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…

Pipe Band Workshop: Focussing on Melody and the Importance of Tune Selection in a Band’s Presentation

Within the pipe band idiom there are a number of different melodic disciplines to consider, viz. tunes for competition march, strathspey and reel, tunes for medley construction, tunes for concert performance, tunes for parade and ceremonial occasions, certain tunes that are more sympathetic for tuning the bagpipe. With bands at different levels of expertise, tune selection becomes an art in its self.   By Barry Donaldson Many pieces suitable for…

Editor’s Notebook: Spotlight on London/ Ross of the Guards/ Sunbelt Contest/ Lachie Robertson

London’s piping heritage will come under focus this evening in the fourth of the Piobaireachd Society’s season of ‘Talk Piobaireachd’ sessions. In the hot seat will be the Society’s Treasurer Roddy Livingstone. The ‘first city of the Empire’ has always had a prominent role to play in pipng too. Consider the regimental bands of the Guards, the Queen’s Piper, Campbells at nearby Cambridge, Dr MacPhail, the Bratach Gorm, Les Cowell…

WW2 Piping: Home Guard Pipe Bands, 1945 Competition and the Cameronians

The Aberdeen (Works) Battalion Home Guard pipe band was formed in 1940 under P/M Charles S. Smith (1888-1950), who had been Pipe Major of the Aberdeen City Police Pipe Band for twelve years until his retirement in 1938. (Pictured above is another Aberdeenshire Home Guard band under P/M George Hepburn.) During the First World War the Aberdeen police band was temporarily disbanded so Charles Smith had played with the Harry…