Fifty years ago P/M Donald MacLeod was intoning against learning piobaireachd ‘parrot fashion’. (See the advert he ran in the ‘Piping World’ magazine issue we highlighted last week.) This is the great danger in relying on CD or archive recordings as the sole source of your study. Almost as bad as following printed scores to the letter. Rote learning can only ever take you so far. An educated ear will…

RSPBA HQ have published the following: The Music Board met on Saturday 12th January 2019 and approved the third changes for the 2019 season, all changes can be found below: Upgrades January 2019Grade 4B to Grade 4ARothesay & District – by request Downgrades – January 2019Grade 4A to Grade 4B: Ullapool & District – by request New Bands – January 2019Grande Prairie & District Pipes & Drums, Canada, granted Grade…

Margaret Dunn reports from the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (CLASP) competition held at the National Piping Centre, Otago Street, 12th Jan 2019…. Please find attached results from Saturday’s CLASP competition. We had a good turn out and the events were judged by Dr Simon McKerrell and Alastair Dunn. The group picture above is of the overall winners in their grade (l-r): David MacKenzie Grade 1, Bill Copland Grade…

The Piobaireachd Society has made the music scores from books 1-3 in its published series available to members free of charge on its website at www.piobaireachd.co.uk, writes President Dr Jack Taylor. After several months preparation, classic tunes such as the Unjust Incarceration, In Praise of Morag, Lament for the Children and the Lament for Patrick Og, and also smaller tunes, e.g. Battle of Auldearn, Lament for the Old Sword and Black Donald’s March now sit…

The PP Archives have a copy of the magazine ‘Piping World’ from half a century ago, 1968. This was a US-based magazine edited by the late Don Varella. There are a number of noteworthy articles, advertisements, results and photographs we thought would be of interest to PP readers at this quiet time of year for piping. The picture above is from the magazine’s front cover and shows judge John Wilson…