Join the zany adventures and crazy gigs of Susan Hadley Planck as she mixes the culture of Scottish music with those of China, Japan, and Chile, all with a twist of humor that ties them together. What was it like to play bagpipes to Chinese performing the martial art of Tai Chi? Or on the Great Wall of China? The top of Fujiyama in Japan? At the base of Mt. Fitzroy in South America? Or to compete throughout the United States and in Scotland with her band? Imagine being one of 10,000 pipers marching down from Edinburgh Castle on the Royal Mile for the Millennium parade in the year 2000, and Prince Charles walks onto the competition grounds just as the author's band began to play in their first Scottish competition. Peek inside the unique antics of bagpipe bands-the members' personalities, their peripatetic lifestyles, and maddening struggles to get their bagpipes simply to work. Who are these people anyway and what attracted them to bagpipes in the first place? Discover how music-even as it is expressed through bagpipes-really is the international language.

Susan Planck is as unique as the bagpipe. With her background as an elementary, middle, and high school teacher for 30 years, with more than 30 different subjects under her command, she also captivated children and adults as a bagpipe teacher and climbing school instructor for 15 years. Attaining a lifelong dream of learning how to play the bagpipes shortly before she turned 40, Susan enjoyed sharing the incredible, strange sounds of the bagpipes during her many travels to foreign countries. She found nirvana combining her two loves, traveling and bagpiping. Moving to Colorado, she joined the City of Denver Bagpipe Band, an award-winning band that competed throughout the United States and Scotland. She quickly learned that bagpiping would change her life in ways never anticipated, including meeting her husband who was the pipe-major of the band. Susan resides in Boulder with her husband, Andrew. They now spend their time mastering the Swiss alphorn.