(From last month's survey) If you could give one piece of piping/drumming advice to your younger self, what would it be?
These top responses came up several times:
-Start younger
-Practice better/harder/more often
-Don't give up/quit!!!!
-Find a good teacher & listen to them
-Work hard to learn your basics/Grace Notes/Rudiments
-Have fun/enjoy it
-You will meet many different personalities in a band, treat everyone with respect but demand the same in return
-Go easier on your hands
-Don't manipulate drone reeds to tune to bad chanter reeds.
-Ditch cane drone reeds...life is too short and solo performances already too stressful to deal with those things!
-Don't be afraid to ask questions
-Have your pipes properly set up before you transition from your practice chanter, so that you know any issues are yours, not the pipes!
-Pay attention to the Pipe Major
-Don't be intimidated by other players, by all means have fun! It's all that really matters.
-Use a metronome more.
-Perform better maintenance on bagpipes
-Specify goals and a time-frame
-Tap your foot to the beat and place the FIRST gracenote of doublings on the beat.
-Don't let people's snide comments bother you so much.
-Learn to read music.
-Learn the difference between practice (which is arduous and tedious) and rehearsal (which means playing full pieces).
-Slow down
-Clean out or replace the bag
-Distance yourself from your parents and have fun with it.
-Seek not the win but the pleasure of the music. True perfection is impossible!
-Be inclusive and not critical of others for what goes around will come around.
-Get it right the first time. So much harder to correct bad technique than to learn it right the first time over.
-Have patience and focus on proper technique. the rest will come.
-Be sure that you understand each lesson before practice, you may be practicing incorrectly. You really do not want to relearn.
-Life's too short to spend on hard reeds.
Thanks for all your contributions!
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