The Objective is to play for ten (five) minutes without “hesitation, deviation or repetition”.

The Purpose is to build pipers’ stamina.  The idea comes from  recent practices/workshops when even senior pipers have expressed an inability to play for extended periods.  Getting pipers to play multiple tunes in a practice should help build stamina.

The challenge is personal.  This is not a competition with other pipers but is intended as a benchmark for pipers to aspire to as part of their development.

Notes (click here for a hard copy of the “rules”):

• the time does not include tuning time which is limited to a max of 3 minutes.
• pipers must play at least three different time signatures/genres of “light music” (ceòl beag):
  • slow airs;
  • common time marches (2/4, 3/4, 4/4);
  • compound time marches (6/8, 9/8, 12/8);
  • slow airs;
  • dances (strathspeys, reels, jigs and hornpipes).
• this can be reduced to two for the five minute challenge.
• hesitation is pausing for more than a beat or two, or multiple chokes of the chanter.
• deviation is a significant mistake (small lapses such as missed doublings don’t count).
• repetition is the repeating of a tune.
• note that single part tunes such as Amazing Grace and Flower of Scotland may be repeated once as that is a common format for them (playing a third time would be repetition).
• note also that repeating the first part of a tune such as Setting a Course For Lewis where the normal format is to play first part, second part and finish with the first part is not repetition.