Chanter Classes

The NCSU Music Department offers chanter classes each semester. A class for NCSU students "Beginning Bagpipes" meets on Wednesdays from 7-9 PM at Price Music Center on the NCSU campus. The course is listed in TRACS as MUS 152 and offers a one hour credit. The next class begins on Wednesday, August 22, 2012.

Members of the community may call John Sprague at 828-1269 for a list of pipers in the band who give private lessons.

Each piping student needs a practice chanter (the instrument on which the music is first learned). Practice chanters are available at the first class meeting at a charge of approximately $70. The class is designed to train pipers for the bagpipe band at NCSU. Students who successfully complete the class will be invited to join the band. For band members, the bagpipes, uniforms, reeds and further instruction are free.
	Drums Snare drummers with experience in the rudiments of drumming will be taught the Scottish style. Drumming students will need a pair of drumsticks and a practice pad. Drumsticks are available for approximately $20 and practice pads are about $30. Tenor and bass drummers should have a natural sense of rhythm. They will be taught beatings that compliment the pipe music and add to the ensemble effect of the whole band. Tenor and bass mallets are furnished by the band.

Bagpipe Bands

The NCSU Pipes and Drums currently consists of two distinct groups. The Grade III and Grade IV Bands rehearse at Cardinal Gibbons High School, 1401 Edwards Mill Road in Raleigh. The Beginner Band (second semester chanter students) rehearses in Room 201 of Price Music Center, Cates Avenue, NCSU campus.