The Captain's Corner

A man sat at a metro station in Washington, DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the...

The fall has passed by quickly - but not without incident. Here we are into the Christmas week and time to reflect on the past, present and future - no, not as ghosts but in truly real life fashion. In the past 4 months our piping community has witnessed too many passings for any season... for me with the untimely deaths of both Scott MacAulay and Duncan Gibson for sure. The Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band family is still grieving the additional losses of Jackie Fair and Isabel Davidson. Piping lost one of the last Robert Reid students in the passing of Willie Connell. For this, I will dedicate the present to an appreciation and thanksgiving for life, friends and family and extend best wishes for the future to all. May our immediate year ahead be full of promise and prosperity, in spite of the doom and gloom brought upon by the current recession. We still have our music making events like Winter Storm and other gatherings more important than ever... hope to see you in the New Year... Merry C...

Strange the thoughts that go through your mind after an emotional event like the tribute to Scott MacAulay on Sunday last. So many friends gathered for a singular purpose - Mike Grey, Bob Worrall, Jim McGillivray, Ruth Sutherland, Rob Crabtree, Lynda Mackay, Jessica Dent, Rick Tersteeg were the performers - each adding a special musical tribute to the many remembrances of Scott. I read with interest the parallels drawn my Michael Grey in his blog (When Pipers Die) and this immediately caused me to recollect the one thing mentioned so often on Sunday - "I wish someone could do Name that Piper "...but that was a MacAulay/Dickie phenomenon that kept all of us in stitches some 20 years ago.... clever to say the least... their antics on stage or in a pub would bring tears of laughter to any of those caught in their satirical episodes. Well I remember them bringing the house down in Vancouver as their road show roared into the annual BC Pipers Indoors in the mid 80's. They imm...

Today might be the last real day of Indian summer in this part of the country. The chains and plow are on my tractor, so bring on the snow! But also, lets bring on the cold weather indoor piping and drumming events. In some cases, workshops - other cases, contests. And like other years, we have a full slate starting with the George Sherriff Memorial Invitational, November 15, organized by Bob Worrall and heavily endorsed by the Hamilton Branch of the PPBSO. Bob is also the headliner in an evening of piping and discussion at the British Shop on November 21. Billed as a Pipe Nite by owners Iain and Moira Donaldson, this is the first of a series of guest speakers and recitalists, one a month, during our indoor season. The AGM of the PPBSO is scheduled for the next day in Milton, ON. President Bob Allen has just completed his first year of a 2 year term and looks for support from the membership to successfully administer our P&D affairs for 2009. So by the looks of it, November is full...

I have heard it all now.... announced on the PD Online tonite was a vote-in poll for the best bass section at the 2008 World's.... now give me a break and give the pipe band community some space. Just at the time pundits are criticizing the contest format, the judging format and the concept of the qualifier, the PipesDrums Online posts this charade? Holy smokin', I just can't get my head around the concept of judging by international opinion. Come on guys...get your thoughts in gear. Lead drummers like Reid Maxwell, Jim Kilpatrick and Drew Duthart have won the World's by adjudication. What creditibilty would they have if they were issued their prize by an online poll? I can see it now - winners of the World Pipe Band Championship and the Julilee trophy - by the vote of no one who was there - SFU...... where's the thinking here? And who are the smart ones? ... anybody who does not participate and only recognizes the real thing - a World's adjudicated on Glasgow G...

How many of you will be around at age 90? ... and even if you are, will you be able to entertain yourself with the occasional tune?...have the same energy as a man half your age?.... well, congratulations to Ken Thornton of Creemore, Ontario. He began the pipes at the age of 84 and fulfilled a life long ambition to join the RCMP by parading with them in Ottawa shortly afterwards. We, at the Ontario School of Piping had the privilege of assisting Ken along his journey and now watch with great pride as he celebrates his 90th b-day this weekend. As far as pipers go, Ken is a middle aged youngster... and watch for him celebrating his 100th, only a decade away. Ken Thornton is living proof that age is only a figment of the imagination. Pipers are living longer and sustaining a high level of competence well into their senior years. The Grade 1 scene used to be for the younger set only. In my time, players looked to retirement from the big grade often in their 40's. But now, musical life ...

Rumor has it that Boghall and Bathgate are planning to play 8 tenors in their 2009 corps (bobdunsire.com - Bass Sections Forum - September 30,2008). TyFry must be on cloud nine with the potential for all those new mallet sales! I wonder if TyFry blue will replace TyFry pink... But I digress, there was no better response in the forum than that of Peter Hendrickson, formerly of AlCal and now with SFU. "Just like in all other genres of music... everyone plays the melody... all at the same time, right? Once I played this jazz gig, and it was with a piano player. So, I was like, "how many notes does a piano have?" I brought 88 tom toms to the show and I was able to play everything HE played. It was awesome... and he even told me so afterward! He said, "FINALLY, someone to play with that makes MY role less significant!" I was just trying to use all the skills I learned in music school. What they taught me was to, and I quote, "always play the melody! Rule number...

I was walking the other day down the High Street near Glasgow Green and decided to take a leisurely stroll of discovery through Boot Hill, the local graveyard. In front of my eyes was the Pipe Band Grade 1 section - tombstone after tombstone... a virtual family history of the Grade 1 scene over my 50 years of hangin' around. On my left was the Guelph Pipe Band, interred next to the MacNish Distillery... further down the path was the Clan MacFarlane nestled in beside Bob Hardie's Muirheads and Sons - right in front of the City of Victoria and Hal Senyk's Triumph Street. There was the Red Hackle and DUT, Renfrew and the BCal Airways, Black Bottle and Invergordan Distillery with Toronto and District and the City of Toronto in the newly landscaped Ontario area... and a fresh grave...no tombstone yet, but a freshly painted sign...the Windsor Police. Sad reminders all of past greatness...and what's this on my right? ... a freshly dug hole ... must be a funeral coming by soon....

So the highland games season is over and competitive bands are retreating into the woodwork to either lick their wounds, change leadership or the direction in which they are moving or simply improve on this year's performance. All these changes involve player ups and downs. For the competitive band, it seems there is no let up to the personnel or musical issues to maintain their spot in the pecking order or to advance to the next level. What does bother me though is the loss of a band like the Windsor Police. Can it rise from the ashes as did the Toronto Police just a year earlier? I doubt it, since the prime ingredient to a top level band is leadership. Every band has it - FMM with Richard Parkes , Shotts with Robert Mathieson, SLOT with Terry Tully and the list goes on. Name a band and its Pipe Major will immediately come to the fore. Windsor evidently sought a new leader but were not successful and let me tell you from experience, that leaders are not so much created from within...