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.
Category Archives: 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.
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
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
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
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:
- 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.
- Find a project so big that you cannot do it without someone’s help, then commit to it.
- Socialise with some impulsive types. Observe how they take risks without dying. Seeing and imitating is a great way to learn.
- 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.
- 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.’
- 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.
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.