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andrew douglas - piper's dojo founder
So, let me be the first to say THANK YOU for requesting your free guide with us today. In 10-15 minutes, it will arrive in your email inbox.
While this guide will help you a great deal to achieve great results, don't forget that the big picture we're trying to achieve is to become confident and comfortable with the full spectrum of technique surrounding bagpipe tonal production.
While you wait for your materials to arrive, please have a peek below at our video course "Mastering the Steady Blowing Trifecta," a course designed to get you fully up to speed on what "blowing tone" is really about. It's a bit more than just "blow steady," but the basic "trifecta" isn't complicated; you'll have the concepts down in no time.
The course is available to you at a (very) special price if you purchase before exiting this page.
Thanks again!
Andrew from the Dojo
NEWLY UPDATED: 4 Simple Steps to an Easy Bagpipe - Success Plan Course
A reliable, repeatable, ultra-"doable" 4-step process that guarantees your bagpipes are comfortable to play every time you pick them up out of the box.
NEWLY UPDATED: The Steady Blowing Trifecta – Success Plan Course
Develop and perfect the steadiness of your blowing through these three straightforward areas – so you can get on with playing great music!
This "success plan" is a video-course that teaches you the in-depth skills you need to create a high quality, steady sound every time you play your bagpipes.
Are you frustrated because, no matter what you do, your bagpipes continue to sound unsteady?
I’ve been teaching and performing bagpipes now for about 20 years all over the world. I’ve taught countless individual players, been a full-time instructor of junior bands, pipe-majored a grade 1 band that qualified for the world-championship final, taught workshops for dozens of intermediate bands.
And one of the biggest problems people have, universally, at all levels… is unsteady blowing.
Does this situation sound familiar?
You’re standing at a band practice, and your Pipe Major is frustrated because, after spending a hour tuning the band, it still sounds awful! Ds are in and out, High As sound super sharp at times, and the Low As sound dull and flat, especially at the end of parts.
The Pipe Major knows the issue really isn’t with the tuning – the issue is that people are not blowing steadily!
In their frustration, the Pipe Major yells out to the group “Blow steady! Come on! Focus on blowing steady!” (depending on the pipe major, that may be peppered with a few choice words too...)
And so, with the best of intentions, the band members try to focus on blowing steady.
… But does the sound get better? Nope. If anything, it gets worse.
How could this be? Everyone is trying extra hard to “blow steady,” right? If everyone is focusing on blowing steady, the sound of the band should at least get a little bit better... but it never does,
does it?
Maybe the saggy-sounding low As disappear, but then other issues appear in their place – like sharp Ds, out-of-control high Gs, and more!
More than likely, especially in beginner-level bands, you'll be able to heard squeaks and squawks now too, because instead of blowing more steadily, some people are actually just blowing harder, causing the reeds to “overload” and make uncontrollable - and unmusical! - sounds.
The good news is, even the best players in the world, who by this time in their careers, blow ultra-steady instruments, at one time struggled to keep things steady, just like you currently struggle. You’re not alone here.
But as you'd know from listening to world champion pipe bands – Field Marshal Montgomery, Inveraray, SFU… Or when you listen to world-class players like Stuart Liddell or Roddy MacLeod, who make this look easy – there is indeed a way to somehow pull off blowing with amazing steadiness.
So, how DO the greats do it? Is it just pure raw talent and athleticism and coordination?
Nope. Not at all.
They've simply mastered a set of three simple skills that come together (in what we at the Dojo call the “Trifecta”) to produce super-solid bagpipe steadiness and great tonal quality.
Now it’s your turn to discover the “Trifecta,” and put it to use for your own piping.
Master the trifecta, master steady blowing
In addition to teaching bagpipes over the past two decades, I’ve also spent a lot of time playing in top bands and at the highest levels of solo competition. And let me tell you, I’ve learned the hard way that “steadiness” – that rock solid, full, sweet bagpipe sound – is not really optional if you want to “make it.”
Steady blowing and a “solid” bagpipe really, truly, is a prerequisite for good performances.
If you don’t have it, you don’t make the band.
If you don’t have it, you don’t win the competition.
If you don’t have it, quite frankly, people don’t really want to listen to you.
