You’ve made a great decision in wanting to improve your music by competing. For most pipers, the idea of performing for someone is part of our decision to play the bagpipes. Some may play merely for the pure academic effort or just self-enjoyment. That’s great. Most of us, however, want the opportunity to play for someone. At church, a wedding, a reception, or even a funeral, most pipers have an innate desire to perform. We have one (if not the) loudest instrument around, so might as well play for someone. So in preparation to perform, we need to bring together our music, practice and instrument together to a high enough level that our performance will be pleasing (hey, they might even pay us for doing a good job). Simply put, competing is a performance. You are performing for a judge, other competitors and even family and friends supporting you. And overall you’re not competing with anyone but yourself. You may be performing for a placement (or medal), or for the accolades of those who hear you. Or you may be competing to get the professional critique of the judge. To me, if you do your best, regardless of the outcome, you are a winner. Sounds like good reasons to play and sound your best.
Sounding your best is more easily said than done. It takes dedication and focus on our art. It takes untold hours of practice with your instrument (and practice chanter). It takes maintaining and knowing how your pipes are set-up. As our pipe major repeatedly says, “you must have confidence in your playing, from the attack to the last note. It will show in your music” We sometimes think that practicing our tunes is paramount to any performance. Yet there is much more. Here are a few ideas to consider.
Daily skill exercises - Take part of your daily practice to review your base skills. Practice your D-Throw, doublings, grace notes, grips, etc. Let’s be real, you won’t (and can’t) do it all every day, but you should do some every day. Even ten minutes of structured exercises will improve your overall performance. Concert pianists and professional singers do warm-up exercises prior to their performance. You should too.
Music - Choose music within your ability. Ask your instructor, or pipe major or fellow pipers what they are playing or might suggest for you. Listen to pipe music on CD’s, MP3’s, go to Youtube.com and watch/listen to other performers and competition bands. You want to be able to perform well, so choose tunes you like and are technically within your capability. Go looking for the music. Friends may have it to copy, or you may find a bagpipe supply shop that sells music books. There are a couple bagpipe web sites that have compiled tunes and where they were published. Being comfortable with what you play is key to a solid and pleasing performance. Liking what you play aids in keeping you motivated. I personally like 6/8 marches for their feel, yet a steady diet of such would become boring. Try different music styles. As you choose tunes consider that you may wish to compete with the music through both grades 4 and 3, or longer. You can always change, but it does take more to bring the piece of music up to speed.
Practice on chanter – Your chanter is your friend. It’s not a substitute for playing your pipes, but it’s a wonderful tool for honing your skills and can be played almost anywhere. I play mine in the car at stop lights (get used to more than a few looks from other drivers), or on the couch at home, etc. Sometimes I play blowing through the chanter. Other times I’m just practicing fingering. Start your tune on the chanter. Start slowly, playing every phrase with appropriate embellishments. Memorizing tune take time and concentrated practice. I recommend not learning tunes on the pipes. Sometimes I will practice with my feet tapping left, right, left, right, as if marching to the tune. It can help with putting emphasis on the music. When you have the tune technically down on the chanter, you may wish to play with the sheet music on the pipes. I find that the squeaks and squawks of learning a tune best left for chanter work.
Practice with a metronome – The time signatures are there as an aid to you. Practicing for everything but piobaireachd (which is a whole different music form) with the metronome. As you compete, you will be judged on your timing and tempo, so work with metronome. Start by getting used to playing that 2/4 march at 68 beats per minute then gradually increase the tempo to 85 BPM. The metronome will force some discipline into your tempo and force you to correctly play new embellishments within the beat, on the beat, etc.
Practice your pipes – Even while you are learning your competition tunes, play your old standard tunes to keep your bagpipes working at their best. Play every day for 20 – 30 minutes if you can. This will build and maintain stamina in your breathing, arms and lips. Add your competition set as you learn them. This will increase your confidence in playing as you come up to speed on the tune(s). March! If your competition requires you to march, then practice marching as you would in the competition. You will be playing on the march at some point. It’s great to practice. It will help you be better prepared for competition day. If you plan to complete a slow air of two minutes length, you should be able to play triple that length without getting winded. On the day of competition you will be pumped up with adrenaline and the only way to counter this is to practice and be prepared for whatever you might encounter.
Record your practice – This takes guts, but as they say, “no guts, no glory.” Recording can be an audio recording of the music, or a video of your playing. Even if you are not ready to compete, watching yourself play should inspire you to correct parts more readily that just playing. It is not a depressing to be avoided thing. Most pipers, at some point, think with confidence, that we are better players that we are. Recording your practice will give you a dose of reality. I like to use a small digital camera on a small ‘monkey grip’ tripod that I can take with me and setup to record as I play. I can review immediately (and then delete J) and correct my playing. I can also take it back home for review.
Practice, practice, practice – Practice until the tunes are ingrained in your memory. A piping instructor I know said it took playing a tune 100 times to become competent with the tune. He added that after that the hard work begins in refining the tune. I was taught to memorize tunes one line at a time (approx. 4 bars of music). As it becomes ingrained, you may be able to envision the page of music and focus in the moment on where you are in the tune. At competition time you don’t want to lose your place in the tune. That would not be good.
Tune your pipes – Get in the habit of always tuning your pipes. It takes practice. How you tune is a topic for another day. Suffice it to say that every performance should be on a well-tuned instrument. Buy the tuner that can tune up to 480+ Hz or app for your iPhone, etc. and get into the habit of tuning your pipes to the best they can be. And not just low and high ‘A’. Get used to taping and re-taping holes. The goal is always the same, at practice, performance or competition; your pipes should be in tune. Tip: When you compete, arrange ahead of time for another piper, or your instructor, to help you tune.
Play for people – It could just be a friend, family member, piping instructor, or other piper. There’s a certain amount of self-imposed pressure playing before a recording device, but playing for someone takes the pressure to a whole new level. Remember, you’re trying to prepare your playing for a performance in front of a judge. Play for a friend and fellow piper. You want the honest feedback, but from someone you can accept criticism. Take turns judging each other. If you have a piping teacher, play for him or her as if in competition. This should include tuning, warm-up, telling the judge name and tune, marching for the 2/4 march, saluting at the end, etc.
Watch competitions – Before you compete, go to another competition and watch solo competitors compete. Watch how a friend has competed. Always be respectful to competitor and judge alike. Clap, if appropriate. Also, if appropriate, bring your camera and record a couple competitors in your grade for review at home. (Think of football coaches recording the competition and reviewing later). This will help you prepare mentally.
Preparing you, your music and instrument for competition has many facets to consider. It’s never too soon to start. Like our parents told us, practice does make perfect (or closer than w/o practice). If you work, at a full time job, fitting in practice may be challenging. Can I fit in 20 minutes chanter work at lunch, and add practicing pipes after work for 20 minutes more? I’ll speak to the day of competition and the sundry things to consider at another time. Start today. And if you think about it, most, if not all of these thoughts apply to a non-competitor who wishes to master his instrument. They are just sound habits to get into in order to be the best musician for any performance.
