Walk A Mile For Mental Health

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had piped for the Walk A Mile For Mental Health. This was the view from my spot at the front of the "parade". Not sure that you can make him out in the picture (he is the gentleman with the walking stick)but our province's wonderful Lieutenant Governor, Graydon Nicholas, was in the front row leading the walk. Later he openly spoke of the mental health challenges that one of his siblings had dealt with. We can no longer allow people to suffer in silence or be stigmatized!!

On Track

It's been a pretty decent week so far in terms of practice. On Tuesday evening I had a very good session on chanter and then last evening over an hour of chanter + pipes. I've traded out my band chanter for my personal chanter and I've managed to get the drones reasonably close to tuned to the change in pitch. Last night was also a GREAT night because my recently adopted team, the Boston Red Sox, won the World Series.

A Good Weekend

Well, no sooner did I post my practice goals late last week than I missed the day one objective :( . Friday evening we got home from work and decided to try the new fish & chips takeout shop that has been opened in the St Mary's FN Plaza. Even though it contributed to me not practicing, I have to say it was a pretty good decision :) Saturday was much better. We had a good band practice with some new music distributed and we had a chance to play with the drums corps - 7 snares + 2 tenors + a bass. Last year we were only 3 + 1 + 1 so it is great to have so many new players. We expect to have a dozen in the pipe corps so we should be a force to reckon with on the highland games circuit this summer! Sunday was also a good day of practice. I spent a lot of time working on the 6/8's (A Tune For Emily and Onaping Falls) and I have them pretty well confirmed them to memory. Next step is to increase the tempo. I also started to work on my planned solo piece - The Atholl and Breadalbane Gathering. After the chanter work I played pipes for quite a while. Still trying to find a way to get my posture squared up when playing rather than having my left shoulder so elevated. Hopefully this will ease the pain that I am experiencing in my left shoulder and arm. Judging from this picture I need to work on keeping my fingers closer to the chanter as well!!!

Practice Goals

This has not been a very productive week for practicing. Oh well, no sense in complainin', better to just focus on being more dedicated in the coming week. So, here are my goals: 1. At least 30 minutes of chanter tonight focussing on the 6/8's and on the Strathspey 2. A good effort at Academy and band practise tomorrow 3. At least 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon 4. 3 evenings of practise next week, including at least 2 sessions on pipes. OK, so now its out there. I'll report on success this time next week.

One of the things I'm finding out is that once you reach a basic level of proficiency, there are no end of charity events for which organizers are keen to have a piper (or a pipe band). In the summertime I played at a Walk for the alzheimer society, a couple of weeks ago it was for a mental health group and last night I got asked if I could pipe today at a UN flag raising on the grounds of the provincial legislature. Unfortunately, a work committment prevents me from playing today. It would've been an honour for me as a former Army-type to honour those who have served on UN peacekeeping missions. On the upside, one of my bandmates who is a regular force RCR piper is doing the gig. He is a great young piper - much more proficient than me - so the attendees will be treated to some great music.

My Pipes and My Kilts

In case any of you are wondering, I play McCallum AB2 pipes with a synthetic bag and Ross cannister system, EZ Drone reeds and a band issue poly chanter. I do have a beautiful ABW chanter that I plan to use for solo playing but I've not yet found a reed for it so it sits in my pipe case for the moment. As for my kilts - our band wears the Gordon Modern tartan (the green kilt) with grey hose, yellow flashes, black waistcoat, white shirt and a custom FSSAPB tie. I also have a handmade kilt, traditional 8-yard knife-pleated in 16 oz fabric from MacIssac Kiltmakers of Cape Breton in the MacDougall Modern tartan (the red one) and a 5-yard box-pleated MacDougall Ancient kilt from Keltoi in Ontario. My next kilt (if I can ever afford it) will be a Murphy (also known as Tara) tartan to honour my mother's family.

Here's a picture from a more recent gig. The other piper is Allan, the chap that I mentioned was the motivator for me to take up learning. The scene is a gymnasium at the University of New Brunswick where we both work. The event was a dodgeball tournament and as you can see, the team we were leading onto the floor (into battle?) had a scottish theme. The other teams stood up and clapped as we paraded around the gym. Very fun!

This is a picture from my first "real" solo piping gig, back in the winter of 2012. I was definitely not qualified to play in public but these guys were desperate to have a piper lead them out onto the ice for their corporate bonspeil so I agreed to do it. As bad as I was, they LOVED it and they won a prize for their grand entrance. Best of all, they made a small cash donation to my pipe band in appreciation of my effort.

My New Blog

I've decided to start this blog to chronicle my development as a piper. I have had experience with blogging before and have found it an effective way to hold myself accountable for progress. If others want to read it, great. If not, so be it! Since the journey started approximately three years ago, perhaps a little history is in order. For those who have simply stumbled upon this blog while "surfing the net", let me start by saying that I have Scottish roots on my father's side. I also have Irish roots, on my mother's side, and (like most Canadians) a smattering of other ethnic connections including Quebec French. Both my father and I attended the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario and then served in the Army, he as an Military Engineer and me as a Logistician (formerly known as the Service Corps). Even before I joined the military I had a love of pipe music. At RMC there was professional piping instruction available to interested learners but since I already played a couple of instruments, I chose not to avail myself of the opportunity. This is something that I regretted for years afterwards. Skip ahead twenty years and I moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick where there is a very high quality pipe band, the Fredericton Society of Saint Andrew Pipe Band. On Saturday mornings they teach lessons at a school quite near my home and on Wednesday evening the band practised so from time-to-time I would hear the skirl of the pipes on the wind. I kept thinking that I should drop by and see about lessons but I never did. Roughly three years ago though I was attending one of their summer concerts and a person I recognized from where I work was playing with the beginner band and he mentioned their lesson program. I vowed that I would "Just Do It" that fall and indeed I did. Over the past three years my journey has been slow but steady. With instruction from several experienced and patient pipers - Tom, Sandy, Chris and Gord - I have progressed to the point where I now play with the beginner band (known in piping as a Grade 5 band) for concerts, parades and Highland Games competitions. I have also had my first summer of Grade 5 solo competitions.