manx celtic music and dance

Ellan Vannin Pipes & Drums band members attend Piping Course in Scotland

03 Aug 2013

Mark Cowley having tuning instruction from Glenn Brown
Mark Cowley having tuning instruction from Glenn Brown

Two pipers from the Island’s only pipe band recently attended an intensive week long course of instruction at The National Piping Centre (NPC) in Glasgow.
The NPC is now internationally recognised as the centre of excellence for the Great Highland Bagpipe and its music, and provides facilities and tuition of the very highest quality for students of the instrument.
The Centre is housed in a very grand looking former church building to the North of Glasgow city centre, and consists of a large auditorium, reference library, Museum of Piping, shop, conference facilities, hotel & restaurant.
However, it was to the labyrinth of rehearsal rooms housed in the basement of the building that our intrepid local pipers headed for five full days of instruction from some of the most experienced and talented pipers of the day.
Paul Davenport and Mark Cowley (Pipe Major and Pipe Sergeant respectively of the local band) spent five very busy days being put through their paces.
“We were both quite nervous to begin with” said Paul. “But the staff soon settled us down, and we were really too busy to have any time to worry”. “What struck us straight away was just how busy the Centre is. From 8 am to 8 pm there is a constant stream of people coming and going for lessons, rehearsal, preparation for exams and contests and so on. The dozen or so full-time teaching staff are kept very busy”.
Whilst getting plenty of instruction on their personal playing, Paul and Mark also spent a lot of time on instrument set-up and tuning in the pipe band context. Paul continues: “The Bagpipe is actually a very technical instrument to tune properly: three drone reeds with four tuning slides, and the chanter reed with nine notes, each of which should be individually tuned. There’s a lot going on, and getting the balance just right on one instrument is hard enough, but then to apply that to a whole corps of pipers across the band is another step up again”.
Mark added: “Unfortunately there a lot of very badly tuned sets of pipes being played, which can be where the instrument gets a bad name. If we want the Island’s only band to sound at its best, we need the skills and knowledge base to set the band up properly. Instrument maintenance and manipulation of the cane reeds is also very important”.
“We have had a lot of input on how to run band rehearsal sessions as well” Mark commented, “so we are hoping that when we bring all this back to the band on the Island, we will be able to help improve the overall standards”.
Paul and Mark were also fortunate to attend band practice with two of the top Grade 1 bands during their stay in Glasgow.  
“Two of our Instructors were Chris Armstrong, Pipe Major of Scottish Power Pipe Band, and Glenn Brown, Pipe Sergeant at  Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band” said Paul. “They both kindly invited us along to an evening rehearsal with their bands, which were fantastic experiences”.
Scottish Power are an up & coming band, tipped by many as potential World Champions very soon (see: www.scottishpowerpipeband.com ); and Shotts & Dykehead have a fantastic tradition & history (see: www.shottspipeband.com ).
“These guys are leagues ahead of us in skills and experience, but seeing how they set-up and play was a real insight and great help to us”, added Mark.
After a week of hard work that included quite literally, blood, a lot of sweat, and very nearly some tears, Paul and Mark are now back on the Island, hoping to pass on their new found skills and experiences to their friends in the Island’s only Pipe Band.
www.thepipingcentre.co.uk
 

Recent News

Archive by Year