Teach Yourself Bagpipes by Lindsay Davidson

This is a very simple embellishment.  It merely consists of striking your note finger on and off the chanter very quickly.  There are two exceptions - ‘B’ and ‘C’.  In both of these cases you divide the note into two by sounding a very short low G,  written as a Low ‘G’ gracenote. Be careful to remember to strike down only one finger otherwise. Sometimes, and in some styles, people also play a lowe G gracenote between two Ds to repeat it.  If you see this in music then you can either replace it with a single finger strike (writeen as a C gracenote) or be careful to make sure only a G gracenote sounds and there are no crossing sounds.

It exists as a way of repeating a note.

HINT

From ‘B’, a common mistake is sounding an extra Low ‘A’ in the strike. To avoid this, put down your little finger first,  and lift it last.  See example 5.

Example  - STRIKE ON ‘B’.

XX	XX	XX	XX	XX
X	X	X	X	X
X	X	X	X	X
X	X	X	X	X
X	X	X	X	X
O	O	X	O	O
O	X	X	X	O
B	Little finger down	Sound (and feel) Low G	Start returning to B	Complete B

 
Example

Strikes Exercises

ease complete the following exercises. Please make use of the five steps practise method - this is slow to begin with but will massively speed up your progress later. Do these at any speed which is comfortable.

Strikes exercise 1

Strikes exercise 2


Strikes exercise 3


Strikes exercise 4


Strikes exercise 5


Once you have completed all of these exercises you should return to the gracenotes and strikes page and learn the mixed exercises to play along wiht the videos. This will give you confidence that you are ready for the next section - throws.