DrBlow wrote:
Oh I hear you loud and clear on these! I'm 6 weeks into my first bellow pipe and yup that pressure control is a headache still.

I also decided to have a couple of keys fitted to my chanter to extend the top range, these have so far mostly served to hinder my high A doublings and manouvers to the point that I am back to running scales with high A doubling and buggering them up nicely in the process. Still with my pressure control as is they sound more like G sharp manouvers on a cats tail. Hey ho...

There seems to be an ever increasing amount of online resources for would be pipers. Here's my latest find the excellent tutorial site of Pipe Major Bill Robertson
www.bagpipe-tutorials.com/index.html
yeah I know it's not border pipe or small pipe orientated and you won't hear a rubbish english hornpipe or medieval goat strangler any where on it. What you will get however is some fantastic practical online tuition, for free, by a piper who is obviously used to teaching and knows exactly what to emphasise when doing so. Bite size chunks of solid technique and some pretty reasonable tunes to add to the repetoire too.