iPod choices

In heavy rotation:

• Beck – The Information
• Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
• The Who – Endless Wire
• Fred Morrison – Up South
• The Psychedelic Firs – Mirror Moves

Expansion

I was thinking back to 15 or so years ago. Grade 1 bands had pipe sections of between 11 and 15 pipers. Twelve or 13 were considered optimal numbers. Today, of course, a Grade 1 band without a pipe section of at least 18 is unusual. I know of one top band that plans to hit the 2007 contest field with 26 pipers, choosing from a pool of 32. Explosive.

But, back to 15 years ago. I remember sitting around many times with pipers in bands I played with reviewing potential new members for the section. It tended to be an elite club. One way or another, it was difficult to get in and, if a candidate didn’t have a great track record in Grade 1 and an additional solo piping record and an acceptible personality he/she didn’t have much chance. Not only that, but if they did get in, chances were that he/she often would have to serve at least a year of being dropped before they got to know “the style.” What bollocks.

How times have changed. Now there’s a much bigger talent pool of pipers with professional-calibre hands and a desire to commit to the band completely. They can play whatever material is thrown in front of them. And they don’t make blooters.

Time was that if a piper had not made a name for him/herself, they wouldn’t get a game. Today one wonders every new season, Just who are these pipers and where did they come from? It’s remarkable too that, while the standard of Grade 1 bands goes up, up, up, the standard of top solo piping holds steady.

Making a mark

The death of Bob Dunsire is sad, and I feel for his family. He was too young to go and obviously had much more to give to the piping and drumming world.

But the positive thing is everything that he contributed to our art. I don’t think he put together his piping and drumming websites or took photos for anything but the pursuit of his passion. He seemed to just want to do something positive for the scene by getting people together to discuss things in a civilized and constructive way.

That he affected so many people is remarkable, made more so by the fact that he was not a piper of world-class talent. Before the net came along, to become famous in the piping and drumming world you pretty much had to win big prizes, write great tunes, or teach great players.

I don’t think Bob Dunsire did any of that. Instead he made his mark by recognizing the power of the Internet to bring people together and, for this, I think his contribution is far more important to the art than winning a Silver Star or a Clasp. Those are great personal accomplishments, and a certain number of people get to enjoy the music, but they are not lasting contributions to the art overall.

Bob and I corresponded a lot in the late-1990s about the phenomenon of the net. We fell out for a time over some stupid copyright misunderstanding, but I actually learned a lot from him. He was well ahead of his time when it came to social networking. It’s remarkable that he recognized that a traditionally fractured and occasionally back-stabbing culture like competitive piping and drumming could use a place where people could speak positively and freely without fear of being ostracized by their peers or hammered by a judge. That his Forums sprang from the vitriolic and often insane world of the old rec.music.makers.bagpipe chat group (the social networking pioneer on the net) was further remarkable.

While no person can ever be replaced, there are more people like him out there who will make their positive and constructive mark in ways other than the competition platform. May they be inspired by Bob Dunsire’s passion.

Meeting standards

The annual solo piping competitions at London are among the most prestigious in the world. No doubt about that. The event over the past five years has worked to align itself with the Competing Pipers Association, requiring competitors to be a graded CPA member, and organizing contests to be in sync with gradings. It also introduced and uses scoresheets.

(In every country outside of the UK grading and scoresheets are standard practices, but, for the most part, British events are still open to any who want to play in them and, if anything, age is the only restriction. UK competitors also don’t get any written feedback, and judges don’t have to account for their decisions.)

But to the best of my knowledge the CPA requests that its members not compete before their teachers. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but more of a policy that members should strive to uphold. Also as I understand it, the CPA asks members to try to play only for judges on the list approved by the UK’s Joint Committee for Judging. (But that list is not made public, so how do they know?)

London’s organizers apparently were challenged getting all invited “A-List” judges to accept the job, since travelling to London for Scottish judges can mean expensive airfare or a 12-hour journey if they don’t fly, so I gathered the event had to make due with a few judges not on the list of judges approved by the Joint Committee.

