Opinion: It’s past time for a united UK Solo Piping Association

The UK has no unified standards for its solo piping competitions. After 200-odd years, it’s high time that changed.

Here’s the full version of the editorial:

The UK solo piping competition scene can be difficult to understand.

When pipers come to Scotland to compete on the games circuit, or even at larger gatherings, they have to navigate a mysterious system that, in many respects, isn’t really a system at all. It is largely the same confusing approach that has existed for 200 years, with few consistent standards, limited adherence to anything beyond longstanding tradition, and little accountability for decisions.

On the one hand, it can be quaintly charming. Figuring out what is going on is almost part of the experience. The Scottish games have a disarming quality: competitors commiserate after a contest and ultimately chalk up their frustrations to, “Well, that’s just the way they do it.”

On the other hand, it is a confusing and disparate collection of events with little consistent governance of rules, standards and policies, the very things intended to create a fairer and more equitable experience for competitors, judges and stewards, while lending credibility to results.

“Associations outside the UK have, since at least the 1950s, tried to improve various aspects of the solo competition experience. Scottish immigrant pipers recognized that things could be done better than what they experienced back home.”

Associations outside the UK have, since at least the 1950s, tried to improve various aspects of the solo competition experience. Scottish immigrant pipers recognized that things could be done better than what they experienced back home.

A few fed-up competitors launched the Competing Pipers’ Association at the Northern Meeting in Inverness, in the backrooms of the Cummings Hotel in 1977. At the time, the prestigious Highland Society of London Gold Medal contest was a truly “open” affair: any piper could enter and compete. Numbers had ballooned past 60, with judges assessing performances from around 8 am until 11 pm. At least two-thirds of the competitors had virtually no chance of winning a prize in an amateur competition, let alone the Gold Medal.

The CPA set out to separate solo pipers into grades. They created the Silver Medal as a quasi-qualifier for the Gold Medal. CPA members had to be active competitors, and they were (and still are) the ones assessing the playing abilities of their fellow competitors.

Never mind the potential appearance of a conflict of interest. The numbers had to be reduced so everyone could get a good night’s sleep.

To be sure, the RSPBA has done much the same for pipe bands. Like any association, the RSPBA can be better, but it wrote the book on how to organize, manage and deliver its events. Its competitions run like clockwork. Judges must meet stringent accreditation requirements, and competing bands are carefully monitored to ensure they are in the correct grade.

Most non-UK associations have adopted a similar approach to governance, but, with a few exceptions, they also govern solo piping. New Zealand and Australia have separate pipe band and solo piping associations, and that seems to work reasonably well.

When soloists enter a non-UK competition, they generally know exactly what they are signing up for. The judges are accredited, there is an order of play, and the entry fee is expected to provide a contest experience the competitor can reasonably trust.

In the UK? Not so much.

The UK Highland games often hire the same people who have judged their events for a decade or longer. Organizers might sketch an order of play as pipers arrive. Contestants routinely arrive late, or even stay out of sight until later in an event, hoping to secure a more advantageous playing position.

Entry for many of the solo events at UK Highland games is handled by a games volunteer who may or may not know much about solo piping. Organizers often hire the same people who have judged their events for a decade or longer. Organizers might sketch an order of play as pipers arrive. Contestants routinely arrive late, or even stay out of sight until later in an event, hoping to secure a more advantageous playing position.

At one competition you might submit one tune. At another, it could be three, six or even 10. No consistent scoresheet or feedback system explains or accounts for judges’ decisions.

Again, all of this can be strangely charming. You’re participating in events held in the same places and sometimes run much as they were in the eras of Willie Ross and G.S. McLellan. There is a certain excitement in navigating the Scottish games circuit, provided you accept that how the results were reached can remain something of a mystery. The competitors who win first prizes are happy. The rest can be left wondering.

The Competing Pipers’ Association looks after grading for “Senior” solo pipers aged 18 and older. Any soloist who meets a Professional or Open grade elsewhere can join the CPA and receive a grade. Occasionally, non-UK amateurs and “Juniors” have also received a CPA grading.

But CPA grades are mainly used at larger gatherings. Most of the smaller Highland games don’t use them.

Similarly, the UK’s Solo Piping Judges Association is trying to establish judging standards. The criteria for becoming an SPJA-accredited judge are based strictly on competitive success. There is no examination to demonstrate knowledge of repertoire or music theory, or proven ability to articulate and communicate a decision.

So far, the SPJA has not adopted accreditation systems like those refined over decades by associations elsewhere. Some would argue that it shouldn’t. Competitive credibility, they would say, is paramount. Judges who haven’t done the business will not command the respect of those they judge, so they shouldn’t judge.

Then there’s CLASP, the Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers, run by the National Piping Centre. It gives non-Open/Professional adult solo pipers a way to compete in the UK without having to go up against the likes of, say, Willie McCallum.

All of this points to the need for a unified approach to UK solo piping competition standards.

The irony is that UK competitions remain among the most prestigious in the world. The depth and quality of playing are unquestioned. But prestige and playing standard are not the same as effective governance.

A unified association would not have to eliminate the traditions, independence or individuality that make the Scottish games circuit distinctive. It could establish common expectations for grading, judging, orders of play, tune requirements, rules, feedback and accountability, while allowing individual competitions to retain their character.

Here’s one possible approach:

1. The CPA, SPJA and CLASP combine under a single UK Solo Piping Association.
2. Non-competing members determine gradings for active competitors. Competing members establish the criteria and accreditation standards for judges. All members have a vote in the election of the association’s management.
3. The association retains and strengthens the strict conflict-of-interest policies already established by the CPA and SPJA where necessary.
4. The association works toward sanctioning Professional/Open and amateur solo competitions in the UK, working with games and gatherings to organize and monitor events under the UKSPA umbrella while preserving longstanding traditions, particularly the historic events at the major gatherings.
5. Available UKSPA-accredited judges are assigned to events by non-competing UKSPA members, rather than being selected by competitors or individual judges themselves. Assignments could even be randomized using AI from a pool of qualified (and of course available) judges.

The details are open for debate. The principle should not be.

For 200 years, competitors have largely been expected to figure things out for themselves. They learn which games use which rules, who is eligible for what, how many tunes to submit, when they might play and what, if anything, they can expect from the judges afterward. For experienced competitors, navigating it all becomes part of competing in Scotland. For everyone else, particularly those coming from elsewhere, it can be needlessly confusing.

That disorder might be part of the charm, but it shouldn’t be part of the competition.

The UK can keep the traditions that make its solo contests so alluring: the beautiful settings, the variety of events, the platforms and boards for the pipers, and even the wee tents for the judges. None of that has to change.

What can change is the system around them.

UK solo piping does not need more organizations working separately on individual pieces of the same puzzle. It needs those interests brought together under a single, coherent system, ideally an association of competitors, for competitors, that can establish standards, sanction competitions and provide the accountability expected of the world’s most prestigious solo piping circuit.

Two centuries of tradition do not have to be swept away. The traditions are worth preserving. The confusion isn’t.

The depth of high-quality piping in the UK has long set the world standard. The system around it should aspire to do the same.

Those are our thoughts; what are yours? As always, you’re invited to express your own fair opinions using our Comments feature below.