The 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band have announced Michael Grey as their new Pipe Major. Mike is a well known figure throughout every facet of the piping world, whether it be solo piping, pipe bands, piping albums and recordings, pipe tune compositions and tune books, piping adjudication, piping tuition, or […]
Tag: Grey’s Notes
Michael Grey’s Notes: the struggle for originality
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #77, 2015. Yonge Street is one of the City of Toronto’s most important thoroughfares. It dissects the whole of the metropolitan area along north-south lines. From Lake Ontario north over 50 kilometers, Yonge covers a lot of diverse, sometimes gritty ground and on […]
Michael Grey’s Notes: PC gone mad!
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #76, 2015. A short note to people who don’t have a lot of height: taller adults snag jobs of higher status and, on average, earn more than other people. Yes. It’s true. Are you offended — you with the 26 inch inside leg? […]
Michael Grey’s Notes: A band, a team, is not a thing. It’s people.
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #72, 2014. If you want to make a fast million, forget trying to invent the perfect set of drones or never-fail chanter reed, like, say, a possible brand like the SkweelAway or, maybe, the NaySkirl 2000. If you’re looking for fast coin to […]
Teachers & Students: Blackley of Hillsdale
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. June, 2022. The writer, Ami McKay, has a great string of words about life in a small town, and that is, “no matter what you do, someone always knew you would.” Cue the local curtain rustler’s chat with the TV reporter, “oh, they was ruthless […]
Michael Grey’s Notes: Bagpipe 999
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #75, 2015. There’s around 2.5 million apps currently available for Android system users and almost the same number for those with iPhones. You don’t need me to tell you that there’s an app for pretty much any need or task a person might […]
Michael Grey’s Notes: Dear Old Glasgow Town
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #71, 2014. You know you’re a seriously regular visitor to Glasgow when someone stops you on the street, asks for directions and you can help – and with mostly reliable info. It’s the last Friday of the Commonwealth Games and thanks to years […]
Michael Grey’s Notes: Seven deadly sins
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #70, 2014. One of the people I teach, a young guy, about 17, is mad as hell about piping. He eats it up. Loves the tunes, loves to play. He’s crazy about piping — a lot like you maybe. I can tell you […]
Supernatural sound of the pipes
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey Piping Today #69, 2014. There’s one thing I know: it was the sound of the bagpipe that attracted me, that made me want to find any damned way I could to learn to play the instrument. Haunting, stirring, soulful, inspiring, soothing, ethereal; bagpipe music touched […]
Michael Grey’s Notes: Angus Mackay on trousers, life and God
GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey Piping Today #68, 2013. Angus Mackay. He’ll be known, at least by name, to many of you. Born on September 10, 1813 — under the astrological sign of Virgo — on Raasay, an island off the north-west coast of Scotland, he was to become one […]