The Importance of Good Practice Habits

Even though we are all of varying skill levels and ability with different goals for our piping, we should all strive for good practice habits. Whether you have 2 hours a day to practice or maybe just 10 minutes, I would strongly recommend that you ALWAYS play the following:  

• A good warm-up: scales, crossing exercises (see the second pg of the packet) 
   

• Embellishments: College of Piping exercises, One-Minute exercises, Strathspey & reel exercises (these are all in the packet I handed out)
   

• Exercises for Grips and Taorluaths

I know its tempting to forgo the drudgery of these exercises and get right to your tunes, but your execution will suffer if you do this.
  
Finally, even though there are tunes that we have "under our belt" and have been playing for some time (i.e.Scotland the Brave, Green Hills, etc.) it is always a good idea to "revisit" these tunes with slow practice, especially focusing on the embellishments.
  
For myself, I find that even though one day I can play the Taorluaths in Scotland the Brave pretty well, a week later they might be sloppy. Slowly practicing the embellishments is a good way to clean them up.
  
Go practice, and I'll see you next week.

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