All posts by napierpb

News

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

Music, News

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
Music

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”).

History

The 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.

Music

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

Music

Flower of Scotland

Flower of Scotland” (Scottish Gaelic: Flùr na h-Alba, Scots: Flouer o Scotland) is a Scottish patriotic song commonly used as an unofficial national anthem of Scotland. Written sometime in the mid-1960s by folk musician Roy Williamson, its lyrics describe the victory of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, over Edward II, King of England, at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Owing to its historical basis in the Wars of Scottish independence, the song urges contemporary Scots to rise again as an independent nation and remember the day their ancestors deterred Edward’s English invaders.

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

The hills are bare now
And autumn leaves lie thick and still
O’er land that is lost now
Which those so dearly held
And stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again

Those days are passed now
And in the past they must remain
But we can still rise now
And be the nation again
That stood against him
Proud Edward’s army
And sent him homeward
Tae think again

News

Notice of AGM 2025

NAPIER PIPE BAND INCORPORATED
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

In accordance with clause 18.1 of the Band’s Constitution, notice is hereby given that the Annual General meeting of Napier Pipe Band Incorporated will be held at the Band rooms, Nelson park, on Monday 9th June 2025 at 7.30 p.m.

Members have received, by email, the agenda and reports which can be found on this website.

Please note that there is a vacancy on the Committee to be filled by an Associate member (Supporter).  The new Rules adopted recently have made this possible.  If you are interested in supporting your Band in this way,  please complete the nomination form which is available here.

Please send apologies to secratrary@napierpipeband 

Playing members please bring a plate for supper. We look forward to seeing you all.

Amanda Laird
Secretary

News

The Fear of Failing

Every opportunity in life comes with two things: the possibility of succeeding, and the possibility of failing. When you reach the end of your life, your greatest regrets won’t be over your failures, but the opportunities you failed to seize because you were afraid of failing. So here are some principles to help you conquer the fear of failing:

  1. Be willing to try and fail at something. And when it happens, tell people. Why? Because that’s how you discover failure isn’t fatal.
  2. Find a project so big that you cannot do it without someone’s help, then commit to it.
  3. Socialise with some impulsive types. Observe how they take risks without dying. Seeing and imitating is a great way to learn.
  4. The way we learn to take big steps is by taking small steps. Compliment someone you don’t know (or someone you do know who has done exceptionally well). Volunteer for an additional task at work (or at band). Go out of your way to help someone in need.
  5. Declare war on perfectionism. Instead of waiting until you can do it perfectly, do your best and tell yourself, ‘That’s good enough for now.’
  6. Be afraid but give it a go anyway. You will never totally defeat your fears, but you can diminish them to where they have less control of your life.
News

Pied Piper Op Shop

The Pied Piper Op Shop has now been ‘ours’ for a whole month!  A very busy month it has been too.

This time has allowed us to make some small changes and also identify how you may be able to help.

Firstly, we need volunteers in the shop on a Saturday morning from 10am – 1pm.  Tasks include serving customers, taking donations, pricing and sorting items.  This of course could be say once a month, depending on how many people can help.

Secondly, some of the clothing items donated are only good enough for rags.  This means that buttons need to be removed before cutting the fabric up.  We have secured a buyer for the rags which provides a steady and useful top up to the income.  Are you able to help with this job?

Thirdly, we would like to introduce a baking roster so that we can provide the volunteers with morning and afternoon teas each day.  They give their time willingly and are essential to the day to day running of the shop.  Again, frequency of this is dependent on your support.

Finally, if you have any items surplus to your requirements, we would be most grateful to accept them to offer for sale at The Pied Piper Op Shop.

Please do have a think about whether you can help with this exciting venture on behalf of your Pipe Bands.  If you can, please contact one of the Trustees – Julie, Sally, Jarrod or Aaron.

News

Monday 12 May

Another solid practice on Monday, great work, everyone!

We kicked things off on the practice chanters, working through the Caller Herrin’ and Teribus brackets. It’s clear that our happy place with these sets sits right around 70 bpm, any faster and we start to lose that all-important expression and tightness. So, let’s keep things steady and continue chipping away at those tunes at that tempo during your own practice.

We’ve decided to shift our focus to preparing Concert 3 for our next performance. That will be our main focus over the coming weeks in preparation for the Napier RSA Concert

A reminder about the bull sale Tuesday 3rd June, on site at the farm about 15 minutes from Lake Tutira.  Drive time from the band hall is 1 hour, although given the traffic conditions on the Wairoa Road, it is best to allow 90 minutes. 

As always, the team spirit and banter were top-notch with good laughs and a productive night all around. A huge thanks to everyone for your continued passion and commitment to turning up and tuning in, especially as the colder winter nights start to roll in.

Have a great week and keep those pipes & drums warm.

Music, Uncategorised

Concert programmes

We’re excited to share a new concert plan that we believe will benefit everyone — our playing members, our supporters, and our audiences alike.

We’ve thoughtfully developed a set of four concerts that we can rotate throughout the year. This approach not only streamlines our programming but also ensures we offer a rich and diverse selection of our repertoire that keeps our concerts fresh and engaging.