T he RSPBA today gave notice of the playing requirements for the major championships next season: The competition dates for 2020 have also been finalised and can be found HERE.
Latest news
The real life of Chris Armstrong
Chris Armstrong has played bagpipes for all but six years of his life. His piping was first nurtured in the Torphichen and Bathgate Novice Juvenile Pipe Band and from those early beginnings, his piping career has been one of sharp, upward trajectory. He’s a complete all-rounder in the piping world: […]
Pipe band retro pictorial: the Scottish 2009
We take another look back over the decade about to end, this time featuring the 2009 Scottish Pipe Band Championships at Dumbarton. In 2009, the Scottish was held on May 16 and was the first major championship of the season. Field Marshal Montgomery won Grade 1, Inveraray won Grade 2, […]
Alisdair McLaren: Ten years after
It’s been a quite a decade. I took over as Director of the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland (NYPBoS) in 2009 shortly after moving to Scotland from Australia. Ten years later, I’m looking forward at marking that decade with an NYPBoS concert on February 8 in Edinburgh at the […]
Alasdair Gillies: he was never happier than when playing his pipes
By Major (Retd) Bruce Hitchings MBE BEM Pipe Major Alasdair Gillies was one of the most outstanding pipers of modern times. Born into a piping family in Glasgow in 1963, he first studied the bagpipe with his father, Norman, himself a leading exponent of ceòl beag. In the early 1970s, […]
European 2009 celebrations
The history and art of Angus MacKay, part 2
By Archibald Campbell of Kilberry There can be no one alive now who ever heard Angus MacKay play, and few who have heard his playing described at first hand. Sandy Cameron remembered him playing piobaireachd at Maryburgh in his father’s house but he must have been quite a young child […]
The history and art of Angus MacKay, part 1
At present 60 issues of the Piping Times are out of print, including almost all of volumes 2, 4, 13 and 16. We receive many requests for important articles which appeared in these issues so we have decided to reprint the most essential ones. Every piper should know something of […]
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 […]
Merry Christmas from bagpipe.news
It is Christmas morning here in Scotland and Bagpipe.news would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and to thank everyone who has visited the site since it launched in May and made it a success. Since then, thousands have visited the piping web magazine and […]
