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Question: Is it hard to play the bagpipes !?
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The pipes are considered to be one of the harder instruments to play!. Not only due to the mechanics of playing, but the instrument itself tends to change the tuning on changing conditions!. That's why you see pipers constantly re-tuning!.
"If you play in a group, you can mess up on most of them and nobody will notice, but if you play solo they are very noticeable!."
Not very experienced, are you!? The purpose of a band is ensemble playing!. The pipe section should sound as one pipe and one person messing up will stand out as bad or worse than solo playing!. I circular breathe when playing the practice chanter but it doesn't work on pipes!. I teach beginners to play 'off the top 1/3 of their bag'!. In other words, you don't want the air supply to run too low in the bag in order to 'blow tone'!. Obviously,the music between a didge and bagpipe will be quite different!. I have had a didge player play along with me and it's a surprisingly good match up!.
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You don't need to learn circular breathing for the bagpipes, that's what the bag is for!. You blow up the bag, then you squeeze it while you breathe in, then you blow again!.

The bagpipes are one of the hardest instruments there are!. The problem is that the pressure on the reeds is constant, you don't use breath control for phrasing, like on a clarinet or a flute!. Instead you play short notes between notes, called 'grace notes'!. These are difficult to learn because your fingers have to move really fast!. Sometimes there are four or five of them between two notes!. If you play in a group, you can mess up on most of them and nobody will notice, but if you play solo they are very noticeable!.

You start out on a practice chanter, which is just the pipe that makes the tune!. After you learn all the fingerings, you move up to something called a 'goose', a bagpipe with just the practice chanter and no drones, and this is how you learn the blowing/squeezing thing (which also can be difficult to learn for some people)!. Finally you add the drones!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I never found it overly hard!. You should start off on a practice chanter which will require little force to get a sound!. Then when you start pipes, block off the drones and work up to it (shove an ear plug in place of a reed)!. It takes a bit of air but once you get the coordination going (lifting arm proportionally to blowing, how hard to squeeze, how often to breath so as to not hyperventilate) it's not to bad!. I only stopped because the drones fell off my shoulders as I'm not in any way shape or form masculine!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It is hard for me, I know that
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