By Mrs Wendy Goodall I read your article about music tuition in Scottish schools. Funnily enough, it is our 10-year-old daughter Kirsten Goodall who features in the picture issued about piping-in the haggis this morning (above). Kirsten is a P6 pupil at Cockenzie Primary School in East Lothian where she is learning to play the pipes in a scheme backed by the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust [SSPDT]. I read the…
It is pleasing to see that the Scottish Government’s Education Committee has ruled that music tuition in our schools should be provided free of charge to pupils, writes the Editor. Pleasing, but unless the administration puts money where it matters it will just be another blast of well meaning hot air. It is a fact that pupils learning a musical instrument, and that includes pipers and drummers, do better at…
We continue with our very well received history written and researched by Jeannie Campbell. Readers might like to consult the PP Comments column for interesting information we have received on this subject. The Lochgelly Ladies’ Band (above, 1951) was founded during the war years. Two Lochgelly girls were attending the dancing organised by the Lochgelly Public Pipe Band and jokingly remarked that it was time the girls of the town…
It is hoped that the presentation of the tune for John Cruickshank VC will take place at a lunch in May and that the winner Dave Mason will be able to attend from the US to play it for him. The promoters, the Royal Northern and University Club, Aberdeen, are planning to present Mr Cruickshank and the winner with a memorial plaque to mark the occasion. Mr Cruickshank (98) does…
By Jeannie Campbell It is interesting to note that in the days before the advent of the ladies’ pipe band most lady solo piping competitors were pictured wearing a tartan skirt with dark stockings. The subject of dress and whether ladies should play at all has caused controversy over the years. In 1938 Mr Thomas Reid, a member of the Canadian Parliament, wrote that ‘Although women may become efficient mistresses…
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