Taking up Scottish bellows pipes rekindled an interest in a part of music that got me interested in bagpipes to begin with: traditional music, especially with a Gaelic bent.
I went to the Feis Shiatail in 2006, which was tremendous fun. I was looking forward to attending the event this year but the event moved up a weekend and with the way the calendar falls this year it is in conflict with my local Highland games. So it’s a conflict of passions and commitments.
Playing in a competition band is a brilliant thing if you’re playing in the right band. Currently I am playing in the right band for me. It’s a good grade 2 band with challenging music and great rapport among bandmates. This band has been very fulfilling so sticking to my commitment to them for the Highland games is a no-brainer. Plus I instruct the local pipe band that is such a hardworking group that, even though another instructor usually puts on the final touches at the games, I can’t miss seeing their hard work come to fruition.
Also since taking up the bellows pipes I’ve been looking into attending the Pipers’ Gathering but alas it takes place the same weekend as the Maxville/Montreal weekend, which is the biggest conflagration (an apt term I feel) of Highland piping in North America.
It’s like some great design has made it so that these two realms of piping can only exist diametrically.
Some of you probably find it daft that the choice between sitting in comfortable clothes with a small group of musicians versus sweating it out on my feet in a noisy mob swathed in heavy wool is such a tough decision. But pipe bands are my family whereas bellows pipers are my friends.
Do others feel these conflicts? Are the different realms a little more copasetic where you live?
precisely. its the unified field theory of mutual piping exclusion.
Hi Aaron
Its the same all over.
My personal pet-peeve, perhaps too many degrees away from your dilemma, are said highland pipers who call to cancel on their brides, funerals + parties THE THURSDAY before a games day.
No bothering to try to get a sub themselves, they simply leave the clients high and dry, and run off, lemming-like, to the sanctioned event.
Since I dont give a hoot about competing, yet love GHB, I get stuck trying to fill all the holes. It aint fun, & someone always ends up getting a cr@ppy pretend-piper.
I realized a long time ago the clientele for alternate pipes would never be as large as the ‘Amazing-Grace’ demographic, but I often go out of my way completely to fullfill their needs.
There will always be another Highland games; but ‘Sara-so-&-so’ only gets one first wedding, and she wants small pipes + clarsach for the ceremony. 'Sean O’Seanery’s family wants Uilleann for his interrment, & It’ll be a nice day by the graveside…that’s where I’ll be…
unless..this is the year my band has a shot…
a tough call indeed.
Gigs are another kettle of fish. The guys that cancel on a gig at the last minute to prepare for a band competition would probably use another lame excuse if they weren’t in a pipe band. I would attribute that behavior to lack of organization and maturity, not to playing in a pipe band. It’s true that pipe bands do experience their fair share of disorganization and immaturity but I’m sure many other group activities undergo the same obstacles.
herding cats is easier, really.. I used to manage a community orchestra (average age 65) so I kind of got a clue on that…
I’ll ever forget the ONE time I whipped out an SSP in band practice:
wot unholy looks of disdain!
OR the tounge lashing I got for playing a GHB at an ‘alternative-pipe’ event!
(I didnt give a toss either way i suppose, but)
back to topic,
what have you lavished the lion’s share of time and effort on this year?
Band or SSP?
I would courageously say; go with the winner this time round.
Aaron, I’m stuck in the same boat, having one foot in the GHB competition world, one in the uilleann/Irish session world.
I’ve spent stretches of three to five years doing the GHB competition thing, then dropped out for similar stretches to concentrate on the uilleann thing. It’s tough to balance them.
I’m in, perhaps, the latter stages of a GHB cycle. I played for two years in the WUSPBA grade 3 champion band (led by an ex-FMM guy). (We were pretty much a Grade 2 band playing-level-wise, but WUSPBA has no Grade 2 competitions.) I did the whole World Pipe Band Championships thing last August. But as of lately I’ve been bitten by the uilleann bug again…
Our local games and the GNIPC tional are on the same weekend and I’ve had to duck out of the tional at lunch time to run to a parade before. I missed the group picture and some great crack. It’s feast or famin most of the time.
But…I did attend the perfect positive confligration of piping this weeked. Winter Storm in Kansas City. Classes with Fred Morrison, a concert with the worlds best pipers and drummers, and playing with the Twin Peaks all Ladies Pipe Band. It doesn’t get any better.
The woman who sounded like she was playing a log was…ah…never mind.
Had women from as far away as New Zealand and Canada come together and play with us Midwesterners with no rehearsal. Not many other communities can do that.
its the unified field theory of mutual piping exclusion.
