After several weeks of learning finger placement, note value and timing, the students in Terry McHugh’s bagpipe class advanced to their first tune, “Amazing Grace.”
Each of the students in McHugh’s fall class with the Orland Park Recreation Department took turns playing parts of the song while the others followed along, silently moving their fingers along their practice chanters.
“This is a song that everyone knows and it’s one of the easiest to play,” McHugh said.
Similar in appearance to the recorder, the practice chanter is a double reed woodwind instrument on which students learn and practice.