Alan has played the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe for over forty-five years, and counts among his instructors some of the world's greatest teachers and players including the great gold-medalist James McColl, and P/M James Thompson of the Los Angeles Scottish Pipe Band. Alan has won numerous awards in solo piping and band competition at Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings throughout California.

Alan was introduced to other kinds of bagpipes early-on in his music career, and has now mastered the playing of over a dozen different kinds of pipes from mostly Northwestern Europe. Besides the Scottish pipes, Alan prides himself as being one of the few masters of a number of Centre France bagpipes in the Western Hemispere. Alan's French bagpipe instructors include Eric Montbel of Lo Jai and Quintet de Cornemusies, Benoit Mager of Trio Patrick Bouffard, and Christophe Tellart of Percival.

The accordion came to Alan soon after the bagpipe (at age 15). Largely self-taught at first, over the years Alan has sought out other great players of of the diatonic (button) accordion, both to learn about various playing styles and techniques, and to expand his repetoire of traditional music. One of Alan's earliest instructors was Jehan Paul, a truly inspirational source of tunes and technique. Jehan has been a prominent figure in the traditional and folk music scene here in the Western U.S. for many years. Alan has now been playing the diatonic accordion professionally both solo and in bands for about 25 years.