I was also struck by the London event’s proviso on its online order-of-play that said something like, “Don’t worry about playing for your teacher; the others on the bench will sort it out.”

So, what’s an event to do? Any contest that aspires to high standards must ask itself if it is better to fill out the benches with B or even C list people, or reduce a bench from three to two or even one if the judges don’t meet the criteria, or outright cancel an event? It’s a bind that events are often faced with: carry on with potentially reduced standards, or scrub the competition entirely?

I know that in Ontario there are occasions when certified judges just aren’t available or can’t attend at the last minute. At least a few times a season someone without the specific judging credentials pitches in just to ensure the event goes on. On one hand, the competitors get to play. On the other, there are grumblings (mainly from those not in the prizes) about the judging and organizing, and a reputation for excellence is potentially tarnished.

Curious to hear what people think.

Seismic shift

So Fredericton’s official promotion makes it 12 Grade 1 bands in North America. There are 14 Grade 1 RSPBA-member bands, by my count.

Over the last 10 years, the number of Grade 1 bands in North America has gone up, while the number in the UK has gone down. I’ve written about this trend for many years, and have thought about it ever since I listened to Jimmy McIntosh lecture impressionable American pipers at a 1980 piping school that Scotland is losing its grip on piping standards, and that “Piping will go the way of golf.”

If the trend continues in a few years there will be more ANAPBA Grade 1 bands than RSPBA.

Why does this matter? In terms of numbers and competition, it really doesn’t. Currently there’s no chance that all of the world’s top-grade bands will meet at one contest. Bands have never hung their hats on anything other than music. Band contests are not the Olympics; bands don’t represent anything but themselves and the music they play.

Where it does matter is in the balance of power. Currently the RSPBA sets the agenda for how band competitions should be run. Because so many North American Grade 1 bands compete at the World’s, they are fairly insistent that their home association’s competition requirements match those that the RSPBA sets for the World’s, since that’s what they want to practice and play before they head across the Atlantic.

But when there are more Grade 1 bands in North America than the UK, eventually they will decide to converge closer to home. Las Vegas in November (cheap flights and accommodation, readily accessible, great weather, commercial involvement) has been suggested by more than a few. Makes sense to me, and I’d bet FMM, Shotts, Strathclyde et al. will be enticed, too, since Las Vegas is increasingly a vacation destination for the British.

Easier said than done. No organization on earth runs pipe band contests better than the RSPBA. They have it down to a science – at least the way they are conducted now. But if the contest format itself is changed along with the balance of power, the whole thing might well be reinvented.

The next few years will be a fascinating, watershed period. As long as North American bands continue to do their thing and raise their competitive standard, there is bound to be a seismic shift in the pipe band world.

Unbottled

Okay, so the Cardinals won in five. Sweet victory for anyone waiting and hoping since 1982, who suffered through the 1970s, Steve Swisher, Vern Rapp, Gary Templeton, Don Denkinger, and all of the post-season let-downs of the last decade.

Sorry Stu, Steve, Joel et al. Your Tigers just ran out of gas and “lost the bottle,” as they say. It was like the hot new Grade 1 band at the World’s dropping sticks, missing attacks, chanters falling out, pipe bags and heads bursting. Chalk it up to lack of experience, but know that Detroit will be good and better for many years.

Leyland taking the full blame is extraordinary: a pipe-major has to assume that pipers will properly hemp their instrument and play on auto-pilot when they hit the field. Not a dang thing he can do if they don’t execute like they have been trained and know how to.

“Bottle” is something that cannot be taught, but can only be learned through experience. But Cardinals fans’ bottles have been corked up for decades, and how sweet the champagne rain was early this morning.

Making the grade

The news of the RSPBA upgrades was more interesting than usual because the organization took it upon itself once again to grade four bands that aren’t members of the RSPBA. It’s especially interesting given that the RSPBA agreed not to grade ANAPBA bands, and to respect the recommendations of their home associations.

