PIPESSSSSSS!! FRONTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!

An acquired taste. Nothing like being at a Feis with ten or twenty pipe bands marching on and competing. At the end the massed bands playing The Minstrel Boy or Gary Owen. I do sometimes miss it.
 
@AF6872
Had an instructor who played the pipes in the police bag pipe band. They all went to North Carolina (I think) to practice with several Scottish piper bands who came over to provide instruction. After the police band played their best tune, the Scots' asked, "What song was that"? Evidently, the Scots' were on a WHOLE other level!
Also there really is nothing worn under the kilt as one day prior to the start of a parade, a member of the band lined up in front of us did indeed have underwear on which when discovered, was immediately removed & burned right there and then in the street! It was the 80's.
 
I grew up very near Macalester College, a place that loves its Scots heritage and music. They hosted the Scottish Fair in the Twin Cities for ages. They teach a lot of piping classes, and on special occasions the school president had a piper on the lawn in front of his house to greet guests. They have a piping scholarship, for goodness sake ( "Tobin-Smith Endowed Prize. Established by Chester M. Tobin ‘23 and Edward M. Smith. Awarded to a student accomplished in the Scottish art of piping and drumming.") You can frequently hear kids practicing out in the middle of parking lots or in city parks as far from innocent bystanders as possible, so they seem to get it.

Years later I was in a office with an entertaining, stocky, swarthy man of Scottish heritage. He wanted to become a piper so he started taking lesson somewhere in town. On weeks when it was too hectic to practice at home he'd squeeze in a bit in an empty field next to our building. The first day it happened there were four of us silently standing there, arms folded, looking out the window at this trash strewn lot in a light industrial area, watching him bleat away. One says "We should put this on Youtube." Another: "Already uploaded." Alas, the link has been lost over the years. He now plays in a local pipe band with his son, so happy ending.
 
For your bucket list, the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo in August each year (well, maybe not this year). Massed pipes and drums, multiple groups, pageantry, precision marching, at the Castle, starts at sundown. Makes your breastbone vibrate and blood sing.

 
Back
Top