In order to go from note to note cleanly without unwanted crossing noises, pay attention to the intermediate stages when initially learning new passages and movements. There is almost always a “fingers off” part and a “fingers on” part which completes the correct note for sounding the note. It is very important to always follow note fingering patterns to produce correctly “in tune” notes on the bagpipe chanter.
Please remember that the intermediate stages are, when up to speed, carried out so fast as to be not really noticed by the human ear. They are for learning purposes only and are the easiest and quickest way to obtain good, clean, efficient finger technique.
These collections of notes are the building blocks of tunes and music in general. Using these blocks dictates the key that the tune is in. Tunes may contain a few different chords but there is always a chord which dominates the whole piece. Chords, or arpeggio’s, are always based on one note and are made up of three notes. The first one gives the name of the key or chord, the FIRST. The next one is two notes above that and is called the THIRD. The next one is two notes above that and is called the Fifths. An example is the A arpeggio below. FIRST=A, THIRD=C, FIFTH=E. As the scale contains 7 different notes,7 different chords are possible.