The agreement stems back to 2001, when the RSPBA informed the Prince Charles band that it would have to compete in Grade 2, not Grade 1, two weeks before the World’s. Prince Charles had been upgraded by its home association, entered Grade 1 at the World’s, and then was relegated months after the band had submitted its entry.

What if the tables were turned? Let’s say an RSPBA member Grade 1 band travels to North America – something that happens once every 20 years of so. The band competes at the biggest pipe band contest in North America. Let’s say the band, which let’s also say is a recent World Champion, has a few poor runs on the day because they couldn’t handle the heat. The band finishes last in one event and second-last in the other.

That winter, the Music Board of the association that sanctions the event recommends, based solely on the band’s performances at that contest, that the band should be downgraded, and the organization’s Executive then approves the re-grading, insinuating that the band should now be Grade 2.

Imagine the upset.

But it would never happen. First of all, it’s not right. Second, the guest band is a guest; it is a member of the RSPBA, and it competes in the grade assigned to it by its home organization. Grading should be done only by a band’s home association.

Why the RSPBA has taken it upon itself once again to interfere in the grading processes of other associations is a mystery. If RMM or the Gaelic College, for example, were not upgraded by the BCPA or the ACPBA, and those bands entered an RSPBA contest in their 2006 grade, then one would hope that the RSPBA would raise its concerns with those bands’ home associations, and work towards a resolution – respectful of the decision-making capabilities and high standards of others.

Credible accreditation

Last Friday I went through a full day of written and oral examinations for the Canadian Public Relations Society’s Accredited Public Relations (APR) program, a lengthy and exhaustive standardized test for the profession in which I’ve worked for 15 years. It was a terrific learning experience, and, inevitably, I connected it back to my alter-world of piping and drumming.

Public relations is not an exact science. Some would call it an art. The challenge of creating an accreditation program for PR professionals is actually similar to the examination processes that I’ve seen and been through, and now help to develop and uphold, for judging solo piping and bands. Piping and drumming are musical arts. We constantly struggle to measure them in competition. And we constantly struggle trying to create standards and certifications for adjudicators, so that competitors can be sure that they’re being assessed by those who not only have played to high-competency, but understand the theoretical and fundamental aspects of the art, and are able to communicate their judgment in writing.

In piping and drumming, even those with little playing ability somehow end up judging in unregulated regions. Even after all these years, Scotland’s solo scene is rife with jokers on benches. In PR, anyone can hang out a shingle and declare themselves “professional.” It’s a primary reason why many piping contests and the PR industry overall suffer from credibility problems.

In the PR industry, relatively few practitioners actually go through the APR process. Often it is considered unnecessary by those who are already successful in the business. There is a tendency by some to be suspicious of trying to put an inexact science into a pass/fail test, assessed by those who may well not have near the breadth of professional experience and success of many of those taking the exams.

The world piping and drumming community is full of great competitors who are unwilling to go through judging exams. At any RSPBA major, the audience is dotted with former world champion pipe-majors, leading-drummers, pipe-sergeants and long-serving members of top Grade 1 bands. Sometimes they just don’t want to judge, but many out of principle refuse to adhere to certification standards. It’s a shame that they don’t understand that such a process is not intended to bring their experience into question, but is designed to create credibility through standards – something that every discipline needs if it wants to be taken seriously.

Despite my 15 years in the PR business, working with one of the country’s most successful firms and having a few dozen industry awards to my name, I may well not pass the APR accreditation exam. Regardless, I accept and understand the value of accreditation to uphold a standard for a profession that is inherently inexact and unregulated. But if I pass, those to whom I provide counsel have more assurance that I actually know what I’m talking about. It will help to differentiate me from the jokers.

When it comes to certification for solo and band judging, I wish more potential piping and drumming and ensemble adjudicators felt the same way.

