Thirteen years ago we were going through another major crisis – the financial crash. Fortunes were lost; governments in a panic; western capitalism on the brink. At the time I penned a piece which suggested how we pipers could cope. I’ve updated it for our current ordeal…. The nights are darkly dim. Black forces rattle on the window pane. The insidious virus threatens to wrest the porridge spoon of prosperity…

Having been a lead drummer for many years, I have spent countless hours composing snare drum accompaniments to bagpipe tunes. I have always wondered why some tunes seem so compatible with the snare drum that their accompanying scores almost write themselves, while other tunes are less so, with some requiring a lot more work and (often) compromise before an acceptable drumming match can be scripted. During the Covid-19 lockdown in…

Notice anything strange about this pic? Check out the bass drone. This was how the pipes were pictured in an auction catalogue by a Devon-based company. They were expected to go for £60 – £80 but sold for close on £6,000. The auction house and the seller clearly knew next to nothing about the national instrument yet the blurb read: ‘An important set of bagpipes have found their way home…

We continue today with more of the brilliantly edited historic photographs from Ronan Maguire of St Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band, Dublin. The picture above is of Alexander Glen and a young David Glen in their workshop in Edinburgh circa. 1880. The original black and white image was cleaned up and enhanced before being colourised. Glen was the biggest name in bagpipe manufacture and music publishing in the late 19th and…

An update from the Lockdown Piping Club project, writes Craig Muirhead.  Going by my calculations, over a thousand people have now had their first chanter lesson with me in lockdown either via the live classes or the pre-existing online tutorials – I am seriously chuffed! We are working through a few pages of a little PDF I’ve put together. Not the most conventional way of teaching bagpipes, but the idea behind the…