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The Bagpipe Teacher
Born in Edinburgh in 1954, Pipe Major Robert (Bobby) R Pinkman has been playing bagpipes at the highest level for the majority of his life. Son of the famous Pipe Major Archie Pinkman, Bilston Glen pipe band, it seemed a natural assumption that young Bobby would follow in his footsteps but, it did not start out that way. For a start, Bobby had no idea hid Dad played the pipes until he was about seven years old. The reason for this was, his dad gave up playing after the death of his grandmother who, was the driving force behind his playing. She was tyranical in the way she forced him to practice for hours on end. This took all the enjoyment out of it for the young Archie. When she died, he said he would never play again. And, he did'nt until he was persuaded to join a local band to help them out. Listening to his Dad practice, Bobby was hooked. When Archie was asked to take over another local band as Pipe Major, Bobby started getting lessons from Archie's uncle, Robert. He taught in the old fashioned way. If you did not play a movement or piece of music correctly, you got a whack on the knuckles with his practice chanter. With your knuckles and fingers throbbing, trying to play is pretty difficult but, he got through it. Thankfully, teaching methods have improved greatly since then.The Bagpipe Teacher.com Before long, Bobby was playing with the band and competing as a soloist. Advanced tuition at Edinburgh Castle under the guidance of Captain John McLellan, Director, British Army, School of Bagpipe Music, in the finer art of playing piobaireachd. Bobby has been a pipe major of several pipe bands with varying degrees of success and developed a tuition program that should be totally fool proof. There are no "grey areas" in his teaching method. Everything is laid out for you to see with close up videos of his hands on the practice chanter, showing you exactly what to do and what not to do. All the little traps you can fall into, all the bad habits that can develope without realising it and what to watch out for. The Bagpipe Teacher.com The virtual tutor book DVD takes you step by step through all the exercises and movements needed to play properly with full colour illustrations, audio explanations and demonstrations. The notation is explained in detail but not dwelt upon because, Bobby believes that the reading and understanding of the music should be a progression as you progress with learning your technique. All of this tuition material is backed up with the close up video DVD. The soft yet broad Scottish accent makes the learning experience more enjoyable because if you ever had any doubts about who he was or where he came from are quickly dispelled as he takes you on the mystical journey of piping, with great authority, knowledge and enthusiasm. This is probably the best tuition available on the internet today although, there are a few impersonators trying to copy Bobby's system but are failing miserably because they neither have the experience, the knowledge or the playing ability. You cannot get a better bagpipe tuition system anywhere. The Bagpipe Teacher.com Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Pipe Major Robert R. Pinkman was born in Edinburgh in 1954. Since 1960, the bagpipes have been the major influence on his life. While always trying to improve his own technique, he has striven to help others with their technique, tuning, choosing reeds etc. Passing on his skills to others is what gives him the most pleasure. |
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