Author: Alistair Aitken

Pipe Band Competition Formations – Part 1

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I had not anticipated my article on Piping Press about the recent World Pipe Band Championships would generate debate about the circle formation for competing bands.  My reference to containing and balancing the sounds with the circle formation were intended merely as a reference to only one of the aspects of the original thinking when the circle formation was introduced.  I also did not suggest any preference for either a…

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Some Reflections on the World Pipe Band Championships 2022 – Part 2

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The following offer some general observations I noted over the two days regarding the bands which played in the main arena. The four in Juvenile played their musical medleys very well and illustrated the standard of tuition in the schools they represented.  It is just a pity the numbers in this grade have been in single figures in recent years.  Hopefully they can be expanded as the pandemic recovery continues. …

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Some Reflections on the World Pipe Band Championships 2022

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The 2022 Worlds took place in unusually extreme heat.  I listened to most of Grade 1 from the spectator stand on both days, although was forced to leave the stand mid-afternoon each day when I could tolerate the heat no longer. The seats in the main stand are not what you would ever describe as comfortable either! Perhaps it is due to my advancing years, but I cannot ever recall such…

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A Spectator View from the 2022 Scottish Pipe Band Championships

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I spent a pleasant and interesting day at the Scottish Championships held in Levengrove Park, Dumbarton in the west of Scotland last Saturday.  Despite encountering heavy rain on the M8 motorway during my journey early morning, it turned out to be a fine day, dull and hazy but warm in the morning, and then sunny in the afternoon.  That was a total contrast to the last time the Championships were…

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British Pipe Band Championships 2022 – A Spectator’s View

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It was a relief to be able to attend the British Championships at Greenock last Saturday, the first time I have been anywhere near a live pipe band contest for more than two years.  The venue was perhaps appropriate for the first Major following the pandemic as Battery Park is on the Firth of Clyde, not far from where, on the ferry coming back from Cowal in 1930, the original…

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