About

Originally born on the West Coast, I have lived all over Scotland. I learned to play while at school, and have been lucky enough to have some excellent teachers. Some of the biggest influences came when I studied at Aberdeen University, and the people and teachers I met there have shaped my musical approach to be what it is today.

I started teaching on an ad-hoc basis at university, mostly helping other pipers out with specific problems, then started teaching on a regular basis at Duns Pipe Band in Berwickshire, culminating in a string of prizes in the pipe band season of 2007. I moved up to Edinburgh in late 2006, and in addition to expanding my teaching practice I spent four years playing with the Lothian & Borders Police Pipe Band, one of the great names in pipe band history. Again I was lucky enough to play under two of my musical heroes during this time.

I moved to London in 2011, working in the actuarial field, but I quickly acquired students by word of mouth and after a few years it was clear that either the day job or the students had to go. Since then I have taught and performed full time, transitioning to mainly online teaching during the Covid pandemic.

I am currently based in Berwickshire, and in addition to teaching I have been pursuing some more personal projects, including a minor quest to create modern settings of the very first collection of bagpipe music to be published (in 1828), and learning to make my own reeds - a slow, frustrating, and only very occasionally rewarding process! I also enjoy scratching out a tune on the fiddle from time to time and I am slowly working on acquiring some Gaelic - gu slaodach, or perhaps ro shlaodach!