Bagpipes and Inuit Tradition

People who love bagpipe music also love to deliberate what makes good bagpipe music. It happens in solo piping all the time (“Ooh, did you hear how s/he played the first variation of Mary MacLeod? Rubbish. Clipped to hell…”).

But, really, its when pipe band music is talked about that we most often hear the most intense debates. I guess its due, in part, because there’s more people involved. I think, though, its more the sports-like, hyper-competitive, team elements that characterize the pipe band movement that makes for the fertile ground of relentless pipe band music debate.
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Those Who Can, Teach

The world’s population is roughly 6,697,254,041. Of those people, I figure, based on what I know, what I’ve read and what I sense to be true (so we’re talking science here) there’s about 100,000 of us Great Highland Bagpipers (GHBs).

And what’s that percentage? GHBs represent about 0.0014931492726393354 of the world’s population. More or less.

Should pipers feel vulnerable? I think I really refer to the pipe and not the piper so, I put it this way: is the playing of the GHB an at-risk art form?
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Strafe Strafferson: What’s with the Crazy Piping Notes?

There’s a crazy phenomenon in the piping world [ok, yes, there’s more than one, but I’m only talking about one of them here]. This phenomenon has to do with what might be described as the crazed strafing of notes on a pipe chanter; the random rat-a-tat-tat of notes on the chanter. This sort of unhinged insanity sounds like this: “upanddownthescaleupanddownthescalerandomtoptobottomnotesrandomtoptobottomnotes”.
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What Makes a Good Pipe Band Score Sheet?

Having been around the game a while it sort of stands to reason that I will have seen a whackload of pipe band “score sheets”; you know, those near-impossible to read pages (sometimes due to penmanship) passed to bands following the announcement of results. And yay, reason prevails: I have.

It’s on these pages that bands usually learn what adjudicators thought of their competitive performance – and, by the way, it’s from these pages that pipebandspeople generally judge adjudicators. I’m a sentimental sort, believe it or not, and have, truth be told, quite a few pages dating back to my earliest times with bands laying around the old archives – and some recent artefacts, too.
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Gimme Shelter

This is Worlds week and as usual the city of Glasgow is thronging with pipers and drummers and all kinds of related Piping Live! events. It’s looking like a damp week (to put it mildly) is in store for pipers and drummers. Between “heavy rain showers”, “light rain showers” and “light rain” the cape carriers of the pipe band world will be sure to be under-employed. A good thing a lot of the Piping Live! events are either indoors or under cover.
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Hum Bug Pipers

Of the thousands of tunes made for playing on the Great Highland Bagpipe, there’s hardly a Christmas tune in the lot. Pipers write tunes for their pals, mums, dads, bands, teachers, to commemorate “in” jokes and happenings, birthdays, retirements, battles won and lost and places. But not much for Christmas – or Hogmanay or New Years for that matter!
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Scott MacAulay

What sad news that the dynamic force of nature known as Scott MacAulay has died. I’ve known him for pretty much as long as I have been piping, and, I guess, because of that, I’d expected him to be around for, at least, as long as I was. I hadn’t spent much time with Scott over the last number of years; like so many people we know, especially friends, we take them for granted: “I’ll call tomorrow”, “We’ll get together soon”.
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Overcoming Real Challenges (John Wilson)

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. 
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La Dolce Bagpipes

It may be a freakish 25 degrees in Southern Ontario today but I know summer is well and truly over. The leaves are turning colour (and filling my backyard awaiting my raking pleasure) and days, sadly, are so much shorter.

Time now for a bit of a piping break and time to get back to these pages. There’s so much exciting stuff happening; so much to talk about. First: I must tell you a little about Italy and the world’s most enthusiastic bagpipers.

Last week I returned from 8 days in sunny Italia (I’ve nearly recovered from my “jetlag” – seemingly exacerbated when traveling in wine growing regions).

First, though, I have to say I’ve been fantastically lucky in my life to have traveled all over the world on a good few piping trips but this one? One of the best ever.

OK, sure, Italy has other places at a distinct disadvantage: great food, great wine, exciting history, scenery that would bring a tear to a glass eye (thank you, Billy Connelly) and art and architecture that defies description. It was the people, though, that made this trip (cliche, maybe, but true).

Along with Roddy MacLeod , Alberto Massi and Stevie Kilbride I was invited by the Associazione Piper Italiani to participate in the Bagpipe Italian Group’s (BIG) 5th Gathering. This gathering of around 60 pipers was to occur in Tuscany, in a small village, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa. Sure, that’s no Roseneath (Scotland) or Embro (Ontario), but I figured I would struggle on and do what I could to make the most of it — aand I think I did!

Duilio Vigliotti is the dynamo behind BIG and Associazione Piper Italiani. He is any organization’s dream: smart, energetic, creative, visionary, driven, positive – a real “good guy”. From what I can see it’s his foresight and organization that have brought a focus to much of the good that is happening in Italian piping. Yes, there’s great teaching happening thanks, especially, to the inexhaustible, Alberto Massi (any country or association would be well-advised to invite Alberto for a workshop or learning session – there is no one like him – and I mean that in the very best way) but for me, this time, it was the fresh, almost child-like joie de vivre, that fills the Italian piping scene – and make no mistake, there is a “scene”. It was all a real tonic for me.

Watching Duilio work reminds me how important our organizational volunteers really are for both the preservation and growth of our art. So often we – or me – take that for granted.

For attendees the Tuscany session was at once a weekend away and a learning opportunity – even a competition was included. But more than this: it was a “gathering”. A gathering of like-minded musicians, a gathering of friends. All keenly enthusiastic, all in proverbial “sponge” mode, soaking up all that was to be learned.The atmosphere: relaxed, nurturing , collegial, fun.The focus on the instrument, on the music, on learning: intense, driven – a real thirst to move to the next level.

The Scots have given the world an awful lot. For many it’s David Hume and Adam Smith that spring to mind – or curling, or golf or whisky. But, my God, bagpipes! I just cannot get over the influence and effect of this instrument on people everywhere. What is it? I surely don’t know. But … I’ll aim to write more about Italian piping, Italian pipers and some of what I learned from my visit.

I assure you, I came away from Italy with far more than I left.

M.

Tempo

The other morning I received note from 16 year old piper. He was looking for advice about couple of bagpipe “issues” with his main challenge revolving around tempo. No matter how hard he tried his march playing was always “hurky jerky”. That’s a new phrase for me but I picked up straight away what he meant – I think.
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