That may sound harsh, but, sadly for many of us, it’s a reality.
If you do have it, of course, that gives you a MUCH better shot at succeeding with the musical goals you have for your bagpiping.
So, with this in mind, I’d like to introduce our Video Success Plan Course, “Mastering the Steady Blowing Trifecta”.
Here are just a few reasons this course is going to help you develop your steady blowing:
- In addition to knowing the three key ingredients of the Steady Blowing Trifecta and understanding what they are on paper, we’re going to teach you the actual ins and outs of each ingredient in video form, so you can see the effects of each one live on your screen.
- You’re going to see some key steady-blowing exercises in motion, so you can replicate the process of learning to blow steadily, one exercise at a time.
- You can see the process of finding the sweet spot using a manometer and using that knowledge to leverage better blowing and tonal quality.
- You'll actually see the difference between mental and physical blowing fundamentals in some live workshops that we've have taught over the years, and be able to re-create the same phenomenons in your own practice room to learn to troubleshoot it for yourself.
- You'll be able to see in our video demonstrations what it looks and sounds like when a piper is exercising steady blowing at the sweet spot.
This “Video Success Plan”, an online video-course that is easily accessed on any device, will set you up for real steady-blowing success.
No more shooting arrows without a target – this objective approach to 'blowing tone' will teach you the exact process of how to get better at this challenging fundamental.
$49 $11 "Success Plan" Course
Get Instant Access to the
4 Simple Steps to an Easy Bagpipes Course
Includes:
- Simple, 4-step process that guarantees bagpipe efficiency and comfort.
- Online course with several hours of HD video and detailed text.
- Available on any internet-connected device
- Quizzes to test your knowledge along the way.
- Great support and a 30-day money-back guarantee if the course doesn't meet your expectations.
$49 "Success Plan" Course
Get Instant Access to the
Steady Blowing Trifecta Course
Includes:
- Simple, 3-part course that guarantees complete understanding of the mechanics and execution of steadily blowing your bagpipes.
- Online course with several hours of HD video and detailed text.
- Available on any internet-connected device
- Quizzes to test your knowledge along the way.
- Great support and a 30-day money-back guarantee if the course doesn't meet your expectations.
"I love the Dojo method because it is a fact based, measurable approach to learning. It takes the meaningless jargon and useless phrases out of piping, and provides meaningful tools, and concrete steps toward improvement. It distills bagpiping down to the few simple, attainable, skills that we all can improve."
"Instead of just being told to "blow steady" the manometer provides direct feedback visually, the physical, then mental blowing focus really shines a spotlight on common problems, and pinpoints where improvement can be made.
I think many Pipers fail to progress because they are not sure exactly what is going wrong. The more specifically you can narrow down the problem, the better you can address it.
Blowing to the sweet spot was a revelation for me, I knew I didn't want to cut out, but had never thought about the resonance that you get when fully blowing the reed, I was blowing the minimum, rather than getting the most harmonically out of my reeds."
LAUREN BALDWIN // Nova Scotia, Canada
"Using the Dojo method of finding the sweet spot of the chanter reed (which is discovering the pressure which produces the most resonant sound, then training my ear and body to consistently recognize when I'm playing to the sweet spot) helped me to advance a full grade level – and hopefully more in the future! Using a manometer and submitting recordings were also part of the process."
JOHN MCCAIN // Texas, USA
What you'll learn with this success plan...
The 3 elements of the "Trifecta"
Steady blowing needs to be thought of as three distinct skill-sets. Let's learn what they are and what they're all about!
The step before we blow steady
Although steady blowing is the end result we're aiming for, there's a key thing we should focus on mastering first! Through HD video, we'll teach you how to do just that.
The mental part of the game
Steady blowing isn't just a physical skill. There are a couple of key mental and conceptual elements we also have to wrap our heads around.
Essential exercises
We need to have a real-world game-plan to master these concepts - you'll leave this course with several key exercises to implement in your day-to-day practice.
Enroll today for just $49 $11 - It's time to take action and take control over your instrument (instead of letting your instrument control you)!
Enroll today for just $49 - It's time to take action, get your head in the game, and take control over the steadiness of your blowing!
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