The Boat Time

Nothing like being at the back of the canoe with my two favourite paddlers. I’ve posted shots of the Humber River, which flows right through our Toronto neighbourhood, and here’s the lovely Annabel surveying the still vibrant fall colours.

I could easily connect this image to piping (since it’s ultimately how it came about), but I’ll spare the details for now!

Funky hot Molina

Okay, so it was in seven, not six, games, but what a game it was and what a Series it will be! (Cardinals over the Tigers in seven.)

Pies

1. Pecan. The king of all pies. The Albert Pujols of pies. The GS McLennan of flans. The Willie McCallum of tarts (um, wait a sec . . .).
2. Key lime. Must be made with real key limes.
3. Rhubarb + strawberry. Not big on mixed fruits, but this really works. Easy on the sugar.
4. Meat. Nothing beats a greezy meat pie with HP, mushy peas and a bottle of Irn Bru (except of course for pecan, key lime and rhubarb-strawberry).
5. Pumpkin. None of that canned stuff, either. Real poached pumpkin, please.

The business of publishing

I’ve thought a lot recently about the notion of piping and drumming associations being in the business of serious publishing. Every print magazine for the piping and drumming world is connected with some association or business. In fact, the market is severely over-served, given the relatively small size of the potential audience.

With most pipe band associations and organizations feeling that they have to produce a regular print magazine, per capita it’s akin to the City of New York having a few thousand daily newspapers, or a thousand magazines vying for the world’s cycling audience. It does not make sense.

Twenty or so years ago there were the College of Piping’s Piping Times, the RSPBA’s Pipe Band and the PPBSO’s Canadian Piper & Drummer. Today, I can count at least 10 print publications, each connected with an association.

Associations of course need to communicate to their members, and there’s significant intangible marketing value in a well put-together magazine. But many organizations seem to be bogged down with producing these periodicals.

I assembled the Piper & Drummer for 18 years, and the publication was considered by many to be the best available. But I know how much it cost to produce it. I know how difficult it was to attract paid subscriptions. I know first hand that an expensive, high quality print magazine is frequently a convenient scapegoat for financial woes.

The business of piping and drumming associations is piping and drumming. Sure, communicate with members, but leave the serious publishing to those who know the business of serious publishing.

Play ball

Mets vs. Cardinals: Cardinals in six.

A’s vs. Tigers: Tigers in four.

Tigers vs. Cardinals in a reprise of the ’68 classic: Cardinals in seven.

Do the hustle

I’m always amazed at piping and drumming judges flying all over the place, especially those who have a non-piping/drumming job. I can see getting to a judge a high-level event with stellar playing, but so many contests are made up of lower-grade competitors, one after another, all day, with largely the same problems to critique. It’s hard work and the pay is usually not much of an incentive.

But obviously to each his/her own. Go for it, and maybe using up vacation time to judge is satisfying to some. If I ever retire from work, I’m sure I’ll change my tune.

What really amazes me, though, are judges who actually go out and advertise their services and availability to events and associations, hustling judging gigs. Seriously. This happens. Again, to each his own, but that’s just a bit unseemly. It’s like a competing piper asking to be invited to a contest. It’s not the way it works. Invitations to competitions, whether to competitors or judges, are based on excellence and reputation, no?

Sure, eager and available judges should make sure that events and associations know how to reach them. But they should also wait for the call. I’d be really suspicious of a judge who tries to hustle up judging jobs. It speaks volumes.

Reap what you sow

After three full days I guess I should talk about the how the launch of pipes|drums has gone. So far so good. Paid subscriptions already number in the hundreds, and there are about twice that number of readers who have registered, I hope so that they will use the Comments feature available on the majority of articles.

I’ve received many messages about the name change, which only two other people in the piping world knew about before it was unveiled on Monday evening. It was difficult to part with the previous name, a brand that I had created, designed, trademarked and fostered for 18 years. But after consulting with one of Canada’s top trademark and intellectual property lawyers the decision was to take a different direction.

