I read with interest the good article by Alistair Aitken from 2010 on pipe band adjudication. I suspect that the debate about the effectiveness or ‘fairness’ of judges has gone on since contests began. Our current approach is just the most recent iteration of the traditional hands-on manual method; in which we ask trained adjudicators to use their senses and judgement to come to a ranking of the competing bands….
For all the detailed, cogent explanation given by Alistair Aitken for judging inconsistency in pipe band competition the main culprit, in my view, is the circle formation used virtually unchanged by the RSPBA for not far off 100 years. I’ve droned on about this long and weary, but with judges wandering about the playing area seemingly at random, different walking patterns for every band, is it any wonder there’s a…
The Glasgow Skye Association Pipe Band is delighted to announce that our ‘Pre-Worlds’ concert will be returning this year to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday, 10th August 2022, writes Kurt Mackintosh. After the disappointment of the last two years we are thrilled to confirm that Inveraray & District Pipe Band will at last be able to take centre stage. Pipe Major Stuart Liddell commented, ‘We were scheduled to…
The Ministry of Defence are seeking ‘to appoint a Pipe Major who strives to continuously improve the high standards of piping at Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, including ensuring that piping students have opportunities to gain formal (SQA) qualifications in the subject. ‘The Pipe Major will also take an active role in the promotion of Queen Victoria School through regular attendance, along with the whole pipe band and, potentially, the Highland…
We continue our build up to the the 2022 pipe band season, the first in three years. This article was first published in Pipe Band Magazine ‘Judge’s Journal’ in November 2010 but is no less relevant twelve years on……. I feel I must respond on behalf of the RSPBA Adjudicators’ Panel to the email letter regarding the wide differences in the results of piping adjudicators in which the question was…
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