Editor’s Notebook: Florida Academy/ Ukraine Piper/ Helensburgh Band Recruiting/ Tomintoul Losses/ March for Norman/ SPA AGM

The 2022 Florida Pipe & Drum Academy has concluded successfully with noticeable improvements in performance and knowledge. The school was the first since the ending of lockdown and, in 2019, the last before the pandemic hit. We only lost one year. Organiser Chris McKeown has expansion plans for next year. We finished with a visit to the North Florida games where many of the students competed with success in the…

CLASP ‘Live Online’ 5th February Competition Results

This competition took place, ‘Live Online’ using the Zoom platform. Amateur pipers from all over the world joined to compete ‘live’ on Saturday 5th February and captured their live performance using a video recording device, which was later sent to the judges. A special mention to the volunteer online stewards for the day; Gill Cairns, Anna Binder, Sally Mason, Caitlin Houlihan, Megan kenney and Lou Reid.  The next CLASP competition…

Northern Ireland Pipe Bands Gearing Up for Post Covid Comeback

The pipe band scene in Northern Ireland is making strides to get going again with bands resuming practices and plans being put in place by the RSPBA NI Branch for the season ahead. The RSPBA NI Branch Meeting took place on Saturday 29th January 2022 via Zoom and a draft contest programme was tabled. At the time only the Mid Ulster (Cookstown) and the Ulster (Ballymena) competitions were confirmed however…

Be a Better Piper: Dre and Edre and the Crunluath

Reader Paul Eschenburg in Plymouth, Michigan: ‘A question from the trenches…I have always played the dre movement as instructed by my tutor. ‘When I mentioned to him that Jimmy McIntosh espouses the pre-1895 version as described in his ‘Ceol Mor in the Balmoral Tradition’, page 29, I was just told ‘we are not going to do it that way’. By Robert Wallace ‘Jimmy is very adamant regarding this movement as…

Pipes for Aberdeen Pupils/ Lochaber Juniors Contest Entry

Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust: Aberdeenshire pupils are on the road to a life-time of piping success, thanks to an award of new, on loan pipes. Fifteen pupils at Meldrum Academy and Rayne North Primary will benefit from the award. Pictured are some of the pupils at Meldrum Academy with their new pipes, alongside their piping tutor Andrew Gray.  Linda Moggach, Faculty Head of Performing Arts at Meldrum Academy…