Bruce Gandy made the point to me when he was playing for the Piobaireachd Society the other night that it doesn’t cost much to upgrade video and sound recording equipment – and for those competing online it was well worth the investment. Bruce had done so, and his performance of Jimmy McIntosh’s Salute to Andrew Carnegie was beautiful, and clear as a bell. If you have an old computer with…

I have it on good authority that that oldest of bagpipe dodges, the two-drone dodge, is being regularly employed by doubtful dodgers in online contests! This dodgy practice is easily done. Shut off one drone; start your video submission; hoist the pipes, 30 second pretendy three drone tune and off you go, drones seemingly in tune, judges none the wiser. But I say this to competitors: don’t be a dodger….

Neil Clark: My grandfather, Robert Bishop, was a piper in the Allandale Pipe Band [above], based in the village of Allandale, near Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire. He’s the first piper shown in the video [below]. He was taught to play pipes by the second piper in the video, Robert Irvine. They are both shown in Allandale uniform, around 1938: On the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, the band signed up en masse…

The Piobaireachd Society’s third ‘Talk Piobaireachd’ session of 2021 takes place this Wednesday, March 17, at 8pm GMT. These popular discussions are open to members of the Society and have proved very popular. The Society’s former President Dr Jack Taylor (above) is in the hot seat for what is sure to be another engrossing hour of information, ideas and thoughts on ceòl mòr and particular tunes in the repertoire. It is is suggested…