Training a piper normally requires a lot of dedication and hard work by the person who is attempting to learn the instrument. Training normally starts in the confines of the Battalion and then eventually onto a Class 3 course which lasts six months and is held at the Army School of Bagpipe Music in Edinburgh.
The potential student would learn the basics of the practice chanter starting off with learning the scale and progressing onto other embellishments. Depending on the musical ability of the person it would on average take about six to eight weeks before a person would be in a position to commence his first tune. Those of us in civvy street don’t have such opportunities as those in the Army and six months is more realistic.
The natural progression of learning tunes is to start with the simplest of tunes i.e. a slow march and then a quick march later on once a repertoire of tunes has been established moving on to more sophisticated tunes like jigs, reels and strathspeys. Once a soldier has returned from his six-month course he would then begin to learn the regimental and duty tunes that are played on a regular basis..
At some stage within the following year it would be usual to find a new member of the pipe section making his first appearance in the WO's & Sgt's mess or the Officers mess for a taste of his Mess job. Normally about a year after completing a class 3 course he would be expected to attend a class 2 course that lasts about three months. With the normal progression of a piper it would not be expected that a piper would be ready for his Pipe Majors course till around his twelfth year of piping.
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