A reader who did not wish to be identified has commented on my article about the retirement age for judges, writes the Editor. He says: ‘In this instance, I think there is a distinction between solo piping and pipe bands. In the former there is no musical basis to retire on age grounds – essentially the music they are asked to judge doesn’t change much. In the latter the position…
I know this is a fallow period for piping and pipe bands but I’d like to remind followers of Piping Press that there is plenty of enjoyable reading – not time sensitive – throughout our pages. Yesterday, for example, we had hundreds of readers dipping into the Famous Pipers column about P/M Ian McLellan of Strathclyde Police (pictured above). This followed a mention of the article on Facebook. So my…
Bagpipe Tutor 3 – Piobaireachd by Robert Wallace has been a welcome addition to the teaching manuals for ceol mor, classical pipe music. In 20 lessons the author takes the student through all the required technique for this music and on completion of the course the beginner has four tunes, the Wee Spree, Clan Campbell’s Gathering, the Boat Tune and Duncan MacRae of Kintail’s Lament in his/her repertoire. Each of…
Today we have the third instalment of our abridged excerpts from the above book by Ian Hamilton Mackay Scobie. The book was published in 1924 and is now out of print. This excerpt talks of piobaireachd being superseded by ceol beag as duty tunes and the effect on the fingers of playing in bands. Above is a picture of Seaforth militia pipers in 1880 under P/M Ronald MacKenzie…. In an old…
Lucky Jimmy Banks is off on a cruise so thanks to John Rae for sending the latest from the Scots Guards KO: ‘The winner of the knockout piping held at the Scots Guards Club, Edinburgh, on Sunday 26 November 2017 to a capacity crowd, was Dan Nevans who edged out Jamie Elder in a closely matched contest. ‘Dan goes through to the semi-finals along with Jonathan Simpson and Ben Duncan….
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