Category: Tuition

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

Posted on      by     

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…

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

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

Posted on      by     

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…

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

P/M Terry Lee and L/D Reid Maxwell on How to Build Your Band’s Ensemble

Posted on      by     

P/M Terry Lee and L/D Reid Maxwell made one of the greatest pipe band combinations of all time. Whilst they were at the helm of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, Burnaby, BC, they won no fewer than six World Championship titles. They travelled thousands of miles each year to compete against the world’s best and were never out of the top six in all that time. So when they talk of what…

More P/M Terry Lee and L/D Reid Maxwell on How to Build Your Band’s Ensemble

John MacDonald Recordings – Glasgow Police or Inverness?

Posted on      by     

Many thanks to John Don MacKenzie, Dornie, for alerting us to this possibility regarding the John MacDonald recordings highlighted last week: ‘Hi Rab, I have been listening to Alan Lomax’s recordings; really good stuff and interesting indeed both in Scotland and abroad. It’ll keep me going for some time along with http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/ which has loads of John D. Burgess ceol mor on it. Willie Ross and John D are sparkling indeed…

More John MacDonald Recordings – Glasgow Police or Inverness?

PP Editor’s Blog: Ross & Cromarty Concerts/ Band Regradings/ Andrew Pitkeathly/ Letters

Posted on      by     

Gail Laird of the Ross & Cromarty Pipes and Drums School has sent this: ‘The Ross and Cromarty Pipes and Drums School rounded off their successful competing season by a three-night mini tour of Ross-shire. ‘The concerts were an outstanding success. The band was delighted at the level of  community support at every venue. The main band was outstanding, showcasing their talent under the brilliant tutelage of Niall Matheson  (Pipe Major)…

More PP Editor’s Blog: Ross & Cromarty Concerts/ Band Regradings/ Andrew Pitkeathly/ Letters