Response to the comments by David Cross earlier this week on this subject have been broadly favourable. Looking at all of the views since this subject was aired on Piping Press several weeks ago, the broad consensus is that the RSPBA needs to act. Pruning the sizes of the mega bands would be of benefit to the broader movement.
We are disappointed that some readers are afraid to put their names to their well reasoned comments. Nevertheless, what they say is valid and constructive hence inclusion here….
Anonymous: David [Cross] is 100% right. As I’ve said, Victoria Police won in 1998 with 16 pipers, then within four or five years after that it was 20 plus and not too many years after that was the decline in the band going to contests. It’s not rocket science to work out what’s wrong. There needs to be a cap for every grade not just Grade 1, but Grade 1 is the biggest contributor to this problem.
David Cross: Eric [McGaw] makes so many valid points and teaching in the piping and drumming school can be no picnic, so fair play. I taught for years. Let’s just say, it can be a lot of work for sometimes very little benefit. Re your comment on the juvenile grade, I do exactly the same, the standard is incredible.
Alistair [McInnes] hits the nail on the head also. The crux of the point that I was making was genuinely not to criticise the top Grade 1 bands. Let’s face it, the best young players will make their choice who they play with and no one can, or would, want to stop them.
I was trying to point out that when you have this ridiculous disparity in sizes of bands, with the most popular bands getting bigger and bigger, and the smaller bands getting smaller or folding altogether, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the future of the pipe band scene, especially in NI, is in serious jeopardy. I see more often than not now, some bands in some grades, competing against themselves. How is that progress? I agree that the Scottish model with juvenile bands in schools is the way to go, but I can’t see it happening here.
Finally on the subject of local associations, here’s an interesting anecdote. The band of which I was a member for nearly 40 years was formed in the mid 1920s, and attended its first competition towards the end of the ’30s, years before many of the current most prestigious bands in the world were formed.
My band folded in 2012, after a long and sometimes successful history, two World Championship wins in Grade 3 for example. In the intervening 12 years, not a single representative from the local association has ever made any contact whatsoever with any of the leaders of my band, even to ask, what happened. It’s as if we never existed. What does that tell you?
Anonymous: It is not correct to blame the top bands for the demise of the pipe band scene. They are something a young piper will aspire to play in, and keep the motivation going through the learning process.
Also, it is much easier to teach a piper to play in Grade 4, than it is to get them to Grade 1 level. They’d probably lose interest, waiting the 7-8 years it takes to play in Grade 1. It depends on circumstances whether Grade 1 bands have the time to devote to teaching. Boghall and SFU have a system in place, many others don’t.
If you haven’t played in Grade 1 or performed in concerts with these bands, you don’t understand the commitment it takes to play at that level. Anyone at the pinnacle of their vocation/hobby/career, is 100% devoted to achieving excellence. It might be selfish but that’s what it takes. Did Tiger Woods spend his time teaching kids to play golf?
The band pictured in the earlier article, Field Marshal, only have half the pipe corps based in Northern Ireland, so if the NI scene is based on 13 odd pipers causing the problem of the remaining 60 bands, then perhaps something else is wrong. When FMMPB stop competing at that level, the scene will only suffer further.
Nevertheless, restricting the numbers of the Grade 1 and 2 bands will have a big impact, allowing the excess players to move elsewhere to join ranks, become pipe majors, leading drummers, or spend their new found time teaching. However, they may also give up because their goal was to play in a top Grade 1 band.
