After several years of very close competitions, with the bands pushing each other to better and better performances and for the last two years, having the Grand Aggregate Championship for the season come down to just one judge’s placing at the Pacific Northwest Highland Games, the White Spot and Northwest Junior Pipe Band members have built close friendships. The bands announced a partnership Monday for their top musicians to compete together at a higher level competition grade in 2011. Click the image for link to the story on Pipes|Drums. Both bands plan to remain independent and field separate indpendent bands in Grades 4 or 5, but in order to provide new challenges for the bands’ talented young musicians, the decision to work together at the higher level Grade 3 and provide new challenges was a great opportunity to support the growing talents of the bands’ musicians. Naming and other details will come soon, but practices are slated to begin in September.
A youth bagpipe band is always working to teach, develop, and build the next generation of pipers and drummers, while hoping to build an appreciation for talented piping and drumming in our community and beyond. We encouraged our band members and families to be up in the wee hours last weekend on August 14th to see the top bands in the world compete, broadcast live worldwide for the second year in a row. In this 12 part post, we’re pleased to link to videos by the BBC of the top 12 bands in the world. We’re especially proud that two of the twelve bands are based in our competition region (both are in BC, but our region runs through Oregon), and several musicians from both Simon Fraser University and Dowco Triumph Street live in Washington.
Many of these bands have incredible histories, and are made up of some of the most talented and dedicated musicians (of any kind) in the world. The piping and drumming community knows, but many in the public may not realize that memorization of this music is required, unlike many orchestra and many other competition based music events. Not only do they have the multiple tunes in these medley selections memorized, but they have a 2nd medley selection and two different March, Strathspey & Reel selections that are chosen at the start line. As the bands are preparing to compete, they have no idea what music they will be playing, so all 4 music selections have to be mastered to ensure a chance at success.
12th place, Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band, Vancouver, BC. Pipe Major David Hilder, Drum Sergeant Andre Tessier. After winning the World Championships in Grade 2 while part of the Simon Fraser University organization 3 years ago, the band was promoted to Grade 1 and then re-formed with a new name after the former Triumph Street Pipe Band asked the band members to take on the name, returning to the forefront as a Grade 1 band. Triumph Street Pipe Band, under the leadership of Pipe Major Hal Senyk, placed 5th in the World Championships in 1979, winning the Sash for best drum corps…the first band outside of Scotland to ever win a top prize in the major championships. DTSPB has made it through the qualifier each of the last two years and then competed in the final 14 bands. This year, there were 18 bands in the qualifier, and only 6 came through. A remarkable achievement for a new band in Grade 1 to place in the top 14 two years in a row, this year is one placing higher than last.
There were several incredible stories we followed during our Scotland trip in 2008:
- Our own experiences winning two first place trophies at Perth and Crieff and 5th in the World
- SFU winning the World Championships for the 5th time, as well as best drum corps
- Besides SFU, there were three pipe bands from the Northwest and BC including NWJPB, the Keith Highlanders AND the White Spot Pipe Bands; taking on the worlds and placing in the top 6
- The story of the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band.
This band included top soloists and instructors from all over the world who were not competing in bands. Several of those performers come from the Pacific Northwest / BC area. Now, a very talented documentary film maker is nearing completion of a story about the band, the obstacles they overcame to compete with the top bands in the world, make it through the qualifier round and ultimately win an incredibly respectable 11th place. NWJPB made a small donation to help John finish this important project, and we encourage our supporters to do the same.
Music, Piping and Drumming can be an incredibly healthy and meaningful activity for youth, and the more opportunities there are for people to become familiar with the superstars of piping and drumming, the more youth will consider this a reasonable option. Please check out the press release introducing you to John McDonald, the project, and please consider donating to the cause. Help us help John bring stories like this into the mainstream!
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker John McDonald, who also pipes with the Pasadena Scots in California, is still seeking enough funding to complete his feature-length documentary on the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band.
Entitled ON THE DAY, the documentary follows the band of elite players during its one and only week together in August 2008, as the group of more than 40 pipers and drummers assembled and practiced for the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green. The film is set to premiere as part of the week-long Piping Live! festival at the Glasgow Film Theatre on August 14, the day before the Worlds. Adding another dimension to the story, McDonald will actually be competing with his Grade 4 band in the Worlds this year.
An initial donation from a private party enabled McDonald and a cameraman to travel to Scotland, and he has raised additional contributions from the piping and Scottish-American community. “I have given a year of my life working only on this film,” McDonald says. “It has been a labor of love for me, my dream project about the dream team of bagpipers. Every dollar I’ve received has gone directly into the film.” However, with a total budget for the film of more than $200,000, he says he still has a ways to go in order to finish the editing and audio mixing.
Each week McDonald has been offering short clips from the rough cut of the film that feature some of the musicians, such as Roddy MacLeod, Jim McGillivray, Angus MacColl, John Fisher, Niall Matheson, Alasdair Gillies, and Willie McCallum. These “clips-of-the week” are first launched in the ON THE DAY Facebook Group and then later go up on YouTube.
