Piping Press

Singer Pipe Band was based in Clydebank near Glasgow and featured mainly employees of the giant sewing machine manufacturer. This article is taken from the company’s ‘Singer Light’ staff magazine of April 1971. At its peak the factory employed 11,500 people shipping their ubiquitous machines around the world. Sadly the factory closed in 1980 and the band is no more, but in their day it was the perfect public relations…

By The Editor There has been a considerable response to my article on bagpipe technique and how it has changed and moved on over time. The first of our comments is from Dale Brown in the US. Dale writes: ‘On a cold morning like this what could be more fun than to have a hot stove discussion on piping fingering methods.  ‘I started my piping journey as a youngster in…

Both of the following items are taken from the the December 1935 ‘Piping and Dancing’ journal. Last month we had an article which described the village of Torphichen in West Lothian, given its extensive teaching programme for piping, as the Borreraig of the 1930s. For those not au fait with piping history, Borreraig on Skye is where the MacCrimmons had their legendary school of piping from the 17th century onwards….

By Ken Cameron Lochaber Piping Society has held its AGM and Open Meeting. No change in office bearers but we’re really happy to include James Rosie into the main body of the Committee and look forward to his input and energy. We have agreed on 28th March for our Youth Piping and Drumming Competition, with the venue again being Lochaber High School (although that has to be finalised). Our main news…

Some time ago a reader alerted me to what he termed the ‘California D throw’, the ‘light’ throw. He said that he had noticed how modern pipe bands and soloists seemed to opt for this style. The correspondent thought the ‘light’ throw ‘sounded tidier’ in bands but thought it lost ‘importance’ when played by a soloist. By importance I took it that he meant impact or definition. He speculated: ‘Has the…