And it seems to have been the right thing to do. The “value” of a brand that is solely on the net is perhaps much less than what I had imagined, especially since redirecting visitors to the pipes|drums URL is invisible. No one appears to care too much about what it’s called, and the content, as always, is the key to its success.

That pipes|drums is independent, as I’ve said before, is very important. Even if the publication had retained the Piper & Drummer name, it would carry the baggage of the PPBSO’s print publication, which the organization’s executive administrative group contends it wants to produce in some print form in the future. It’s actually a relief to be free of that misperception of association that some people inevitably had with Piper & Drummer Online. I can only assume and hope that the PPBSO’s executive based its decision after polling its members.

But the whole success of the name-change makes me think of pipe band names. Top bands used to cling to their titles, often refusing to allow sponsors to encroach on their identity. The thought was that judges would be confused and they wouldn’t get the results they deserved. Bands, too, have shown that it’s the content that matters. No one really cares what the name is.

Produce the goods: reap the rewards.

One for the conspiracy theorists

The rather incredible snafu on the 2006 World’s CD is sure fodder for the conspiracy theorists (who comprise about 90 per cent of the piping world).

How could this happen? Is it a secret SLOT-plot? Is it a ruse to tame the Scottish Lion? If you think about it, it must have been an honest mistake. Costly, sure, but honest.

Leaving off the SL78FH’s medley creates a big gap in marketability. Everyone likes to hear what that band comes out with from year-to-year, so why leave them off?

But, didn’t they play the same medley as in 2005? Could it be a slap on the wrist, with the message, “Yuze boys better have something new next year, or else.”

But, by that token, that would mean that Field Marshal Montgomery’s reprised medley should be omitted, too. But they won, so you can’t keep that off the CD.

And then there’s the pro-SLOT angle. Is this a subliminibal message that Dublin’s heroes should have featured more prominently in the prizes? A band so nice they played it twice?

Or maybe it’s sartorial collusion: sell more green kilts at the Scottish Lion shop with additional funds kicking back to the sponsorship.

Oh, the intrigue!

Get help here

A Toronto shop just for pipers and drummers.

Canmore

Been to Stone Mountain. Gone to Lochearnhead, Tobermory and Kincardine. They’re all scenic games, and I thought nothing could touch the beauty of Luss . . . until I went to Canmore, Alberta, this past weekend.

The games park is at 4500 feet above sea-level, and the mountains at this part of the Canadian Rockies rise above 10,000. The peaks of the games’ tent mirror the mountains (and the beer flows like the Bow River).

Only about an hour’s drive from Calgary’s airport, this is a piping and drumming event to behold. Great scenery. Brilliant atmosphere. Excellent ceilidh.

I haven’t been to every contest, but I can’t imagine anything surpassing Canmore for surroundings.

Pure employment

Yesterday we happened upon the Toronto International Busking Festival, a three-day event held downtown on Front Street at St. Lawrence Market. It was loads of fun and brought back memories of busking on Princes Street in Edinburgh for a few years in the late 1980s.

What a good time that was. Any piper who hasn’t at some point put out the box and played is missing the experience of pure employment. I used to say back then that it’s the most honest form of work. You play, and people pay you what they think it was worth. If they didn’t like it, they move on. If they stop to listen, they pay you something if they can. If they don’t have any money, then at least they clap or tell you how much they liked it.

One busker yesterday – a contortionist who, after squeezing himself through a flaming, unstrung squash racket, balanced a running lawnmower on his chin while the audience threw heads of lettuce at the whirring blades – said as much during his act. Contrary to what many may believe, buskers are very proud people who busk because they choose to. People who enjoy their act but then just walk away are rude, and have the full contempt of the busker. We gave him $10.

But I remember the summer of 1987 when I was in full busking mode, usually working with a great piper who is now the pipe-major of a very good Grade 1 band. I was seeing Captain John MacLellan weekly for light music lessons, and Mrs. MacLellan would often pass us on Princes Street and place a pound coin or two in the box, saying, “Don’t tell the Captain I’m giving you the house-keeping money.”

