A practical guide to acquiring, playing, tuning and maintaining Scottish bellows-blown bagpipes. Includes a tutorial CD-ROM (featuring Iain MacInnes on Scottish smallpipes) suitable for PC or Mac.

More Power To Your Elbow is A4 size, 106 page and  illustrated with photographs and line drawings. Ring wire bound (portrait) allowing it to lie open on table or music stand. Contains more than 50 tunes.

Part 1 looks at some of the options for Acquiring a set of pipes; the different kinds of pipes to choose from, and the most suitable pitches to consider. There are tips on whether to hire a set, or buy new or second hand.

Part 2 is taken up with the Learning Process, and is divided into four logical steps:- familiarisation with the bellows: a first introduction to fingering the chanter: some basic grace notes with a first tune to try: and finally some more detailed methods and techniques. All the more important points are demonstrated (movie style) on the CD-ROM by Iain MacInnes.

Part 3 – tuning. To get the best possible sound from the pipes, the drones and chanter must be tuned both in their own right and to each other. In this part basic techniques, as well as alternative methods of tuning the drones, are given (and demonstrated on the CD-ROM), together with how to get the best out of the chanter.

The Appendices deal in turn with: Gracing: Basics of Notation: Reeds and Reed-making: Maintenance and Repair: Problem Solving: Playing Pressure: History (of Scottish bellows-blown pipes): Resources (including a limited discography): Glossary, and finally a collection of Tunes (which are graded Easy, Medium, Difficult). Where appropriate (with regard to Gracing, for instance, and some tunes), demonstrations are given by Iain MacInnes playing Scottish smallpipes.