Why Failing Faster Makes You A Better Piper

Ever walked away from a practice session frustrated by the same mistakes popping up again and again?

Every piper hits those moments. But the path to becoming a better piper isn’t paved with perfectly executed reps – it’s paved with small, fast failures you learn from quickly.

Let’s dig into how “failing faster” can transform your playing, with practical examples you can use in your next practice session.

The Myth of Perfect Practice

Most pipers start out believing that if they just practice hard enough, they’ll eventually reach mistake-free playing. But anyone who’s piped for more than a few months knows that progress isn't linear, and perfection doesn't exist – mistakes happen, even to the pros.

The difference between pipers who progress steadily and those who plateau isn’t who avoids mistakes – it’s who uses them.

Think of tuning your pipes. You don’t play for an hour and then, at the end, wonder why your drones weren’t locking in. You test, you tweak, you fail a couple of times, you adjust, and eventually – boom! – you’re locked in. That series of tiny “failures” is exactly what leads you to the right solution.

It’s the same with your technique, your expression, your memorization, and your performance readiness.

The Four Questions: A Blueprint for Productive Failure

One of the best examples of this mindset is our Dojo U model of using “Four Questions” for troubleshooting bagpipes that feel hard to play:

• Is the instrument airtight?

• Are the joints properly set?

• Is the reed seated correctly?

• Are the drones calibrated?

Every time your pipes feel off, you use these questions to systematically reduce the variables and overcome small failures until you find the culprit. Maybe the reed isn’t seated. Maybe a joint’s loose. Maybe you completely misread the issue. That’s okay.

Each wrong guess gets you closer to the right one – and get better at finding it more quickly in future. 

This  willingness to try something, get it wrong, and immediately try the next thing without shame or beating yourself up is exactly how you build piping intuition.

Why Messing Up on Stage Is Actually Good

You’ve probably experienced this: you play a tune flawlessly at home, but on stage? Suddenly you forget a doubling you’ve nailed 200 times. Or your fingers feel like they’re wearing mittens.

Performance introduces real-world pressure you simply can’t recreate in your living room, giving you more experience of dealing with the nerves you'll inevitably experience when you play music in front of any audience. But every mistake under pressure teaches you something your "safe" practice sessions never will.

Did you rush? Did your mind wander? Did nerves choke your memory? Each answer shows you exactly what skill you need to work on and strengthen next.

The more often you put yourself in front of judges, bandmates, your teacher, or even your dog, the faster you’ll expose weaknesses that only appear when the stakes rise.

Practice Isn’t Repetition – It’s Experimentation

Many pipers mistake repetition for practice. Playing a tune 50 times can feel productive, but if you’re not deliberately testing, noticing, and correcting, you’re not learning; you’re just reinforcing whatever you’re already doing.

Try this instead:

• Play a tune slowly and listen for spots where your fingers hesitate.

• Stop immediately and isolate the movement.

• Try three or four different ways of fixing it.

• Expect to fail at least one of them.

That deliberate experimentation creates the kind of failures that lead to breakthroughs.

Beware the Comfort Zone

It’s easy to stay inside the musical bubble where everything feels good: favorite tunes, predictable reps, pipes that behave. But real progress happens right at the edge of discomfort.

Try a new tune that scares you. Practice with a metronome (yes, even if you “don’t like them”). Switch to a new reed strength. Stand up and play your MSR for someone.

These moments of challenging your comfort zone guarantee that you will definitely have small failures – but they also guarantee growth.

Quick Tips for Failing Faster (and Getting Better)

• Test early and often. Record yourself. Play for others. Create pressure on purpose.

• Break problems down. Isolate movements like you would isolate leaks.

• Reflect instead of ruminating. Ask what happened, fix it, move on.

• Celebrate tiny failures. They’re markers of progress, not proof of inadequacy.

• Share your struggles. Other pipers have probably failed in the exact same way, and you can learn from their mistakes too.

Failing faster doesn’t mean being careless – it means giving yourself more chances to learn. Every stumble exposes a weakness. Every weakness you identify becomes a strength you can build.

So pick up your pipes, push your limits, make some mistakes, and keep moving forward. Because every failure is just another step toward the piper you’re progressing toward becoming.

Check out this episode of our Friday 'Strike-In' Q&A Session at Dojo U, as we cover this topic as well as a range of other student questions from the week, including why switching between pipes can throw you off, how nerves sabotage tunes you’ve played perfectly a hundred times, and why focused practice always beats endless reps. You’ll also hear our take on when in-person lessons are essential, how constraints can actually boost your creativity, and what gear Dojo instructors trust in their own playing.