Reed expert and professional maker Chris Apps continues with his monograph on cane drone reeds and addresses further problems that can be encountered with them…. Dealing With Cane Drone Reeds Part 2 by Chris Apps The Reed Squeals There can be more than one cause of this problem: a) The bridle is too tight. Re-tie the bridle a little looser and test again (there are instructions for tying bridles later in this…
This article, by reed expert and professional maker Chris Apps, first appeared in the Pipe Band Magazine 15 years ago but is as relevant today as it was then, especially as more bands are turning to cane to add depth to their overall sound… Are You Able to Handle Cane? by CHRIS APPS I LIKE the sound of cane drone reeds but don’t use them because plastic is so much easier to set and maintain….
It was a pleasure to talk to Sandy Hain the other day. Sandy is the composer of the popular jig Donald MacKillop, now better known, erroneously, as Duncan MacKillop. The eponymous Donald was from Wick and a piper in the Black Watch through WW2. Sandy was Pipe Major at the regimental depot in Perth. Sandy ‘did the course’ with Willie Ross 1950 -51 along with Bob Crabb (Scots Guards), Peter…
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…
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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