Category: Tuition

Pipe Band Workshop Part 1: The Pressure on Judges and What They are Looking For

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As bands prepare for their first season in three years Piping Press will do everything it can help them refresh their knowledge and re-kindle their enthusiasm. This article, by former senior pipe band adjudicator and educator Alistair Aitken, first appeared in Pipe Band Magazine. it is likely that few people really understand the complexity of pipe band adjudication until they have experienced the demanding training all aspirants need to undertake. …

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Piping in WW2: Personal Stories from the Home Front

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We continue with our well received history by Jeannie Campbell. The picture above shows the KOSB regimental Pipes and Drums leading a parade down a bleak Princes Street, Edinburgh, in 1939….. The late Dr Jimmy Campbell has memories of wartime piping. This is his story: ‘My first year as a medical student in 1941 included service in the Senior Training Corps, fire watching and guard duty. Invasion was expected so…

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Norman Matheson MBE 1932-2022

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It is with sadness that I report that Norman Matheson MBE passed away at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary yesterday, 10th January. He was 89. Norman was born in Inverness. He spent his formative years in Avonside a few miles from Tomintoul, the Moray-shire mountain village where he had his early education.  His father was, for a while, a garage manager in Inverness and his mother a district nurse in the village. Norman was…

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Editor’s Notebook: Imminent U-turn Will Save Early Pipe Band Season/ Piping in Pitt Street/ Piobaireachd by the Sea/ Ottawa Games 1976

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Twelve hours after Tuesday’s blog suggesting the 2022 British Pipe Band Championships should be moved from Scotland to England, Sir Ian McGeechan proposed the same for the forthcoming Calcutta Cup rugby match. Newcastle would be the perfect spot for the battle with the auld enemy, a max crowd permitted and guaranteed, said Sir Ian. Twenty-four hours later our football pundits were suggesting the same for Scottish Premier League matches. The…

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Piping During WW2: The Founding of the College of Piping, Dunkirk and ‘Mad’ Jack Churchill

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The College of Piping was founded early in the 1940s as part of a youth organisation named ‘Fianna na h’Alba’, writes Jeannie Campbell. The Fianna activities included the study of Scottish history, the Gaelic language and literature, Scottish crafts, Highland dancing and all outdoor pursuits.  Another important feature of their activities were ceilidhs and piper member Seumas MacNeill (pictured above) would of course play at these. The result was that…

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