Midland Highlanders Practices ROCK
The Midland Highlanders happily invite you to our band practices on Monday Evenings at 7:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Midland. Since the future of any band of our nature is the education of students, we have decided to devote Tuesday evenings just to teach our great students! Your first nights introduction we invite you to our band practice at the church to meet our group, then we will invite you to the Pipe Major’s house for your piping instruction. Your personalized instruction is always fun and interesting and with our great student corps, you get to meet some super people as well!
Map to the First United Methodist Church.
You can find us playing outside in the parking lots during nice weather. We invite you to stop by and listen and enjoy the music!
Free Lessons for the Drums and the Bagpipes
Bagpiping and Drumming lessons will always be free. The deal we have for lessons is— if you want us to teach you to play the bagpipes or drums, then you will agree to two things… one, you agree to practice daily for at least 15 minutes; and two, you have the opportunity join the band when we determine you are ready musically. If you wish to learn the bagpipes all you will need is the Midland Highlanders Bagpipe Tutor (FREE), a practice chanter, and the Midland Highlanders Tutor Book tunes (download the free program Bagpipe Player to use these files).
The Practice Chanter
You start learning to play the pipes on a Practice Chanter — basically the flute or recorder portion of bagpipe which has an attached mouthpiece, an example of which is at left. The practice chanter is much easier to blow than a full set of bagpipes, and it is the instrument all pipers learn to play on. I am rather partial to a plastic chanter, since they are almost indestructible, and have an acceptable tone.
There are several selection of practice chanters different makers and styles available some of which you see on the picture to the right, and although all will work, my favorite is the Dunbar practice chanter due to it’s true scale and O–ring seal. The quality is second to none and is quite reasonably priced. Some of the major advantages to an O–ring seal is there is an airtight and watertight seal, no hemp (a type of thread which seals the chanter to make the joint air tight) to rewind every once in a while (maybe once or twice a year), plus with a bit of Silicone grease the O–rings last forever.
As you can see there are many different styles, and sizes. The Practice chanter on the far right is much smaller and is suitable for young children (around 7 – 8 years old) to learn on since the chanter holes are too far apart on a full size chanter for a child’s small hands to play comfortably. Child sized chanters are available from many online retailers.
Inside the practice chanter is a plastic reed which vibrates as air is blown over it while it sits in the reed seat. The reed is a two bladed reed with plastic blades which are attached by hemp, plastic, or thread to small piece of copper or brass tubing called a staple. Practice chanter reeds are fairly inexpensive usually costing about $5.00 to $8.00. They will last practically forever. The reeds usual demise is when the practice chanter is taken apart to get the moisture out, a moment of carelessness and bang the practice chanter top hits the blades and smashes them… that is a lesson learned the hard way… thankfully the reeds aren’t too expensive.
If you would like to learn more about us the Midland Highlanders please drop us a line at webmaster@midlandhighlanders.org and we will get back with you promptly!
Find out about…
We are rebuilding the site and many links do not work, we should be up and running over the next few weeks, Thanks for your patience!!
The Midland Highlanders teach the pipes and drums for free!… Learn More
