Archive
pipes|drums asks the competitors at last year’s Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting to list what type of drones, chanter, reeds, pipe bag and moisture system they used, and the results are fascinating. A total of 70 of the world’s elite solo pipers provide their input, allowing us to look at the preferences between those competing in the Premier, A-Grade and B-Grade categories. We compare the information with our much smaller 2009 study, and let you consider your own options for achieving your own ideal sound. With more manufacturers and choices than ever, there has never been a better ¨C but perhaps more confusing ¨C time to be a Highland piper and, our investigation gives pipes|drums subscribers a look “der the hood” of the instruments played by the world’s best pipers.00
For a group that practices once a year, the Atholl Highlanders Pipes & Drums have quite a bit of fun, the latest adventure a two-week trip to Massachusetts and Bermuda, along . . .
Bob Worrall reviews the annual Piping Concert at Celtic Connections, this year with Lothian & Borders Police and Spirit of Scotland on a double-bill at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on January 28th.
Alexander “Sandy” Keith, the popular and accomplished piper, teacher and leader, died on the evening of February 1, 2012 at the age of 74. A native of Paisley, Scotland and a pupil of the great Peter MacLeod Sr., Keith made his mark in piping after he immigrated to Canada in […]
We continue our wide-ranging discussion with Mark Saul, one of the world’s most popular composers of music for the Highland pipes. In this third instalment, Saul talks about the Victoria Police, the prospects for another Australian pipe band winning a Grade 1 World Championship, and the challenges of leading a Grade 2 band whose reason-to-be is not all winning all the time. Mark Saul touches on the allure of the World’s, and the trend towards amalgamating players for flash-in-the-pan attempts to make a mark in Scotland, and the big picture of camaraderie, music and simply having fun.
The PPBSO Toronto Branch’s annual Amateur Knockout competitions continued at Mosspark Armoury in downtown Toronto. The events group Grade 1 and Grade 2 pipers in a combined A-Grade, and Grade 3 and Grade 4 in a B-Grade . . .
When Carsen Campbell’s parents pulled him out of ice hockey at age 12 because it was too dangerous, they gave him a rifle instead. He already was involved with . . .
pipes|drums brings northern hemisphere readers more “hot stove league” content to warm them through the dreary and cold off-season, with video highlights from the performance of Pipe-Major John Cairns and Leading-Drummer Graham Brown of the Grade 1 Peel Regional Police Pipe Band at our Pipes+Drums Recital at Piping Live! last August. John Cairns is also famous for being only the eleventh person in piping history to win the pure “Double” – both the Argylshire Gathering and the Northern Meeting Highland Society of London Gold Medals in one year (1999). Graham Brown is one of the world’s top pipe band snare drummers, gaining . . .
Kylie MacHattie reviews “The Silver Pipes of Tir nan Og” by Kenton Adler, a novel with a piping twist aimed at adolescents and teenagers and the youngster in all of us.
While he’s a prominent light music composer with two collections published so far and scores of arrangements for pipe bands over his . . .
The Victorian Highland Pipe Band Association of Australia has just completed its first test trial in which bands are allowed to enter and take a formation very different from the familiar . . .
The Aberdeen Universities Officers Training Corps is celebrating its centenary year with a tune composing competition ¨C but you’ll . . .
The overall winner of the 2012 Metro Cup Solo Piping Championship was Angus MacColl of Benderloch, Scotland, who was first in the Piobaireachd event and fourth in the Medley, which was won by Willie McCallum of Bearsden, Scotland . . .
In the final instalment of the Mark Saul pipes|drums Interview, he discusses piping and drumming “traditions,” the ebb and flow of musical creativity, and what happens when bands try to challenge the establishment. The cultural divisions that can be seen with bands from various parts of the world are exposing new concepts and leading to the constant questioning of “authority.”
The Toronto Police Pipe Band will help to mark its centenary this year with a November 10th concert in downtown Toronto at the Opera House that will also feature the . . .
For most of the piping and drumming world north of the equator, the weather outside is frightful, so pipes|drums takes you back to the summer with another Hot Stove League video. This time, it’s high-definition video highlights of Angus MacColl, the virtuoso piper from Benderloch, Scotland, performing in the 2011 Lord Todd Challenge Recital at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on August 11th. The Lord Todd Challenge is one of the hottest tickets of the piping year. The room is always filled to capacity, the bar six-deep and the excitement metre redlining, as five of the world’s greatest solo pipers converge in an invitational . . .