The "Concise Tutor for Practise Chanter" was first produced for local consumption in 1973. It contained only 30 pages, but made its way overseas to New Zealand and the US. It made its way in to Geoff Hore's collaborative revision of "A Bibliography of Bagpipe Music", which is now available online at www.silverchanter.com . The revised edition which now appears online had reached about 116 pages, and thus appears as "Parts 1, 2, and 3".

My other book “The New Melody Directory – Highland Bagpipe” was published in Two Volumes in 1986, and this was reviewed by Seumas MacNeill in The Piping Times in December 1987 (Volume 40 No 3). Little did I know that the power of my office computer (which allowed me to sort over 10,000 tune entries from over 200 piping books into name and melodic sequence order) would be eclipsed by the internet age.

The revised edition of the "Concise Tutor" was completed by me over the last three months of 2012 - after a 20 year break from piping, and contains my piping memoirs with the benefit of hindsight. Also included in the revision are notes from P/M Willie Ross, and notes on the "Balmoral School" with regard to piobaireachd playing.

This book also includes some new tunes, with notes on ways of playing, presention, etc. I hope that my work will be read by learners and master players alike, and that it will add to your store of information about things piping.

So sit back, and read, and (I hope) be be both informed and amused at the musings of "a piper too". Bon Appétit !