Allemande Left (Nod to the Judge)
March 7, 2010 on 9:18 am by Michael Grey | In Solo Piping, Tips | No CommentsLast night’s final of the Toronto Branch of the Pipers’ & Pipe Band Society of Ontario’s amateur knock-out was a first-class event. The morning after listening to a dozen excellent amateur pipers go through their paces got me to thinking. OK. I was thinking about this last night, but I’m still thinking about it this morning.
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10 Favourite Musical Memories of the Noughts
December 29, 2009 on 9:18 pm by Michael Grey | In News, Pipe Bands, Solo Piping, Stories | Comments OffYikes. Its two days to 2010. Cliché alert: it seems like yesterday … we were all freaking out about the apocalyptic possibilities of a new millennium. Then, as now, I was working in the technology field and clearly recall being assigned a “war room” shift. For those not familiar with the tech business staple of system recovery, the “war room” is a small group of multi-skilled people charged with restarting failed computer systems. I was the scribe of the group (an important role, of course). With black marker at the ready I was set to record the crashing systems and falling sky. Continue reading 10 Favourite Musical Memories of the Noughts…
Aged to Perfection (Ravi Shankar)
October 19, 2009 on 8:57 pm by Michael Grey | In Music, Solo Piping, Stories | Comments OffI had a great night last Saturday. I was treated to a concert of Indian classical music. And what a treat. None other than the world’s greatest exponent of the art was centre stage, sitar in hands. Ravi Shankar, the eighty-nine years old living legend, and his twenty-eight years old daughter, the remarkable, Anoushka, enthralled the sold out audience with non-stop musical virtuosity.
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Tea with Lord Lovat
September 2, 2009 on 7:04 pm by Michael Grey | In Pipe Bands, Solo Piping, Stories | 6 CommentsWhen I think of early September I think of the Northern Meeting in Inverness, Scotland. The grand daddy of all solo bagpipe competitions. It’s the number one event on the solo piper’s calendar; or, maybe more correctly, the solo piper with the most experience, the nimblest fingers and s/he amongst the select global one hundred and fifty or so pipers who aspire to `the medals`: the oldest, most venerable prizes offered in the Highland bagpipe world. Of all the indelible memories I have of times spent at the Northern Meeting none stand out more than the one not directly related to bagpipes: tea with Lord Lovat.
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Smiling on the Judges
May 29, 2009 on 1:43 pm by Michael Grey | In Humour, Pipe Bands, Solo Piping, Stories, Tips | Comments OffI am not a big fan of judging. I mean by that, that I don’t generally get a lot of heel-clicking, raise-your-glass glee out of judging, assessing, pipe band (or solo piping) competitions. Done well, judging, or “adjudicating”, takes great concentration – in fact, its damned hard work. Hats off to those who have for years undertaken the judging challenge with aplomb and undisputable fairness.
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Easter Baggs
April 7, 2009 on 6:28 pm by Michael Grey | In Music, Solo Piping, Stories | 3 CommentsIn December I wrote about the dearth of Christmas tunes composed specifically for the bagpipe. I came upon this (slightly wierd) antique Easter postcard – see below – and was struck by a similar thought. Easter is the highest of Christian holidays and [Great Highland] pipers have traditionally been overwhelmingly Christian. Where are our joyous Easter tunes? Is there an Easter tune made for the Great Highland Bagpipe?
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Pibroch Piobaireachd
April 3, 2009 on 10:17 am by Michael Grey | In Music, Solo Piping, Tips, Whinges | 4 CommentsWe know there’s politics everywhere. And, when given the option, the way we choose to spell words is no exception. A Canadian, say, living in the United States, might exert quiet subversion by hanging on to Canadian spelling of any number of words. A note to his boss might read, “…followed up on the neighbourhood initiative; successful in addressing the signage colour controversy; local employees in good humour…”. That Canuck is implicitly saying to his American boss, “I’m Canadian, I’m not like you, I spell bigger, better…”. He’s also implicitly proclaiming to his boss he’s an asshole. But that’s a tangent of a different colour.
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A Fresh Look at Delivering a Clean Performance
March 15, 2009 on 9:39 am by Michael Grey | In Humour, Pipe Bands, Solo Piping, Tips | Comments OffThe Swedish golder, Henrik Stenson, stole some of the shimmering glow around Tiger Woods’ return last week. You’ve probably seen the story, a quirky breath of fresh air amongst all the gloomy stuff. From Reuters, “Stenson’s wayward drive on the third hole landed in muddy terrain near a water hazard and he decided to get down to basics rather than play the rest of his round in muddy clothes”.
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Booze and Bands
March 3, 2009 on 5:50 pm by Michael Grey | In Music, Pipe Bands, Solo Piping, Stories | 2 CommentsI happened across a really interesting radio show over the Christmas holidays. The virtuoso Celtic flautist, Chris Norman, hosted an hour-long documentary on CBC radio (”The Pure Drop“) – all devoted to the deep (and evidently real) connection of alcohol and Celtic music-making. He travelled all over the place and interviewed loads of people who unanimously supported Chris’s contention that booze and jigs, to put it crassly, went beyond stereotype. Continue reading Booze and Bands…
Tam O’Shanter Suite
February 23, 2009 on 9:12 pm by Michael Grey | In Music, Pipe Bands, Solo Piping, Stories, Video | 8 CommentsTo this day the “Tam O’Shanter Suite” has been one of my most interesting and challenging projects. The recording here, from “Shambolica!” and tarted up visually for youtube, was the first track I tackled when going about making the Shambolica! project happen. The whole “Tam O’Shanter” experience (meaning my efforts to create this track) tapped in to over 30 musicians and two different studios. In the end there were nine of us – and the track all recorded in one studio. Continue reading Tam O’Shanter Suite…
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