WELCOME TO MY
BAGPIPE TUTORIALS WEBSITE

A free resource of Bagpipe Tutorials, Tips and Techniques brought to you by,

Pipe Major William (Bill) Robertson, formerly
1^st Battalion, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment)

Bill's Bagpipe Tutorials are packed with information, techniques and tips, gleaned from over 60 years of involvement with playing the bagpipes. This site is a great resource for those who wish to learn to play the bagpipes or for those who wish to develop or refine there piping.

Read what some of Bill's friends have to say about his bagpipe lessons.

It Began With The Boys Brigade
Bill started his bagpipe playing as a young lad with the Boys Brigade and upon turning 18 was drafted into the army.

The Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming
Bill was tutored at Edinburgh Castle by the famous PM Willie Ross MBE. About one year after graduating from The Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming he was promoted to Pipe Major for The Royal Scots, 1^st Battalion.

Playing Internationally
Besides playing at various locations around the world while in the Army. Bill has also taken civilian bands to compete very successfully on the International Circuit.

An Accomplished Piobaireachd Player and Composer
In his personal capacity Bill has been recognized as a Piobaireachd (Pibroch) composer of some note, as well as a very successful competitor. Bill's biography will reveal more information about his piping journey and achievements.

Bagpipe Tutorials Website Content

There is plenty of useful information in this website for bagpipers and below is a brief indication of some of the website content.

Bagpipe Lessons - Some Techniques and Embellishments ...
This section contains a few bagpipe tutorials on how to play various embellishments, finger positioning on the chanter and some notes about chanter maintenance and care.

FREE Bagpipe Tune Lessons
Every month Bill publishes a FREE Bagpipe Tune lesson. Some of these tunes include Scotland The Brave, Amazing Grace, Black Bear, Kilworth Hills, The Skye Boat Song, Caledonian Canal, The Royal Scots Polka and Bill's own composition Pipe Major Bill Boyle, New Zealand Scottish Regiment.
You can be notified by email whenever a new tune is published by subscribing to Monthly Tune Notification Service.
Bagpipe Tutorials On DVD
Bill has documented his bagpiping knowledge onto DVD. The bagpipe tutorials are interactive with links in the document to relevant audio and video files. This means that Bill has enhanced his tutorials with additional video examples and audio instruction. It is almost as if Bill was in your lounge giving you one on one instruction.
Bill's bagpipe tutorials cater for three levels of piping proficiency:
Bill is constantly updating his bagpipe lessons with new content and improvements.
Piobaireachd Tutorials
Bill has much to offer Piobaireachd (Pibroch) enthusiast. His Pibroch compositions have been recognized and published in various Piobaireachd books and he has also recorded over 115 Piobaireachd Tutorials as well.
Bill's latest DVD is titled An Introduction to Piobaireachd Technique. This DVD is suited to those who desire to explore the art of playing Piobaireachd or who wish to improve their technique.
Bill's teaching style is unique. He does not play the tune through one time and then tell you how to play it. Rather, he breaks the tune down into sections and talks you through one section at a time. By doing this you can work at learning to play the piobaireachd tune section by section. This makes it a whole lot easier for you!

Frequent Asked Questions About Bagpiping
This is the section where you can ask Bill about a bagpiping related question. You can also read some of the question asked and Bill's reply.
Piobaireachd Historical's By Ron MacLeod
Ron MacLeod has spent years collecting Historical Piobaireachd Stories. With his kind permission he has allowed us to publish his work on this website.
He has grouped this collection into three categories:
Ron has also transcribed A History of Piobaireachd which was delivered as part of Stuart's Pipe Major training at a 1955 Band School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is similar to what Bill Robertson had to write and learn while on his Pipe Majors' Course at Edinburgh Castle, under the direction of the famous Pipe Major Willie Ross MBE.
Bagpiping Articles In this section we have grouped together some bagpiping articles and other bits and pieces to do with the site.
Why not take a look and see if there is anything that may be of interest to you.

Keep Yourself Up To Date With The Latest Bagpipe Tutorials Updates
Use the handy RSS feature to be able to quickly view the latest website page additions or page updates are. Look on the left hand column for RSS icons which you can click to subscribe to the RSS feed. The Icon looks like the following one

Alternatively you could go to Bagpipe Tutorials Blog Page for a quick overview of what content has been added recently.

Keep Up To Date, With Most Recent Pages

chanter reed very hard to get sound.

can moistening the chanter reed make it not so darn difficult to get sound from it?

