I’ve always maintained there exists a binary relationship with respect to most people’s reaction to bagpipe music: either they love it or they hate it. In my experience, the former are usually very gracious and make an effort to tell me how much they appreciate the sound, while the latter, in another display of graciousness, tend to keep their annoyance to themselves. Sometimes, enough is enough, though, for those who find the skirl of bagpipes abrasive to the maximum; and this was clearly the case when someone in Edinburgh called the police to put an end to this man’s playing: ‘Noisy’ piper ..read more

“Music [Mu] = Rhythm [R] + Melody [Me]” -Maj. J.K. Cairns, London, Ont. So, Mu = (R & Me) My reflections: If you maintain R despite Me being AFUed, everyone except the trained-ear will still be well pleased. But if you FU R–despite a heathy expression of Me–the presentation is a horror show for everyone. Obviously, you want to nail both (R and Me) for the most copacetic Mu. The post Symbolic representation of Music appeared first on Doug Yates Bagpiping ..read more

A tribute to the Pipes and Drums of The Citadel, just up the road in Hampton Park. The post Christmas in Charleston… appeared first on Doug Yates Bagpiping ..read more

Recently, Yates Piping teamed up with Fox Events to provide music at a beautiful wedding at Middleton Place. Foul weather threatened for most of weekend, but rain never came, the bride and groom enjoying a lovely ceremony in the scenic octagonal garden on the historic estate. The bagpipes were a surprise for the father of the bride, with Yates sneaking out of the hedges to play shortly after the couple was announced.         The post Wedding at Middleton Place appeared first on Doug Yates Bagpiping ..read more

I read a heartbreaking story about two young American pipers, Campbell Webster and Eryk Bean, who lost their vintage pipes at the US/Canada border after competing at the annual Maxville/Montreal games in Canada games earlier this summer. Many vintage bagpipes are adorned with elephant ivory, a purely cosmetic enhancement that has no effect on the sound of the instrument. Obviously, no ivory has been used in the making of bagpipes since it has been outlawed in the commercial world, but owners of vintage pipes are entitled to maintain these instruments much like the owner of, say, an antique hai ..read more

Somewhat oddly, I going to start by posing the simple question, “why a blog in the first place?” Of course, most people don’t bother asking this one. Blogs are ubiquitous today. A better exercise, one could suggest, would be to argue against having one at all. I have always been given to asking these kind of questions, for better or worse. And this is exactly the kind of place where I can take up a bit of space to meditate on some the philosophical implications of the explosion of weblogs over the past several years (inasmuch as this phenomenon really can be said to have implications). I think ..read more