The Bagpipes are a unique instrument, unlike any other on the planet. They are so complicated, in fact, that they require their own proprietary instrument just to practice on!

One of the reasons that the bagpipe is such a special instrument is that it is the only woodwind instrument to employ the use of more than one reed. The reeds of the chanter and the three drones are sounding ALL of the time, meaning that there is an absence of available silence. Due to this fact, it makes it impossible to play the same note (tone) more than once in succession. The remedy to this problem is the insertion of what are called "grace notes", or other embellishments.

Learning to play grace notes is an entire phase in a piper's education, which requires a lot of practice, making a practice chanter essential. If someone was to simply pick up a full set of pipes and attempt to learn with them, they would most certainly fail. There are so many things going on at once that it can be overwhelming for the individual. The actual playing of the notes is only one area that the beginner piper needs to learn!

The reeds in a bagpipe require a constant, steady, and unvarying air pressure in order to keep them in tune with each other. If this is not supplied, your pipes will sound like a bunch of cats fighting with each other rather than the majestic instrument it is. Learning the techniques for blowing into the bag, squeezing the bag, blowing again, and squeezing again requires a lot of meticulous practice to keep the pressure constant. In this respect, the bagpipes are more physically demanding than most other instruments. So it calls for some muscles to be used in unaccustomed ways.

The bagpipe is a loud instrument (if not the loudest!), and because the pitch of the instrument is fairly high, it makes the listener perceive it as even louder than it really is. When a person is practicing new tunes, its best to use a practice chanter (which is pitched one octave lower than a bagpipe chanter) so as not to annoy the neighbours!

The bagpipe is in a league of its own in the instrument world, and therefore requires something different to practice with than most other instruments would. Learning all of the fundamentals of piping is important to be successful in the piping world. It is used to be a bridge or pathway to the full set of pipes, but also used to learn new tunes even when you "graduate" to the full set.