As it turned out, John MacLellan was one of the judges on the Gold Medal at Inverness. When I approached the bench to compete he said with a wink, “I hope you brought your pipe box,” which of course was going through my head during the whole tune.

I didn’t mind then and I don’t mind now. As with this blog entry, I talk freely of my time as a busker – getting paid basically to practice – and stress the honesty of the job to anyone who cares. And I always, but always, pay buskers what I think their work is worth, pure and simple.

Scattered judging

Rather than have yet another Piper & Drummer story being discussed elsewhere, here’s a link to the recent Feature by Tim Murphy analyzing the World’s piping results using scatter-plots. http://www.piperanddrummer.com/features/default.asp?articleID=6176

Would love to see readers’ thoughts!

Travel issues

A few readers have suggested that a Blogpipe thread on the travel woes of pipers and drummers trying to get to or from Scotland should be started. One Grade 1 pipe-major even said that he’d like to see for once a Scottish band experience travel that wasn’t just a bus to a contest.

Here’s the link to the Canberra Burns Club Pipe Band plight: http://www.piperanddrummer.com/features/default.asp?articleID=6181.

Feel free to chime in with your tails of pipe band travel.

Dark clouds ahead?

Three CDs, two DVDs, a BBC TV show, £6 for a program, £7 to get in the gate, £12 to listen to the Grade 1 contest, stowed-out and sold-out beer tents . . . and the World Pipe Band Champion receives £1000.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Unqualified disaster

While those not at the contest know of the massive spreads between the two piping judges in the Grade 1 qualifying contest at the World’s, it occurs to me that those actually on the field probably don’t yet know the details.

Good thing. If they did, there might be a riot.

Here we go again. Judges being so far apart that it boggles the mind. Yes, yes, it’s all subjective, but come on. This is the World Pipe Band Championship, and if judges can’t be reasonably close in their opinions, then what hope is there? If there must be only four judges (there should be at least twice that number), then they must be allowed to discuss their thoughts before they put in a final mark.

But they’re not allowed, and so another fine mess and another year of second-guessing and bitter grousing will help people all winter nurse their wrath to keep it warm.

Here’s a prediction: if this problem is not solved – either by expanding the panel, or re-introducing consultative judging – even more non-UK bands will opt out of the 2007 World’s than the 60 per cent of North American bands that stayed home this year. It’s just way too much effort and money to commit to such a questionable process.

Caber fare

The Glengarry Highland Games apparently are selling advertising space on their cabers. An insurance company seems to have purchased the space. Someone I was with on the field at the contest suggested that it might be prime for a Viagra spot.

Fit like

Watching the Tour de France, and being a keen cyclist, I can’t help but realize how a bike is a physical extension of the rider. There’s hardly another non-motorized mechanical invention that is so intertwined with the human body as the bicycle. Proper fit, form and function of a bike are everything to the success of the rider.

And so too the Highland bagpipe. I can’t think of another musical instrument that needs to be fitted so finely to the player’s body and preferences. You don’t change the dimensions of a trumpet to suit the length of the player’s arms. You can’t get a piano with smaller keys for a small-sized pianist (keep your snickers to yourself, please). A tuba’s a tuba.

But the Highland pipes are different. The size of bag, the length of blow-stick, the position of the chanter, the aperture of the mouthpiece – all should be altered to fit the player, so that the instrument can be played better. Personal preference and sensible fit are integral to getting the most from the instrument.

You see pipers hunched over their blowpipe all the time, or with their heads cocked to the side, or straining to reach the chanter. Not only does their music (and their listeners) suffer, but they run a greater risk of repetitive strain injury. Like a cyclist with aching knees because the reach to the pedals is too long, that numbness in the hands is more often than not due to the wrist being at an awkward angle because a bag is sized incorrectly.

The Highland pipes are probably the world’s most individualistic instrument. A good piper will seem physically connected to his/her bagpipe and, inevitably, winning the race.