Talent vs. Time

As with any instrument, learning how to play the bagpipes is a life-long learning experience.

Bagpipe students (and their parents) are often curious as to when they will be ready to play in public. This is certainly a key and memorable milestone in one's learning path, and can be achieved within months or years from the first lesson. What makes the difference in this wide time range is mostly the time dedicated to practicing.

Consider the analogy of a lessons being like a visit to the doctor's office. While the doctor prescribes a treatment and medicine for your recovery, most of the action happens after the actual visit to doctor. More so, the doctor hands-over the recovery responsibility to the patient, and schedules a follow-up appointment if needed. When learning how to play an musical instrument, lessons include an intrinsic teaching process for new knowledge, which is expected to be conquered at a future point in time.

The other side of this same coin is referred to as "talent", as in a God/nature-given skill set that is unleashed by an instructor or other happenings in life. Though I do not entirely discard that there may be mindsets and bodies that are naturally favorable to the art of bagpipe music, top players tend to also dedicate many hours to this instrument to become the best players in the world. I am inclined to believe that had it only been for the "talent", there would not be that many bagpipe players in the world, nor would this instrument be played in every continent.

We are often faced with competing priorities in life, especially as we become adults. There is simply no time for everything and priorities sooner or later take-over time allocation. Strictly speaking, bagpipes and practice time may never make it to the list of what one is supposed to do on a day (or for that mater, maybe neither in one's life). This is why I consider bagpipes as an alternate exercise, needed for "recharging the batteries" from the wear and tear that all of the other items on life's priority list. I recommend not finding time for this, I instead recommend making time for this.

I therefore suggest that you make practice time easily accessible (don't plan to practice only in a perfectly sound-proof room 5 miles from your home, it will never happen!) and that you carve time out of your weekly schedule to make this work. At the end of this process, the reward will be well worth it (and what fell off the priority list because of this may not have been that important after all!).