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tuning exercises

Where would I find the tuning exercises for the lips to use when starting with the blowpipe thanks heather

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Inter-continental Gathering

A bagpipe lesson for Inter-continental Gathering. A march composed by George MacIlwham

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Marie Ban Og

A Bagpipe Lesson for Marie Ban Og. A slow air arranged and taught by Pipe Major Bill Robertson/

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The MacNeill's of Ugadale

The MacNeill's of Ugadale a bagpipe lesson taught by Pipe Major Bill Robertson

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MacLean's March

MacLean's March, a piobaireached story documented by Ron MacLeod

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MacKay' Banner

MacKays Banner, a piobaireachd story collected and noted by Ron MacLeod, MBE.

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Call off before playing

Hi, I'm a student in high school and my band teacher and I trying to form a pipe band considering we are the fighting scots. We have already played at

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Duncan Lamont

A bgapipe lesson for the reel Duncan Lamont, composed by PM Donald MacLeod MBE and taught by PM Bill Robertson.

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How to prevent the dreaded Flat or double-toning F?

Hi Bill, first of all many thanks for a really helpful, informative website. My pipes are set up so they come into tune after a 5 min warm up and sound

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MacFarlane's Gathering

MacFarlanes gathering, A historical comment on the origin of this piobaireachd

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Website Support Answers

PM Bill Robertson's website support answers from emails sent to him via the website.

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Keeping pipe reed in playing condition

Bill can you tell me what is the best way to keep your pipe reed in good condition so it is ready to play again.I have found that it can begin to get

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Within a Mile of Edinburgh Toon

Within a Mile of Edinburgh Toon - A bagpipe lesson by pipe Major Bill Robertson. tune composed by PM Willie Denholm

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Getting a sound but no low notes!

So I just got my pipes, standard beginner highland bagpipes, redwood with imitation decorative aluminum stuff. Whatever it's all called. Anyway, I finally

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Dorrotor Bridge

Dorrotor Bridge - A free bagpipe lesson by PM Bill Robertson. Includes video, audio and tune notation

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Amazing Grace

Bill Robertson teaches Amazing Grace for the bagpipes

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Bagpipe Tuning

Good Day Sir,

I just want to thank you for the excellent information on your website.I've always thought I was tuning my bass drone correctly and after watching your online videos I found out I was tuning wrong.When I took your advice and tried tuning your way I could just hear how sweet the drones came all together from my Hendersons.So a big thank you to you for taking the time to pass on your great knowlege of The Great Highland bagpipe.

Be well and take care Pipe Major.

Paul ...

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Arthur Bignold of Lochrosque

A free bagpipe lesson for the march Arthur Bignold of Lochrosque composed by John MacColl

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Military Bagpipes

What are the standards of typical military bagpipes

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Bill At His Daughters Wedding

Bill preparing to play for his daughters wedding

FREE BAGPIPE LESSONS

The most recent
FREE BAGPIPE LESSON
is shown at the top of the list.

Inter-continental Gathering

Marie Ban Og

The MacNeill's of Ugadale

Duncan Lamont

Within a Mile of Edinburgh Toon

Dorrotor Bridge

Arthur Bignold

Loch Rannoch

Roddie Campbell

The Little Cascade

John Roy Stewart

Dream Valley of Glendaruel

Caber Feidh - 4/4 March

HMS Renown

Dalnahassaig

The Shetland Fiddler

Pigeon on the Gate and Rachel Rae

Far o'er the Sea

Major John McLennan

Men of Argyll

O'er the Bows to Ballindalloch

The Battle of the Somme

Center's Bonnet

The Jig of Slurs

The Argylls Crossing the River Po

Miss Proud

Leaving Lochboisdale

Stirling Castle

Highland Laddie

A Man's a Man for A' That & Corn Rigs are Bonnie

Atholl Highlanders

The Banjo Breakdown

The Rejected Suitor

The Harvest Home Hornpipe

Traditional Hornpipe

Heroes of Vittoria

Muir Of Ord

Redford Cottage

Donald McKillop

Loch Carron

Balmoral Castle

The Friendly Piper

Bill,
Your 2 DVDs have just arrived last Thursday in perfect condition. I quickly checked them running some Movies and MP3's...everything fine. I started with your tutorial which runs excellent on my Macintosh computer (Adobe linking fine with the movies and sound files!).
I also want to express my gratitude for the very thoughtful arrangement of the Tutorials...it seems to me that you thought of everything one needs to know in order to approach piping and the bagpipe itself. A well done piece of work with many of your valuable experiences and knowledge built-in! Thanks very much!!!
I wish you all the best and overall health for you and your beloved one's. Many regards to "down-under"

Thomas
18^th January 2010.

Bill,

... thank you for making the effort with your DVD it has been invaluable ... I found a piping instructor here at Edinboro University and have been taking lessons from him for about a year now ... he was amazed how far I had come with no personal instruction other then you ... In fact, I played my first funeral back in August. I played Amazing grace just as you taught it to me ... (On the DVD.)

Again Thanks
David Lindsay
25^th December 2009.