Ticket orders and donations are really pouring in now for the Northwest Junior Pipe Band 2^nd Annual Spring Concert! Mark your calendars for our 1 hour Matinee at 3:00 pm or our full concert and Silent Auction April 14^th. The thought of helping send 30 kids to Scotland to compete with and learn from the best pipe bands in the world, as well as the help provided to the NWJPB education programs and mission are really starting to generate a lot of enthusiasm.

Special thanks and recognition are deserved by several organizations. You’ll find more information on our website under our new supporters page about the many donors, but we thought it was important to call your attention to these major donors:

Camano Sail and Power has donated $800.00 worth of Sail or Power Boat cruises around Whidbey or Camano Islands! Camano Sail and Power offers US Sailing National Certification, basic keelboat instruction, and small boat instruction from basic to advanced including competition, as well as Salmon Fishing, Bird Watching and Whale Watching! Just about anything you can do on the water, Camano Sail and Power can help! Email camanosail@camano.net for more information, or call  425-314-9824.

 

Board Game Geek is one of the premier online resources for board and card game information, references and reviews. Their online community is supporting NWJPB’s plans for Scotland with individual donations, as well as ticket donations to organizations like Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Their donations just keep coming. Today we received a $200.00 donation from someone with very fond memories of the value received in their high school band. What a wonderful way to give back…sending a great group of youth pipers and drummers to enjoy the premier competition for pipers and drummers everywhere! We’ve also received 5 donations of $50.00 each from this great community. If you have any interest in board games, or if you tried Monopoly and didn’t think you liked board games, we encourage you to check out their website. They have reviews and information about more than 3,000 board games, as well as specials with game companies, instruction manual downloads, game discussions and more!

The Kenmore Grocery Outlet has donated several items to our Silent Auction, as well as fully outfitting our concessions stand with soda for the concert!! We encourage all of our local supporters and members to swing by Grocery Outlet in Kenmore to say thanks, and stock up your cupboards!

This is a very exciting time for NWJPB members. Just over two weeks left before our concert, just over a week before our first competition of the season for our Grade 4 band at the BC Pipers’ Indoor competition next Saturday, April 7^th! A new Grade 5 band ready to compete in Washington events this summer…all that hard work and practice is going to pay off, and we’re looking forward to an incredible season! Get your tickets now before they’re all gone! http://www.nwjpb.org/merch

Northwest Junior Pipe Band members started posting black and white fliers around the greater Seattle area last week, and this week has a very attractive new advertisement you’ll start seeing around town. A sample added here.  The concert is really picking up momentum, ticket orders are coming in and we’ll be posting a silent auction catalog very soon!  We hope everyone can make the show this year!

See www.nwjpb.org to purchase tickets.

The first major fundraiser on our path toward Scotland is almost a month away still, and already we’ve managed to put more than $2000.00 in our Scotland Savings account, with generous donations from members of the Caledonian/St. Andrews Society of Seattle topping the cash donation list. We have a new member of the band (an up and coming 7 year old snare drummer) who held a party on St. Patrick’s day which a few NWJPB members played at. They passed the hat for us and we raised $374.00! There’s an online game forum community … www.boardgamegeek.com who has collectively donated 138.00 plus two different sets of tickets we’ll be working with Boys and Girls Clubs or Big Brothers / Big Sisters in our area to pass tickets on to as well.

I started a thermometer. I’ll post a permanent page for this info at some point soon, but to get us started…

 

McCallum bagpipes are very popular and several members of NWJPB either have or want a set. They’re very consistent, sound great and have beautiful details. This is a great background story on McCallum bagpipes, but the most interesting quote to me was their statement about the demand being really great for pipes in the United States, and that the market is really growing here. http://www.scotlandontv.tv/?channel=Culture&clipid=1380_SMG382 for the story.

Use our Concert ad on your web page and help us get to the World Pipe Band Championships in 2008!
Add this code to your site or blog:

  <a target=”_blank” href=”http://www.nwjpb.org”><img border=”0″ src=”http://www.nwjpb.org/images/NWJPBconcert-2007new.jpg” alt=”Support Northwest Junior Pipe Band’s Trip To the World Championships in Scotland, 2008!” /></a>

Thanks!!