The project has non-profit status through a fiscal sponsorship with the International Documentary Association (IDA), making contributions tax-deductible for US residents. A $100 donation gets you a credit in the film’s titles and a special pre-released first-edition DVD, and for $200 or more you will additionally receive a collectable Spirit of Scotland cap badge. A preview of the film can be seen and donations can be made at www.OnTheDayMovie.com.
Ken Yiesly in his Piping Live! 2008 T-shirt shows off his silver Bagpipes
NWJPB is an extended family. This story celebrates the life and history of NWJPB Grandparents celebrating their 52nd anniversary, and pays a lot of attention to bagpipes, and the experiences of a couple of NWJPB members on our recent trip to the World Pipe Band Championships, 2008. A brief excerpt from the story:
Ken was able to retire from the military shortly after in 1975 and the family was finally able to put down roots.
To mark the occasion, Mieko bought him a set of silver bagpipes, his favorite instrument since childhood.
“That’s all he wanted, the nut,” Mieko said. “But he’s my nut.”
Congratulations to Ken and Mieko on your 52 years!
We found this video after our return from Scotland. We’ll continue searching for video, pictures and stories, because one thing about our trip to Scotland that has many of our members eager to go back again, was the welcoming attitude and the warm, open arms the people of Glasgow, Perth, North Berwick, and Crieff, the Piping Live! Festival organizers, and the RSPBA and the organizers of the World Championship events showed us on our first visit to Scotland. Passers-by were talking about the band’s talent and using phrases like “I thought they were Scots,” reporters, photographers, and the BBC seemed to be watching us at every event, and we were often asked to pose for photos.
The Evening Times / The Herald published this video on YouTube, which featured NWJPB performing in George Square as the opener to the story about the week long Piping Live! festival.
Last year, pipers in NWJPB, their parents, and pipers around the world were teased by the idea of a video game featuring bagpipes. It certainly got people in our community talking…and a bit disappointed to discover it was a joke.
Here’s a video:
Well, this one isn’t a joke. Nintendo is coming out with “Wii music” where you can choose from up to 60 instruments. Among those are the bagpipes. Check out the GameSpot article. You play the pipes by holding the remote upward and pressing the “1 and 2 buttons”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any pictures of the game with a bagpiper, but it sounds like it could be fun.
This is compiled from a ton of responses to questions pipers and drummers receive, many of which are funny to those that are immersed in and committed to piping and drumming, and surround themselves with the unique community that devotes itself to the Scottish arts. However, in most cases, they speak to the ignorance and lack of understanding about bagpipes and drums. Sometimes they just speak to a human desire to be “in” or “have the inside track”…most of these cases are just funny. 
We recognize though, that as bagpipes gain popularity, more and more people are curious about the instrument, history, expectations, commitment and challenges. While many of the stories are funny…often it just illustrates how much work organizations like ours need to do to educate the public about our art. The original discussion thread is from the “Beer Tent” section of Bob Dunsire Forums, a growing discussion board and community of more than 10,000 pipers, drummers, and celtic music and arts fans around the world. See the discussion likely continuing to grow here>>
“Do you have to be Scottish to play Bagpipes?”
Washington State is sending two pipe bands to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships this year; the Keith Highlanders and Northwest Junior Pipe Band. Northwest Junior Pipe Band is the first youth pipe band from our State ever to attend the World Pipe Band Championships and the first youth band to even travel to Scotland since 1969. There are a lot of indications that piping and drumming is rapidly gaining popularity.
See the great article posted in February about piping and drumming in the Northwest here>>
ABC news recently ran a feature story about bagpiping. While they call it a “resurgence” many in the piping world think of it as continued growth in public interest. Rock Band “Red Hot Chili Pipers” is given some credit for “mainstreaming” bagpipes, but the story covers several of the reasons why bagpiping seems to be gaining popularity. The reporter attempts playing pipes in a humorous depiction of how challenging the instrument is to master.
“It takes some blowing power, and, of course, the skill and coordination. It’s rather like, if you can tap your head and rub your tummy at the same time, you’ve probably got it”
Watch the video, “Bagpipe Rock“
“So, why learn? Playing makes you look like a blowfish. And the pipes can reach 111 decibels — that’s louder than a pneumatic drill. In the wrong hands, it’s torture. ‘Being played by someone who knows how to play them, they will not sound like a strangled cat. You get a lovely sound from the instrument,’ said Manderson. It’s a sound that does something inexplicable to anyone with a lick of Scottish blood. But even those of you not lucky enough to be Scottish seem drawn to the drone.”
It’s good to see the “mainstream” press continuing to pick up on the work so many put into this unique hobby/lifestyle/music.
Shorecrest High School’s Band Program performed “A Long Way to the Top” by AC-DC, and won 1st place, and $10,000.00 for their band program. NWJPB Band Director Kevin Auld leads the Shorecrest Pipers in the band, and members of NWJPB were invited to perform on stage with the band and “Spike and the Impalers” at a December “Twisted Christmas” event.
Congratulations to a great music program! Thanks to The Rock Wood Fired Pizza for sponsoring the contest.
Hear a Podcast of the winners being announced.
See and hear all of the entries at the School of the Rock Contest homepage.
