Bagpipe Lessons for Leaving Lunga

Lunga is a country estate that has been run by the MacDougall family for over 300 years. The estate has magnificent views over the waters of the Firth of Lorne and the Sound of Jura are just five hundred metres away.

Lunga Country Estate owned by the MacDougall family

Listen To Bill's Audio Lesson.

Leaving Lunga

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Download The Tune Notation.

Click to download the tune notation for Leaving Lunga.

Some lesson Pointers For The Tune:

Please read the following points about clarity of execution in certain cuttings for 2/4 Marches

Often two very short thirty–second notes occur side by side as shown below. Clarity, ease of execution, and rhythm are preserved simply by subtly making the first of the two very short notes a shade longer or slightly relaxed without opening too much followed by a clean short cutting. The cutting must be spot on with the “G” grace note cleanly on the melody note then good value upbeat following.
When these two very short notes are attempted as both very short notes neither are executed or heard clearly, resulting in poor clarity and disturbed rhythmical balance.
Play slowly and methodically the examples below with good relaxation on the first of the very short notes marked * and the quite smart (not too short for now) clean cutting to good upbeat dotted note. Repeat often correctly.
Progressively quicken to about 72 BPM, still with that slight (not too open) relaxation in mind on the first short note and clean clear cutting. Refer links of relevant video and audio in particular for all played examples below. Take a bar at a time repeatedly.

Examples with tachums in a similar rhythm to above follow.
The approach to the examples below should be similar to those above with the same subtle relaxation on the first of the two very short notes.
Pipers often tend to make the tachums too clipped when striving to point the music, and in the process tend to neglect the upbeat lower dotted note of the tachum. You must have a clear/clean “G” grace note on the short note of the tachum, and single clear “D” grace note on the lower dotted note with upbeat proper timing. Tachum execution almost plays itself without striving too hard to hack the short note – relax to some degree and listen for good clarity.
Play the examples below slowly and methodically in much the same manner as those above. Repeat each bar often enough then quicken.