Category: Pipe Bands

PP Editor’s Blog: Canntaireachd Explanation/ RACPADS Donation etc

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Reader Thomas Mitchell asks about canntaireachd: ‘Thank you for posting the link to the Piping Press Shop for the Gesto Canntaireachd PDF book which I just downloaded. I remember watching a video years ago of interviews with pipers. One gentleman discussed the merits of pipers learning to sing canntaireachd as it was his contention that the singing could show subtleties of phrasing that are more difficult to put into standard musical notation. Have…

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PP Ed’s Blog: Tuition Funding/ Vale Recruiting/ Govan Pipers/ SFU/ FMM Tickets

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Both Les Hutt and Barry Donaldson make some very good points about the demise of our mining communities and their contribution to piping and pipe bands and the lack of recognition thereof. It is apposite that their comments should come in the week that we saw the closure of the last deep coal mine in the UK – an industry which at its zenith, in 1913, employed a million men, men who fuelled an…

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Wheel of Fortune Date Announced as Edinburgh Band Remembers its Mining Roots

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The ninth annual ‘Pipe Majors’ Wheel of Fortune’ competition will be held on Saturday 13th February 2016 in Danderhall Miners Club, near Edinburgh.  Hosted by the City of Edinburgh Pipe Band, the event is a well-established and highly popular fixture on Scotland’s solo piping calendar. Some facts: The City of Edinburgh Pipe Band competes in Grade 2 and is the senior band in Scotland’s capital. The ‘Wheel of Fortune’ competition provides…

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PP Ed’s Blog: Tumbledown Mountain/ BB Results/ Piping Tuition

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My report the other day on P/M Peter MacInnes and his tune for Captain John Young brought to mind Peter’s own heroism and that of his piper colleagues in the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards during the 1982 Falklands War. Many youngsters now learn the tune Crags of Tumbledown Mountain by P/M James Riddell, Scots Guards, but how many know the story behind the tune? The picture above was taken on…

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Donald MacPhee Traces Family Bagpipe from South Uist to Glasgow

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Professional piper, adjudicator and reedmaker Donald MacPhee has spoken about his quest to find out more about a bagpipe which belonged to his uncle Michael, a noted piper who served throughout WW1. Small world this piping fraternity: 100+ years on and we find that the pipes are in a  good home not a million miles from where Donald lives in the Vale of Leven west of Glasgow. Read on….. Donald: ‘My grandfather…

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