This is a fascinating historical document mapping the growth and development of piping and drumming in the Campbeltown area of Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula. I have realised over the years that creating pipe bands for the military in early times eventually worked its way into civilian life, with huge impact, and bringing great benefit to our musical tradition. The creation of ‘local’ pipe bands meant organised teaching and high standards for…
For all the detailed, cogent explanation given by Alistair Aitken for judging inconsistency in pipe band competition the main culprit, in my view, is the circle formation used virtually unchanged by the RSPBA for not far off 100 years. I’ve droned on about this long and weary, but with judges wandering about the playing area seemingly at random, different walking patterns for every band, is it any wonder there’s a…
The Glasgow Skye Association Pipe Band is delighted to announce that our ‘Pre-Worlds’ concert will be returning this year to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday, 10th August 2022, writes Kurt Mackintosh. After the disappointment of the last two years we are thrilled to confirm that Inveraray & District Pipe Band will at last be able to take centre stage. Pipe Major Stuart Liddell commented, ‘We were scheduled to…
We continue our build up to the the 2022 pipe band season, the first in three years. This article was first published in Pipe Band Magazine ‘Judge’s Journal’ in November 2010 but is no less relevant twelve years on……. I feel I must respond on behalf of the RSPBA Adjudicators’ Panel to the email letter regarding the wide differences in the results of piping adjudicators in which the question was…
The circle formation for pipe band competitions has remained constant since the early days of the original SPBA. The concept was based on the principle of the arena allowing bands space to enter and leave whilst also allowing spectators maximum opportunity to see and hear the performances, in effect from three sides of a roughly square arena. The other principle was to allow bands to march into a circle to…
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