There are new support ideas popping up all over the internet.  Add a badge for the organizations you support to your web pages or blogs.  Get NWJPB’s “care badge” here
| Get your own badge!

Deal or No Deal.  Dave Atherton, a piper, a Master Bagpipe Maker, a professional guitarist, a body builder, a Bob Dunsire forum member, a New Yorker.  Now the holder of the title ”highest paid piper for a single performance”?

Probably.  I had heard about his appearance on the show last week on the Bob Dunsire Forums, but forgot to watch from the beginning, because I don’t usually watch it.  I ran across it last night, right at the point where Dave was being offered $81,000.00 for his selected briefcase.  That was probably the most intense 3 or 4 minutes of television I’d seen in a long time.  He fought hard with the decision to take “the deal” and go home with 81,000.00.  As it turned out, Dave had picked the 1,000,000.00 briefcase and “could have” won it all….but he’s happy with the results.  From his comments on the BD Forums, he literally had $48.00 in his savings account when he left home to go tape the show last February. 

From Dave on Bobdunsire.com:

“Everything you saw was real there is no script or anything like that.  As for the ending ……
I have no idea what cases I was going to pick.  Anything after the button gets pushed isn’t reality. Had I gone on and knocked out even one more high amount the offer was going to drop. Had I knocked out the million, it would have plummeted. I had zero intention of going to the end, as most who do wind up with bupkus. It was a very tough decision but the right one for my wife and I.  When my wife and I left New York for California to do the taping, I had literally $48.00 in my svaings account. You don’t tempt a poor man with 81K….I’ve seen the game turn sour real quick and I was determined not to go home broke!  81,000 dollars WILL change my life dramatically, and in the end that’s all that matters.
      When I first came out on stage I got a standing ovation so you could barely hear the pipes and I couldn’t either.  They gave me literally about 3 seconds to tune up and start walking. Luckily the pipe was going great.

A trip to California, 81 grand, and the title of “highest paid piping performance of all time”, ain’t too shabby.”

What a genuine character, he did a beautiful job representing the bagpiping community, and reportedly played the Deal or No Deal theme song on his bagpipes as he entered the stage to HUGE crowd reaction. Congrats to him for his success!

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I’ve heard people suggest that kids shouldn’t start with a pipe band until they’re 10 or 12.  We’ve removed the 8 year old minimum requirement from our recruiting statement because we’ve seen some very talented kids joining the band, or starting starting lessons younger and younger.  Techniques for teaching kids at younger ages are definitely different with a 5 year old than a 12 year olds, but there’s no question in my mind that the earlier you start on an instrument, the better it can be for the youth in the long run.  Obviously, attention spans vary and some very young kids may not want to continue, but I believe you should give every youth an opportunity to start, whenever they’re ready.

See this amazing video of 2 and 4 year old drummers:

Bagpipe music and bagpiping is gaining popularity and getting more attention in different media. I like to call attention to these occasionally. This is a Youtube video of a Madonna concert featuring pipers and drummers. I can’t figure out why their kilts are that long, but it’s definitely worth watching.  I had a couple problems embedding the video, so the link is here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBEkZVZy2pY if it’s not working for you.

I found this via technorati “bagpipe” tags linked to David Brown’s blog.  David is a member of the Panama City Pipes and Drums.  Thanks David!

NWJPB had another big turnout at the March 3^rd WPA mini competition. NWJPB has been asked to perform at the next WPA event March 31^st. Pictures are now posted on www.washingtonpipers.org/photos from Saturday’s competition.

Alumni Instructor Kendra MacLeod teaching winning “Beginning Snare” student Amber S. how to hold the tenor mallet

Results:

Grade 5 Piping:
1 Mat M.
2. Matt A.

Grade 4 Piping 6/8 March

1. Alexander S.
4. Aaron S.

Grade 4 Piping Strathspey & Reel
1. Alexander S.
3. Aaron S.

Grade 3 6/8 March
3. Matt M.
4. Marie Salmi (instructor)

Grade 3 Jig
2. Marie Salmi (instructor)
4. Matt M.    

Beginning Snare/Drum Pad
1. Amber S.

Side Drumming – Grade 4
1. Morgan S.
2. Steven W.
3. Declan S.
4. Bryce K.

Tenor Drumming
1. Kendra MacLeod (instructor)
2. Collen S.