Category: Comment

Entries Closing for George Watson’s Caritas Banner/ RSPBA Junior Contests This Weekend

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Entries for the ‘Caritas Banner’ (pictured above) close tomorrow, Friday, November 8. The competition is run by George Watson’s College Pipe Band. It has so far attracted some of the best young players in the country but there are still spaces available in all events. The competition takes place on Sunday 24 November 2024 at the Edinburgh-based College. Sponsors are David Glen, Bagpipe-makers and the Piobaireachd Society. All competitors must…

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History: ‘A great deal more could be done to give Scots, and visitors to Scotland, a chance of enjoying our unique musical heritage..’

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The following article appeared in the Scotsman newspaper, and subsequently the Piping Times, 60 years ago. It is by Seumas MacNeill, co-founder of the now defunct College of Piping and a Gold Medallist. He also had the ability to write about piping in a cogent, entertaining, yet deeply felt manner. This article, is of its time, yet still relevant today….. The many visitors who attend Highland Gatherings throughout Scotland have…

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New Free Bagpipe Tuner App/ New Appointments at Royal New Zealand Pipe Band Association

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I have recently developed an app for tuning the bagpipes with ease, writes Ethan Wang. Because the price of many tuners are pretty expensive I have decided to make it free. It is available to everyone on iOS. Designed by myself, SparrowTone is a free tuner solely for the bagpipes. It has three displays (see picture above), each for letting you tune a certain part of the bagpipe: Pitch history…

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Editor’s Notebook: Malcolm Ferguson/ Euros and Worlds Confirmed/ Scots Guards KO/ BB Reception/ Iain Glass/ Piper Poem

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Response to yesterday’s Malcolm Ferguson tune riddle: ‘My name is Colin Moulson and my late grandfather, Pipe Major Malcolm Ferguson who died in 1981, was very close friends with ‘wee’ Donald MacLeod for many years. ‘It has always been a source of great pride to all the family that he had a tune dedicated to him by not only his great friend Donald but by a man who happened to…

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Mrs Donald MacLennan or Malcolm Ferguson? Riddle Over Donald MacLeod Slow Air

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Who gets to lay prior claim to this brilliant Donald Macleod composition; Malcolm Ferguson, or my granny? My name is Ben Maclennan, I live in South Africa, and my grandfather Don was a stalwart of the Scottish and piping community in Johannesburg in the 1960s. He played host to a number of visiting pipers, among them Donald Macleod, who expressed his gratitude with this hand-written tune: As you see, it’s…

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