The Director of Army Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming, Major Gordon Rowan, has cancelled the 2020 Captain John A. MacLellan MBE Piping Championship. The Army School of Bagpipe Music & Highland Drumming (ASBM&HD) has now opened for the first time since lockdown, welcoming all staff to prepare for a return to normal teaching within Inchdrewer House. Major Gordon Rowan: ‘The current AA Class 1 Piper’s course is now able to…

One thing struck me when looking at and listening to some of the recent online competition submissions was how much more of an occasion it was when the pipers were dressed properly. In the last one I watched (the USPF) there was a decided lack of dress sense and not a kilt in sight as far as I could see. Earlier this year Andrew Carlisle’s contest at Carnegie Mellon set…

By Ian McLaren Below are details issued on behalf of Aboyne Highland Games about its decision to move some of its piping competitions online this year following the event’s cancellation due to COVID-19.  Aboyne is believed to be the first Highland games in Scotland to introduce virtual piping competitions this year, a move that will provide solo pipers with a platform to play competitively.  Demand from pipers led to the number of…

Around 2004 there was concern among some members of the RSPBA Adjudicators’ Panel about the positioning of adjudicator tents.  The main concerns were about placing them in a position which would reduce the amount of time necessary to walk to and from the tent, and thus maximise the limited time available for completion of critique sheets.  There were also concerns about more than one adjudicator being in each tent to…

It seems that with this fallow period in piping and pipe band competition, when participants are stuck at home, capable pipers with fertile minds have made good use of the time and turned to composition. The results are that we have many new piping pieces for us to study and play.    By Duncan Watson Some old tunes have certainly stood the test of time and doubtless some of the new ones will…