Level Up Your Piping: Why You Need a Six-Month Plan (And How to Create One)

Picture this: it’s three weeks before competition season and you suddenly realise you don’t actually have your tunes learned yet.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all been there. Life gets busy, motivation comes and goes, and suddenly the season is staring you down and you’re scrambling. But what if there was a better way?

Here’s the truth: failure to plan is planning to fail. And nowhere is that more obvious than in bagpiping.

The good news? Six months from now, you could be playing at a whole new level – if you start planning today.

Why Six Months?

Six months is the sweet spot for bagpipers. It’s long enough to make real, meaningful progress, but short enough to stay focused and motivated.

You’ll be disappointed with what you can achieve in a week. But you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve in a few months.

For most pipers, six months from now lines up neatly with the start of competition season. Whether your goal is moving up a grade, making the band, or simply playing better than you did last year, six months gives you the runway you need to get there.

The Foundation: Setting Yourself Up for Success

Before you dive into practice, you need a proper setup.

Think of it like making good coffee. Rush the prep and you’ll end up with something average. Set it up properly and everything tastes better.

Create your sacred practice space. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Some pipers tape their music to the back of a cupboard door, hang a manometer from a hook, and practice right there.

What matters is that everything is ready to go:

• Music stand

• Metronome (loud enough to hear over pipes)

• Tube manometer or gauge

• Recording device

And yes – the recording device is non-negotiable. Record yourself regularly. Make it a one-take rule. No do-overs. This trains your performance mindset and gives you honest feedback about where your playing really is.

The Feedback Loop

You can’t improve in a bubble. You need expert feedback at least once a week.

That might look like:

• Uploading recordings for review

• Regular private lessons

• A quick check-in with your pipe major before band practice

The format doesn’t matter. Consistency does. Something is infinitely better than nothing.

Build Your Timeline

Start by marking your calendar 26–28 weeks out – your first competition or performance of the season. Then work backwards.

Break the time into six learning blocks of roughly four weeks each. That gives you 24 weeks of focused work, plus a couple of buffer weeks for life’s inevitable interruptions (because yes, your hot water heater probably will break at some point).

Plan for six practice days each week. That gives you either a well-earned rest day or a little wiggle room when things get busy.

The Tempo Strategy

Here’s where most pipers go wrong: they start too fast.

Instead, begin at 45–55% of your target tempo in month one. Yes – that slow.

Each month, you ramp up, then drop back slightly and ramp again. This wave pattern builds speed while constantly refining technique at slower tempos.

By month six, you’re rehearsing at about 95% of performance tempo. Adrenaline will give you the last 5% when it counts.

What You’ll Actually Do Each Week

The pattern is beautifully simple:

Practice chanter → Pipes → Practice chanter → Pipes → Recording day → Listening day

Repeat.

Month one: choosing your tunes
Month two: locking in your core repertoire
Month three: memorisation
Month four: painfully slow embellishments
Month five: rhythmic precision
Month six: full runs, no training wheels

By the end, you’re off the practice chanter, weaning off the metronome, and playing full performances.

The Hard Truth

This plan works. It absolutely works.

But only if you actually do it.

Think of your piping time as your unplugged time. Six days a week, you step away from the noise of the world and focus on something that matters to you.

Six months from now, you’ll either wish you’d started – or you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come.

Your next level is waiting.

👉 Ready to build your own six-month plan?
Start here: https://www.pipersdojo.university/6monthplan 

Check out this podcast as we dive into the six-month plan in detail: