All posts by napierpb

Music

Sing-a-long August 2026

Scotland the Brave
Hark when the night is falling,
Hear! Hear the pipes a 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.

Loch Lomond
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love spent many happy days
On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond
Oh, You’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye
Where me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond

On The Road To Passchendaele
There’s a light that shines in Flanders
As a beacon for the brave
From the distant past it wanders
To recall the lives they gave
And it tells each generation
To be wise and never fail
To remember those who fallen
On the Road to Passchendaele
CHORUS
On the road to Passchendaele
On the road to Passchendaele
Where the brave will live forever
On the road to Passchendaele

Soon May the Wellerman Come [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

Flower of Scotland
O flower of Scotland, When will we see
Your like again, That fought and died for
Your wee bit hill and glen, And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army, and sent him homeward
Tae think again

Amazing Grace
Amazing grace, How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

News

August Workshop

Another Back to Basics Workshop
(With a focus on practising)
Saturday 15 August 9.30am – 12.30pm
Nelson Park Band Rooms

Have you ever been frustrated while practising?
Ever feel like your hours of practice just aren’t paying off?
Want to know what consistently separates those who make steady progress from those who spin their wheels?

Then come along to our Back to Basics Workshop and learn how to overcome these barriers.

Objectives of the workshop:
  • giving learners and playing members a chance to meet, have
  • some fun and experience the enjoyment of playing in a group.
  • using your technology (metronomes and recordings).
  • exploring some simple practice techniques to improve practise.
  • developing a learners’ concert item.
Then as a follow up we will perform our item at the Tea ‘n Tunes afternoon at Clubs Napier 2.30pm Sunday 23 August

Register now by email workshop@napierpipeband.nz with your name and contact details.
 
We look forward to seeing you at the workshop.
Music

Whatts’sname’s March

This tune was written when Aaron Watt was appointed to the position of Pipe Major of our Band.

You can download the full notated pdf file and listen to the full version.

In the clean version the doublings have been replaced by E gracenotes making it easier to learn.  You can download the clean pdf file and listen to the clean version..

Some notes to help with learning the tune
– in each part bars 1,3 and 5 are the same
– bars 2 & 6 are the same in each part with a first note variation in each part
– bar 4 is the same is all four parts, and
– the concluding bars, 7 & 8, are the same in all four parts.
Simple eh??

 

Music

Learning Sir Adam Thompson part 4

This post will take you through the fourth part of Sir Adam Thompson.  You can review part 1 or part 2 or part 3 if you need to refresh the earlier parts.

If you haven’t already done so download and print the pdf music score for the third and fourth parts (although how you got here without already having done this would be an interesting conversation).

The fourth part comprises two new phrases – phrase 6 which is bars 25 & 26, repeated in bars 29 and 30, and phrase 7 which is bars 27 & 28.  We will take each of them separately as we’ve done with the rest of the tune

Starting with phrase 6 – bars 25 & 26 – listen and play

Now try phrase 7 – bars 27 and 28 – listen and play

And then put them together – listen and play

The concluding line of the tune comprises phrase 6 and phrase 3 – listen and play

Once you’ve got phrases 6&7 sorted you can try playing the last part of the tune – phrase 6, 7, 6 and 3 –  listen and play

Got it all sorted? Listen and play the 3&4 parts

So, after all that who was Sir Adam Thompson?  Sir Adam Thomson, who passed away aged 73, was the founder and chairman of British Caledonian, one of Britain’s most successful independent airlines.  From humble Glaswegian origins and service in the Fleet Air Arm, Thomson emerged as the most enduring of a generation of post-aviation entrepreneurs. With little capital and not much help from government, he battled for 27 years to build a niche for British Caledonian in an industry dominated by state-backed national carriers and American giants.  From a single Douglas DC7 making charter flights in 1961, BCal grew to be the ninth largest European airline, with a fleet of 27 jets serving almost 50 international destinations.  They even had their own pipe band which often played at company events.

Music

Learning Sir Adam Thompson part 3

This post will take you through the third part of Sir Adam Thompson.  You can review part 1 and part 2 if you need a refresh.

First download and print the pdf music score for the third and fourth parts.

The third part of the tune comprises one new phrase, #5 which is bars 17 and 18.  This phrase is repeated in bars 21 and 22.  Listen and play phrase 5.

Now play phrase 5 & 2 – listen and play – and try phrase 5 & 3 listen and play.

Finish off by playing the third part  – listen and play

Great stuff.  Now you can move onto the fourth part which is slightly more complicated.

Music

Learning Sir Adam Thompson part 2

Well done mastering the first part (click here for part 1), now to move onto the second part.

We start with phrase 4 (bars 9 & 10) – listen and play – repeat as needed to get clarity and consistency.

Now all we have to do is combine that phrase with ones we’ve already learnt starting with phrase 4 & 2 which make up the third line of the tune – listen and play and of course repeat as needed.

Finally we play phrase 4 with phrase 3 to complete the part – listen and play

Having mastered phrase 4 and its links with phrases 2 and 3 you can now play the second part of Sir Adam Thompson – listen and play

Well done!!  You can now move on to the third part

 

Music

Learning Sir Adam Thompson part 1

To learn this tune just follow these simple steps.

Start by listening to the tune. In that recording you will notice that the band doesn’t play an introductory E as is the custom.  And the tune has in the past been followed by The Crags of Tumbledown Mountain hence the change to E in the last part.

Now download and print the pdf music score for the first two parts.  The full score is available from the tune list (4/4 tunes) and the current music book but for this learning process we are using a modified score.

Looking at the music score you will see that the first two parts of this tune are made up of 4 phrases.  Yes that’s right only four phrases to learn!

Start with phrase one, the first two bars – listen and play along.  Repeat as much as needed to be able to play with clarity.

Now look at phrase two – listen and play – again repeat until you are playing with clarity.

Once you are sure about the first two phrases you can put them together – listen and play

The first part of this tune comprises phrase 1 & 2 (which you’ve already mastered 🙂 then phrase one is repeated and the part then concludes with the third phrase (you will notice that the first bar (#7) of this phrase is the same as the first bar of phrase 2.

Listen and play phrase 3, the concluding two bars of the first part.

Now put it all together – Listen and play the first part.  Repeat until you are playing with clarity and consistency.  All good?  Well done.  That’s the first part of Sir Adam Thompson completed.

With part one completed you can move on to part 2

Music, News

Art Deco 2026

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.

Music, News

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.
Music, News

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