The Band is again taking part on the Art Deco weekend activities. On Saturday we begin with the street parade at 12pm. We’ll be marching from the Masonic Hotel to Clive Square and then will join the car parade for the return march back up Emerson St. At 2.30pm the Band will be staging its concert – When the Pipers Play – at St Paul’s Church. Many of you will have been to concerts at the church and will understand why we enjoy performing there.
All posts by napierpb
The Ten (Five) Minute Challenge
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.
Piping & Drumming Live – Taradale November
Part 1
- Scotland the Brave, The Rowan Tree, Bonnie Galloway.
- Morag of Dunvegan
- Crags of Tumbledown Mountain, King Charles the 3rd
- Flower of Scotland, From Scotland with Love.
- When the Piper Plays
- Chief Mike Metcalf, RAF100
Part 2
- Highland Cathedral.
- On the Road to Passchendaele.
- The Bells of Dunblane.
- Loch Lomond, The Blue Bells of Scotland, The Bonnie Lass O’ Fyvie O’
- Amazing Grace.
- Scotland the Brave x2
Auld Lang Syne
“Auld Lang Syne” is a Scottish song traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay/New Year’s Eve. The text is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1788, but based on an older Scottish folk song. In 1799 it was set to a traditional pentatonic tune.
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
Chorus
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give me a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.
Chorus
Band Room Upgrade – October 2025
We have again been fortunate to have been given a grant by Pub Charities Ltd, this time to install an air conditioning unit in our drummers’ room, the second largest space in the band rooms.
This area is mainly used by small groups and our drummers but is poorly ventilated resulting in extremes of temperature in summer and in winter. With the installation of an air conditioning unit band members using this space will be able to adjust speed and temperature of the system to manage conditions in the room when practising and teaching.
Pub Charity Limited, which has an extensive history of funding local community organisations, has supported us in the past so we will again be supporting their local venues: Sideline Bar, The Bay View, The Duke Of Gloucester and The Station.
Concert number 4
| Caller Herrin bracket | p26/27 practise at 74bpm |
| Mhari’s Wedding/Heyken/s Serenade | p22/23 |
| The Bells of Dunblane | p9 drummers start, solo piper then all play as written |
| The Mermaid Song | p19 solo piper first part, all play first part once then second part repeated |
| Passchendaele bracket | p34 |
| The Green Hills of Tyrol & When the Battle’s O’er | p31 |
| Hundred Pipers bracket | p58 practise at 70bpm |
| Highland Cathedral | p7 standard setting |
| When the Piper Plays | p19 music intro, solo piper plays 1st part, all play first and second parts, repeating each |
| Amazing Grace | p1 standard concert setting |
| Sands of Kuwait | p68 solo piper plays first part then all play as written |
| Scotland the Brave bracket | p40 standard setting |
Taradale RSA – Tea ‘n Tunes – July 2025
Our next event is the Tea ‘n Tunes concert, now scheduled for Sunday 27 July at 3pm at the Taradale RSA. Band members are preparing a great programme, including solos, small group pieces, and full band items. We’re also pleased to be joined by our friends from the Hawke’s Bay Caledonian Pipe Band, so it’s shaping up to be a fantastic afternoon of piping and drumming.
Green Hills/ Battle’s O’er
Crags of Tumbledown Mtn
Hector the Hero
Highland Cathedral (flash mob style)
Kilworth Hills bracket
Mhari’s Wedding/Heykens Serenade
Amazing Grace
Workshop – June 2025
The workshop about tuning your drones covered the basics.
Sound Theory
Sound consists of longitudinal waves: the particles of the medium through which a sound travels oscillate along the direction in which the sound is travelling. In air, this causes small compressions and rarefactions of pressure, above and below nominal atmospheric pressure. The human ear responds to frequencies between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second, although children can often hear up to 30 kHz whilst older people have a more limited range. Fortunately for the latter, human speech is mainly confined to the region between 300 Hz and 3 kHz.
Bagpipe Drones
Tuning drones is nothing more than blowing your bagpipe to pitch and then adjusting your drones to produce a harmonic sound that blends perfectly with each note on your chanter and with each other. In the simplest example, you want to eliminate all of the “wha wha” that the drones produce when out-of-tune.
Key things to remember
- Pitch will change with time, environment and you
- Always tune when fully sounding the chanter
- Playing low A will tune flat for most pipers
- Play a simple tune (so you’re not multi-tasking)
- Bass drone is most important – provides that rich deep sound
The practical process
- Outside tenor
- Bass drone to tenor
- Middle tenor to the other two
Scotland the Brave
“Scotland the Brave” (Scottish Gaelic – Alba an Àigh) is a Scottish patriotic song, one of three often considered an unofficial Scottish national anthem (the others being “Flower of Scotland”, and “Scots Wha Hae”).
HistoryThe tune probably originated in the late 19th century., the earliest known printing of the tune was in the Utah Musical Bouquet, January 1878, and the earliest known version printed in Scotland is in The National Choir,1891. The lyrics commonly used now were written about 1950 by Scottish journalist Clifford Leonard Clark “Cliff” Hanley
Scotland the Brave
Hark when the night is falling
Hear! Hear the pipes are calling,
Loudly and proudly calling,
Down thro’ the glen.
There where the hills are sleeping,
Now feel the blood a-leaping,
High as the spirits of the old Highland men.
Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.
Soon May the Wellerman Come
“Soon May the Wellerman Come”, also known as “Wellerman” or “The Wellerman”, is a folk song in ballad style first published in New Zealand in the 1970s. The “wellermen” were supply ships owned by the Weller brothers, three merchant traders in the 1800s who were amongst the earliest European settlers of the Otago region of New Zealand. Here are the lyrics for this song.
There once was a ship that put to sea
The name of that ship was a Billy o’ Tea
The winds blew up, her bow dipped down
Blow, my bully boys, blow
[Chorus]
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguin’ is done
We’ll take our leave and go
She had not been two weeks from shore
When down on her, a right whale bore
The Captain called all hands and swore
He’d take that whale in tow
[Chorus]
Before the boat had hit the water
The whale’s tail came up and caught her
All the hands to the side, harpooned and fought her
When she dived down below
[Chorus]
No line was cut, no whale was freed
The Captain’s mind was not on greed
But he belonged to the whaleman’s creed
She took that ship in tow
[Chorus]
For 40 days or even more
The line went slack then tight once more
All boats were lost, there were only four
But still that whale did go
As far as I’ve heard, the fight’s still on
The line’s not cut, and the whale’s not gone
The Wellerman makes his regular call
To encourage the Captain, crew and all
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguin’ is done
We’ll take our leave and go
We’ll take our leave and go
We’ll take our leave and go