Editorial

The world of piping and drumming can be a strange and unusual place for non-piping/drumming parents of young kids who become involved with the art. As a child of a mother and father who knew nothing about the mysterious and exclusive club before allowing their boy to become involved, I now recognize how difficult it can be, even more so after teaching young pipers plunging into our pool of competition, decorum, and tradition.

“If they don’t understand flourishing, cannot perform flourishing, and are not experts at it, why do they think they have the qualifications to comment on it?”

I love merging two passions into a publication that gets daily positive feedback from readers and, judging from its ever-increasing readership, is appreciated by thousands daily.

The tiebreakers we use were made for a different era. Today, they make little sense, and, like so much in piping and drumming, they’re perpetually used either out of habit or sheer laziness.

“Highland games are a partnership between the band association, bands and local organizers. Each is important to the end result, and none is more important than the others.” Dave Bruning, Pipes and Drums Chair for the Wisconsin Highland Games, discusses the challenges many of today’s competition organizers face.

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s ability to secure all five major championships is nothing less than remarkable. The organization deserves full credit for voluntary hard work, determination, and savvy business acumen.

There’s a saying in the music industry: a good song is a good song, no matter who covers it or how it’s done. That’s true. Think of all those renditions of familiar hits you like. They may not be as good as the original, but they’re generally good and often even better. You recognize them. They immediately attract you with their familiarity. At Christmastime, we hear arrangements ad infinitum of classic carols and holiday songs done by pop stars. This is intentional. Artists and their labels know that the music-buying public will at least give them a listen.

Editor’s note: pipes|drums welcomes all fair persp …

Editor’s note: with an aging population in most pa …

Because they have not done it, they can’t appreciate it, so they treat the competitors with a cavalier, it-doesn’t-matter attitude.

I’ve spent 50 years now trying to figure out pipin …

Unless it emerges that there was some other extraordinary circumstance to make this decision obviously and irrefutably correct, it’s yet another bad move by the RSPBA – not necessarily to reject Russell’s scores, but not to be completely detailed and transparent and open about the exact reasons for their decision.

In pre-internet days, only those who heard the contest live were aware of the insidious dues-paying system of judging. Those days are thankfully gone.

A fundamental change must occur if piping and drum …

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