Sunday, February 5, 2017

Pre-season Piping Plans

I just had a good lesson with my piping instructor, Angus Martin, and we've concocted a plan for my pre-season piping activities. We'll mix in new tunes for the 2017 season proper, but keep last season's tunes ready to go as well.

The first event up will be the Lexington regional qualifier for the Terry McHugh Memorial Solo Piping Contest. Since I'm still working on my new 2/4 march I will be polishing Prince Charles Welcome to Lochaber for the Lexington regional on February 25th.

Angus and I are planning on getting a taste of the EUSPBA at the Cincinnati Piping & Drumming Solo Competition & Workshop on April 8th. This contest opens some more opportunities for me and I'm looking forward to playing some new tunes. For the 2/4 march I'm preparing Captain Norman Orr Ewing and hope to have it ready to go by April 8th.

They're also offering piobaireachd, however EUSPBA rules have Grade 4 piobaireachd play the entire tune while the MWPBA only has Grade 4 pipers play the Urlar and 1st Variation. I don't have the entirety of The Company's Lament nor Lament for the Rowan Tree prepared yet, so no piobaireachd for me.

They are offering, a micro-mini S/R (strathspey, reel) and that is interesting. When Angus and I looked over this he determined that two of the tunes that Fountain Trust Pipe Band is playing will fit the bill (and I need to learn them anyway). So I'm focusing specifically on Aspen Bank and Malts on the Optics for the micro-mini S/R. I'm calling it a micro-mini because they only want 2-parted tunes, normally a S/R or MSR (march, strathspey, reel) is composed of 4-part tunes. A mini-MSR is a 4-part march and 2-part strathspey and reel.

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