Archive
About sixty fully accredited and potential pipe band ensemble judges from around the globe got together online in a landmark event for the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association on February 7, 2026, when its Adjudicator Panel Management Board held an online Ensemble Judging Workshop in a five-hour structured and free-flowing […]
The shortage of snare drummers and leading-drummers is pretty much a pipe band tradition. But why? Throughout the hundred-year history of competing pipe bands, pipers and drummers have wondered why the perpetual lack exists, but has anyone ever seriously sought answers? pipes|drums is, as we continue our panel discussion
In the first installment, he talked about the making of the album, and in this final part, Liddell picks out his other favourite track of the 15 on the album. Given that his first pick was a blazing hot duo of hornpipes with more gracenotes in his arrangement than there are stars in the universe, his second choice might surprise you.
Under-appreciated fact: deserving candidates of the Balvenie Medal for Services to Piping must be nominated in order to receive the award. For all those who have wondered why someone who’s tirelessly contributed most of their years to piping and pipe bands, looking for no compensation apart from the satisfaction of […]
Eleven elite players are confirmed to compete in the 79th Uist & Barra Solo Piping Competition, scheduled for March 7th at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street location: Callum Beaumont, Guardbridge, Scotland Calum Brown, Aberdeen Sandy Cameron, Roy Bridge, Scotland Ben Duncan, Edinburgh Jamie Forrester, Haddington, Scotland Finlay Johnston, Glasgow […]
David Clyde, whose contributions to piping in the Ottawa area have gone largely unrecognized, died on January 29, 2026, in his eighty-fifth year.
Stuart Easton of Palmerston North won all four Open solo piping events and the Manawatu Scottish organization’s Grade 4 band took the only contested grade in the pipe band events at the 161st Turakina Highland Games, the longest-running competition in New Zealand and one of the oldest in the world.
We suspected that an exhaustive list of the contents of Bruce Gandy’s pipe box would make for interesting reading. It did not disappoint.
With two firsts in the two events at the inaugural Masters Invitational Solo Drumming Competition, Steven McWhirter of Glasgow was the obvious overall winner.
After the sudden and unexpected shuttering of the contest’s original venue at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, the first Masters Solo Drumming Invitational Competition on Saturday, January 31st, has been moved to the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street premises. Organizer Cam Lawson confirmed that anyone who purchased a […]
For this discussion, we stepped back entirely. No interviewer. Just four pipe band drumming experts talking candidly about why snare drummers can be scarce, why leading-drummers are so hard to recruit, what challenges today’s bands face, and what meaningful steps might reverse the trend.
Miraculously, we were able to connect with Stuart Liddell for a chat about his new album, “Garron,” between a teaching trip to New Zealand, performing at Celtic Connections, looking after Inveraray & District, and preparing to depart for a week of teaching and playing at the Celtic Arts Foundation’s Winter School in Seabrook, Washington.
The eight contestants in the first Masters Solo Drumming Invitational Competition in Glasgow on Saturday, January 31st, have been determined: Alex Buchanan, Raphoe, Ireland Glen Creighton, Livingston, Scotland Stephen Creighton, Dublin Willie Glenholmes, Cullybackey, Northern Ireland Jake Jörgensen, Edinburgh Craig Lawire, Paisley, Scotland Andrew Lawson, Edinburgh Steven McWhirter, Glasgow 2025 […]
Three years after applying in 2004, Randall May International Inc. was granted worldwide patents for a “Percussion Instrument Carrier Assembly.” Twenty years on, the major patents have expired, opening the drum harness concept to changes and new commercial products. Garth Newlands’ GANAAN company is hoping to make and launch the […]
For some, the camaraderie and good “chunes” are enough. For others, it may very well be something quantifiably deeper. Something mysterious, ancient, and spiritual. Are the pipes just a bag, a bunch of reeds and hollow sticks, or are they a connection to something we’ve lost and are about to rediscover?