There are apparently no fewer than 19 musical instruments that can be played with one hand (or no hands!). Among them, as you’ll likely know, are the trumpet, trombone, harmonica and didgeridoo. I’ve made, and recorded, a jig called “The Left-handed Piper” that can be played with just one hand – the left – here from “Cuts from Traditional Cloth” recording – 2’48” mark. But even then, two are needed with one hand to cover the bottom holes of the chanter – barring the use of a few pieces of tape. But, really, a two-parted jig. Who would bother taping up the bottom hand holes of a chanter just t ..read more

It’s the last day of August and, for the second time in about a month, I’ve found myself in the stunning pastoral countryside of rural Germany – for piping. What else! On this occasion I’m teaching at a school organized by two of the German piping scenes’ most energetic – and impactful – movers and shakers: Andy Hambsch and Nils Bosshammer. Andy and Nils are a formidable team: between them they manage three piping schools across Germany and Switzerland. Like the Bagpipe Association of Germany’s July summer school at the 1000-year-old Breuberg Castle (about an hour’s drive west of Frankfurt) t ..read more

It’s the last day of August and, for the second time in about a month, I’ve found myself in the stunning pastoral countryside of rural Germany – for piping. What else! On this occasion I’m teaching at a school organized by two of the German piping scenes’ most energetic – and impactful – movers and shakers: Andy Hambsch and Nils Bosshammer. Andy and Nils are a formidable team: between them they manage three piping schools across Germany and Switzerland. Like the Bagpipe Association of Germany’s July summer school at the 1000-year-old Breuberg Castle (about an hour’s drive west of Frankfurt) t ..read more

In undertaking some other work related to this coming weekend’s North American Championships, the Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville, Ontario, I stumbled on an interesting broadsheet page from Glengarry County Archives. This edition of the paper is full of interesting facts and colour related to the 1949 games, including, one back-page story headline, a real eye-waterer for pipers, especially: “Ottawa Girl Loses 3 Fingers While on Vacation”. You will see most of the games’ headline reporting lands on the front page (photo from front page included here). In reviewing this it strikes me that ..read more

I’ve always been a big fan of “roundish” bagpipe reels. Not every reel suits this style but when I say “roundish” I’m talking about tunes that are less dot-cut and more even; that is, where time is more evenly distributed. In saying “dot-cut” I’m referring to a figure of notes where a note steals time from the note next to it and so the thief note is held longer than the victim note (and apologies for the strained metaphor). Examples of tunes that don’t ideally suit much rounding out might be G S McLennan’s Mrs MacPherson of Inveran, D C Mather’s Loch Carron, the traditional Pretty Marion, Pe ..read more

Aside from getting a front row seat to good music, the best part about travelling around the place judging pipers and drummers is the people you meet. At its heart a good pipe band is a social club and that goes, too, for the judging game. While judges in most places are compensated for expenses and receive a fee, most don’t sit in judgement for the money. Travelling to games usually involves some degree of tedium – a little traffic here, a crabby border agent there. Its new friends made and old friendships renewed that is the best part of judging (that and the always five star accommodation ..read more

My first time attending the annual Livingstone Invitational piping contest was 1980. Then I was a kid in senior amateur solo piping – “grade one”. Like now, I was a keener. Loved the piping. Like now, I thought I knew a lot more than I did. I was then taught by Bill Livingstone, Jr. – so likely had a sort of Livingstone bias: his Old Man – the founder of the gathering – was a great character, and, I have to say, I’m grateful to have known Bill, Sr. a little) In 1980 I recall the contest as excellent – pure entertainment. Then there was no piobaireachd, simply – “simply” – a march, strathspey ..read more

In his autobiography, “A Professional Piper in Peace and War” (1979), John Wilson wrote that he considered his composition, the six-parted reel, Tom Kettles, his “finest composition. It’s a technically tricky tune, full of interest – and original melody. As I’ve mentioned before, for me it straddles the line between hornpipe and reel, with maybe the reel vibe edging out that of the hornpipe by a hair. It’s a happy-sounding tune with a bright and lyrical – almost song-like – quality to it. Tom Kettles was clearly a person Wilson admired a great deal. Kettles was a well-regarded reed-maker and ..read more

Here’s a couple of tunes that number among my favourite: Inveran, made by one of the greatest pipers – dare I say musician – to ever live, George Stewart McLennan and Millbank Cottage by William Dumbreck, a man who held the title of Pipe Major in two regiments: The Black Watch and The Royal Scots. This style of tune – intricate and heavily embellished with many technical figures – is a branch of pipe music that we can safely say was invented by pipers. Pipers love strathspeys but we know they were born of the fiddle. Jigs? Who knows but they likely sprung from any number of fiddlers, whistle-p ..read more

A piece of music that is in the back pocket of most experienced players of piobaireachd is the tune, Maol Donn. Better known, maybe, as “MacCrimmon’s Sweetheart”. It’s a beautifully assembled composition that sits perfectly in a major key of the Great Highland Bagpipe’s tonal centre. In the context of piobaireachd composition, it’s a very old tune, likely composed in the early part of the 18th century, a golden age of piobaireachd creation. At around 12 minutes in length it’s just-right for an around-the-games sort of tune for competition. The Armagh-based traditional harpist, Simon Chadwick ..read more