Summer Vacation
May 29, 2008 on 6:17 pm by mike | In Stories, Photographs | No Comments In honour of the looming and long-awaited Canadian summer I post for your edification and enjoyment a truly archival Grey family photo - summer vacation a good few years ago, Lake Massawippi, Quebec.
Continue reading Summer Vacation…
It Should Never Be a Chore to Play
April 30, 2008 on 9:23 pm by mike | In Stories, Tips | 5 Comments You sometimes make your luck and you sometimes chance on luck but however it comes I can tell you I’ve had a fair bit of it when it comes to tuition. The 20th century master, Captain John MacLellan, is one teacher who helped me a lot; he left a big impression. Of his many memorable pieces of advice one that stays close to the surface is this:
Continue reading It Should Never Be a Chore to Play…
A Jig, “Jenny Hazzard”: Score & Sound File
April 8, 2008 on 10:05 pm by mike | In Stories, Music, Solo Piping, Score & Sound File | 4 Comments I’ve had a couple of notes from people looking for “more jigs”. So for the jig hounds here is a 4-parted 6/8 jig, “Jenny Hazzard”, from “Old & New Tunes“, published 1995. I’ve played this in solo jig competitions with success and I’m pretty sure Peel Police Pipe Band played a couple of parts in a competition medley when I was PM in the mid 90s.
Continue reading A Jig, “Jenny Hazzard”: Score & Sound File…
A Great Spirit
April 5, 2008 on 7:40 pm by mike | In Stories, Music, News | 2 Comments When I decided to start making recordings that went beyond a capella bagpipes a lot of good musical things started happening. One of the best? The chance was created to work with other, non-bagpipe musicians. One of the first musicians - and best - that I’ve worked with is fiddler and violin-playing maestro, Oliver Schroer.
Continue reading A Great Spirit…
My First Outdoor Pipe Band Contest
March 31, 2008 on 9:18 pm by mike | In Stories, Pipe Bands, Photographs | No Comments Southern Ontario in general and the Toronto area especially used to see a lot of teaching happening - and a lot of kids’ pipe bands. I can’t say for certain today how much teaching is going on but I do know we don’t have many “junior” bands around, the kind built for kids.
Continue reading My First Outdoor Pipe Band Contest…
A New Hornpipe: “Sliding into Colintraive” (Score & Sound File)
March 4, 2008 on 8:32 pm by mike | In Stories, News, Solo Piping, Score & Sound File | 4 Comments Yet another tune from the fifth book, “Music for Everybody”; this time, “Sliding into Colintraive“. This hornpipe is the kind of tune my great teacher, the Aberdonian, George Walker, would call, “hillbilly music”. To George, anything uptempo and easily played on the fiddle would usually fall under the hillbilly category. I remember playing what I could at one Toronto Knock-out final: lots of Cape Breton reels to finish - lots of sweat. George was there and came by as I was putting the pipes away, “Ach, metty, fine playin’ but all that hillbilly music!”
Continue reading A New Hornpipe: “Sliding into Colintraive” (Score & Sound File)…
A New March: “The Valley Train” (Score & Sound File)
March 3, 2008 on 8:23 pm by mike | In Stories, Music, Solo Piping, Score & Sound File | 2 Comments Here’s a very simple 3/4 march you may find interesting, “The Valley Train”, another tune from my fifth book. I should really have called it “The Dundas Valley Train”. That might’ve made the title a little more specific, a little more accurate, a little more meaningful - you know, the markers of good composition!
Continue reading A New March: “The Valley Train” (Score & Sound File)…
A Gaelic Proverb
February 28, 2008 on 8:38 pm by mike | In Stories, Tips | 4 Comments When I was hard at it learning Scottish Gaelic I used to get right into the old proverbs - songs, too, thanks to my teacher, Isabel MacDonald. But, I have to say, I loved the proverbs and poems (especially Duncan Ban MacIntyre).
Continue reading A Gaelic Proverb…
Overcoming Real Challenges (John Wilson)
February 25, 2008 on 9:49 pm by mike | In Stories, Tips, Photographs, Solo Piping | 4 Comments One of my prized “piping possessions” is a signed copy of John Wilson’s autobiography, “A Professional Piper in Peace and War“: the front page, inscribed in broad strokes, “With all good wishes, Michael, from the author, John Wilson, 13th, January, 1979″. Sweet.
Continue reading Overcoming Real Challenges (John Wilson)…
Plato Knew Music
February 19, 2008 on 8:21 pm by mike | In Stories, Music | 2 Comments I came across this quote recently; it comes from Book III of Benjamin Jowett’s translation of Plato’s Republic. It speaks to the fraternity of musicians, and, of course, the fraternity of pipers. It makes a person feel good about a lifetime study of music. Like a perfectly tuned low A against a vintage set of sonorous MacDougalls: it resonates:
Continue reading Plato Knew Music…
Dunaber is using WordPress customized and designed by A Eneb Productions.
Entries and comments
feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS.