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Lesson 31 - April 4, 2007

Moving on with the grip, let's explore some of the combinations that can occur in many tunes.



Grips 2 - Tune Specific Drills

Lesson 30 - March 21, 2007

Have a look at the following drill which will assist in developing a solid low G presence.



Grips 2 - Tune Specific Drills

Lesson 29 - March 7, 2007

It is time to increase the amount of technique and rhythm that you bring to your music. With this in mind, you will now start to play the grip. The exercises below will introduce you to the rhythm. Pay attention to the solid Low G sound. It gets its name from the fact that during its execution your fingers are actually all "closed" in a gripping fashion.



Grips 1 - Exercise and Audio

Lesson 28- February 28, 2007

The second installment on birls - the various styles - figure 7 and the tap/drag ... plus drills....



Birls 2     Birls 3

Lesson 27- February 21, 2007

We start to move away from tunes again and begin the critical period of developing good technique. You already have mastered doublings and tachums. Now we turn our attention to birls. Perfecting the birl is the quest of all pipers. Essentially, we introduce the birl by using a double tap with the Low A finger. Try the following exercises with the music.



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Lesson 26 - February 7, 2007

Now to complete the pulsing techniques on the second part of the new tune, Jack's Welcome Home.



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Lesson 25 - January 21, 2007

Time to apply our pulsing theory to a new tune. try you hand at the first part of Jack's Welcome Home, a tune composed by Rob MacNeil of Vancouver, BC.



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Lesson 24 - January 14, 2007

Have a look at the next step in pulse lines - the addition of the G grace note. be careful to study thye relationship between the pulse, the G grace note and the downbeat.



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Lesson 23 - January 7, 2007

To start the New Year, we are going to introduce the concept of pulses and pulse lines. This topic will be expanded at great length in the Classroom over the next few weeks. For now, we introduce the idea to make understanding the phrasing of our music better.



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Lesson 22, December 27, 2006

    And now for Part 2.



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Lesson 21, December 20, 2006

As promised, let's start a new tune.... one that involves doublings and tachums. The tune chosen here is Kenmure's Up and Awa...an old trad tune that can be found in the Scots Guards Collection Vol 1. It was an standard 6/8 march that we used in the St. Catharines Pipe Band way, way back !

Audio Music

Lesson 20, December 13, 2006

Pyramid Drilling is a fabulous way to develop good technique. This lesson was covered in the classroom on December 8, 2006. It centers on the rhythm of a C doubling down to a low A using the E grace note and a similar movement from the B to the low G. Practice it because it appears so often in our tunes, like the High Road to Gairloch above.

Audio Music

Lesson 19, December 6, 2006

Now its time to really start working hard on the rhythm of the tachum so this week's lesson is a drill on the tachum in some of the forms that you might find it in tunes - tune specific exercises. A new tune coming soon!



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Lesson 18, November 29, 2006

Your technique for playing doublings on the bottom hand should be quite good now, so you will start the next level of embellishment with the Tachum Movement.



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Lesson 17, November 22, 2006

Now, for the second part of The High Road to Gairloch - the completion of the tune..



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Lesson 16, November 15, 2006

Now, for that tune I promised you.... The High Road to Gairloch - Part 1.



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Lesson 15, November 8, 2006

I fibbed a little last week...we should really look at D throws, since they appear in almost all tunes. So, this week, practice D throws .





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Time for the next tune...... are you ready ? Practice the doublings and if progress is good, then next week we will start a new tune. If you have any favorites you would like to learn, email me and we can put them up for you.

Lesson 14, November 1, 2006

How about trying one of the most challenging doubling drills you will ever attempt. Not only is this a learning exercise, but also a maintenance program for life...it will help you to establish good doubling technique - necessary in every tune from this point on.



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Lesson 13, October 25, 2006

You are now are on your own. Let's see what you can do with all the doublings from C, D, E ,F, G, and High A, as in the previous patterns. Be careful of false notes - created when you are on the top hand with the bottom hand in the up position. Let me know how you get on......

Lesson 12 - October 18, 2006

Now the doublings from B





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Eleventh Lesson - October 11, 2006

You are now ready to start the drills on the doublings that will help you experience exactly what happens in tunes - playing doublings from all the different notes. The G grace note of the doubling always takes you to the next melody note on the beat. You will start this lesson with all doublings played from Low A. Future lessons will focus on the doublings from B, C, D and so on. Then finally you will put all together into a drill that will serve you well for maintenance throughout your piping career. But first, the doublings from Low A.



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Tenth Lesson - October 4, 2006

Now to complete the doublings, you will look at the High G and the High A doublings. Both are unique in the fact that you cannot play a G grace note that high up the chanter - so you leave it out and develop a strike or sweep technique which will be explained to you. Sometimes since these doublings lack the G grace note they are technically referred to as "throws". But whatever you call them, they are still played the same.



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Ninth Lesson - September 13, 2006
You are now ready to start the most important embellishments of piping - the DOUBLINGS.... by the name, the rhythm is a 1-2 count with 1 being always a G grace note followed by 2, the D grace note when possible. Try this: sound Low A - make a G grace note followed smartly by a distinct D grace note. Congratulations ! that is your first doubling - a doubling on Low A. Now go to B and do likewise...then C...from D up there are logical substitutions for the second grace note, but the rhythm stays the same. Doublings are placed in our music to add rhythm.



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Eighth Lesson - June 19, 2006

Another Tune

To further improve the technique with the G and D grace notes, we will learn the first part of the Dark Island, a lovely folk tune. I have rewritten it with the exercise in mind. Work on this for the next week or so.



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Seventh Lesson - June 5, 2006

The D Grace Note

The importance of the G grace note cannot be overlooked. It is used to move you to almost every downbeat. But closely following is the D grace note, used usually in conjunction with the G. The D grace note opens and closes notes on the bottom hand.

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Sixth Lesson - May 8, 2006

Finally your first tune - chosen to use the G grace note with the top hand. The tune is a slow air in 6/8 time. You will need your metronome set at 40 BPM.

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Fifth Lesson - May 1, 2006

The Scale - Simple time Signature Rhythms with G Grace Note



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Fourth Lesson - April 25, 2006

The G Grace Note - its use and importance



                Audio                         The Music            Read Me 1        Read Me 2

Third Lesson - April 11, 2006

The Scale - Simple time Signature Rhythms

Exercises to practice simple time signatures in 4/4 and 2/4 . All exercises will help you to identify the beat and start playing with a metronome.





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Second Lesson - April 4, 2006

The Scale - All Notes from All Notes - 4/4

Exercises to improve command of finger technique and arpeggios at all tempos. Playing in time with a metronome is essential.

Audio 1 Audio 2 The Music

First Lesson March 27, 2006

The Scale - Plain and Simple - plus the necessary arpeggios needed to understand the chord progression in the tunes. When successful with this exercise, download the Arpeggio exercise from the Classroom or the Archives.

Audio 1 Audio 2 The Music