Years ago, I penned a time-management training program called “Time for Life” which I licensed to Day-Timers and their parent company, ACCO. It’s a long story that needs a pint or two for the telling. I’m very impressed to see that Andrew Douglas (Pipers DOJO) has published a “Practice Planner” for pipers. I’ll be having a first-hand look at one later this week.

Having specific goals is absolutely critical to improving your playing. This planner should be a huge help in that regard.

Let’s take a look at a fundamental GDE. No dots. No cuts. Just straight coupled eighth-notes as you’d see in a 6/8 jig. Set the metronome to 180 beats per minute. Each eighth-note is played on a click. Each note is played separately, distinctly, and sequentially. Lift each finger and place it back down with purpose and conviction. Does your GDE sound like “flop, flop, flop” or is it “bang, bang, bang!”

Now play four GDE’s in a row to your metronome on Low G, four on Low A, four on B, and four on C. Can you do this without breaking down? Can you execute proper GDE’s going up the scale and back down again? Are your transitions between the notes smooth? Can you increase the beats-per-minute? At what point do you start breaking down?

Now set your metronome at 60 beats per minute and continue to play GDE’s only this time play the G grace-note of the GDE coupling on each click, pounding in the D & E grace-notes with the same one-eighth note value. The speed of the GDE doesn’t change, but your reference points do. They are reduced from three reference points to only one reference point. Are your GDE’s still equally spaced? Can you execute the exercise above with the same discipline?

A reasonable goal will be to execute the above exercise at 100 beats-per-minute, as in Paddy’s Leather Breeches. For those who are so inclined, this goal can become increased significantly.

Daily activities help you to achieve short-term goals. Short-term goals are markers along the path to achieving your mid and long-term goals. All worthwhile goals take time and discipline to achieve. Tomorrow we’ll look at setting some realistic goals. (I can’t believe I’m putting my “time management” hat back on!)