Friday, September 26, 2008

Passion for the Music
Thursday evening I had two different and related experiences that spoke to the reasons we do what we do. I met with Gord Taylor at the Conservatory. He got himself a new B-flat chanter that needed a reed, and I wanted to go through his recent book "One Tone Over the Line" with a view to getting my head around his material. Gord has been writing and publishing tunes for some time, and his musical ideas have been the basis for several medleys, and quite a few "show sets" for the old Stirling Pipe Band, and later the Winnipeg St. Andrew's Pipe Band. Gord was a member of both, and he has also developed his abilities as a composer, arranger, and with other instruments.

I found it refreshing and fun to sit down with the composer, hear him play his tunes, and learn from him how to play them, and what concepts were driving the composition. Gord hears lots of percussion and other instrumentation when he composes, and he seems to write music with a purpose in mind. He is passionate about his music and his tunes, refreshingly honest about what he likes and doesn't, and very happy to play and talk about the tunes. There is a lot of good material in this collection, and to get an idea about what Gord hears, be sure to check out his sound samples.

After spending a couple of hours playing tunes with Gord, and learning about his music, I wandered over to O'Hanlon's to talk to Niall about an upcoming gig [October 4th - Alexander Keith's Birthday - come hear us!], and he had a band in there. They were a young group of guys from Ontario, three guitars and a drum kit. They are called Poorfolk and they were good. There were only about 10 people in the place, and a few people on the upstairs balcony, but for any band, it would've been a pretty empty room. The thing was, they didn't care. They played like there was nothing except the music—the playing was very good, and the sound was good, and they didn't hold back on the chat or the rock&roll stage antics, or the passion in delivery of their tunes. If you saw it on YouTube, you'd think there were 1,000 people there.

Anyway, I found that pretty inspiring, too. The music IS what it's all about. They were laying it all out there, and seemd to be having a blast "just" playing. Sometimes, it can be easy to forget that the playing is what it's all about.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Change of Seasons, Change of Bands
If you are a reader of online news for piping, drumming and pipe bands, you will be aware of the many changes that are happening in some of Canada's best-known pipe bands. This trend is also prevalent in Scotland, and last year as a member of ScottishPower, I was amazed at how much chatter there was about who was going where on the weekend of the Cowal Games. It was in the lead-up practices to Cowal, and in Dunoon, that people started broadly discussing changes to bands such as Shotts.

And of course, we have been there, too. Just last year at this time, we were facing the prospect of losses...members going to other bands, taking a break and of course some "not going to other bands" who really were, and even when asked outright, still chose to make excuses about work and money rather than just say they had other plans. Wow. Talk about burning your bridges. There's even a theme song for that story! ; )

But, a spring and early summer of hard work, gain some members, develop some players, and possibly the best band trip yet—results notwithstanding—and here we are in the fall, with a stable membership, a little money in the bank, and quite a bit of work and fun ahead of us.

The first band practice was Sunday, and we had a solid turnout, played some potential new material, and worked on some MSR details, and also talked about plans for the 2008-09 season. At this point we have one US trip on the books, some local performances, some spring contests, and we are developing plans for some exciting travel in 2009.

We capped it with a beer on the deck of O'Hanlon's Pub, on perhaps the last truly warm Sunday afternoon of the near-to-last day of summer. It was a great way to start. Having been through lots of uncertainty with the band, I can only wish "best of luck" to all those bands and players experiencing changes and uncertainty for the coming season. It's never easy getting a large group of people all focussed on the same things and going in the same direction. It's tough.

However, we seem to be in the fortunate position of having a semi-stable starting point, for the first time in three years. Feels pretty good.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Things I've Learned About Pipe Bands

I was looking back over the previous year's blogs, and I thought this was pretty good, and worth repeating. It's a cheap way to update, I know, but I think the points stand up very well, especially in light of last year's on- and off-field developments.

1. You can't make a band sound good unless all the players sound good.
2. The band can't play well unless all the players are playing well.
3. Band players can't play well without investing significant time and energy to do so.
4. Experience and time served count for nothing if you're not working at your music.
5. Enthusiasm for the task and attitude are huge factors, but only if supported by persistent attention to details, and a willingness to change.
6. The point of a band practice is to refine what you bring to the hall. The more you bring, the better we can be. The reverse holds true also.