By Dr. Bruce Thomson The only way of fulfilling the mission described in our headline is to literally develop a new tune from scratch. I can only show you how I set about it, not having had the privilege of looking over another composer’s shoulder. As previously, this is being […]
Hints & Tips
This time signature produces melodies of sadness and joy
By Bruce Thomson The 6/4 time signature is not found frequently in pipe music, but I can quote a few examples. The most familiar is perhaps, Farewell to Nigg, by Duncan Johnstone on page 68 of the Scots Guards volume two. They are quite scarce. For example, there is only […]
Tim Cummings: Tunes in A pentatonic major
Theory Top-Up by Tim Cummings Piping Today #74, 2015. In the last article in this series, we examined a scale and its associated tunes which contain fewer than the usual seven notes that make up standard Western musical scales. Specifically, we explored a ‘gapped’ scale in A — that is, […]
Tim Cummings: tunes based on a ‘gapped’ A scale
Theory Top-Up by Tim Cummings Piping Today #73, 2014. When people refer to musical scales, they are normally referring to the conventional major or minor, seven-note, “diatonic” scales. If you’ve been following the recent Piping Today articles on music theory, you’ll know that seven-note scales can also be something other […]
Tunes in the key of A-Major
Theory Top-Up by Tim Cummings Piping Today #72, 2014. This article is the third in an on-going series focusing on specific musical keys found in our Scottish piping repertoire. Having already looked at the two most common musical keys in our light music, D-Major and A-Mixolydian, we’ll now put a […]
Tunes in the key of A-Mixolydian
Theory Top-Up by Tim Cummings Piping Today #71, 2014. In the last issue of Piping Today, we took a close look at the key of D-Major. That article was the first of what will be a series designed to supplement previous articles1 that painted broader pictures of multiple musical keys2. […]
Tunes in the key of D-major
Theory Top-Up by Tim Cummings Piping Today #70, 2014. Piping Today published a series of articles in issues 57, 58, 63 and 64 that addressed the topic of musical keys and how they relate to our music. I understand that some readers have enrolled in therapy since trying to digest […]
A guide to buying a new set of pipes
Even for the experienced piper the variety of different bagpipes and prices can make buying a new, bespoke instrument seem a daunting process. Today, there are a healthy number of manufacturers and it’s fair to say that, in contrast to a generation or two ago, most are producing excellent instruments. […]
Arranging tunes with Finlay MacDonald
Finlay MacDonald is Head of Piping Studies BA (Scottish Music — Piping) degree course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has been in demand as a performer and has toured with top Scottish bands such as Deaf Shepherd, Battlefield Band and Old Blind Dogs, and, as well as having […]
Importance of concert pitch B-flat
Piper and multi-instrumentalist, Calum MacCrimmon of Scottish folk band Breabach, who were nominated for a BBC Radio 2 ‘Best Band’ Folk award of 2011, talks about the importance of having a concert pitch B-flat chanter. Calum attended Celtic Connections in 2004 as part of The National Youth Pipe Band of […]