“Having said that, however, there is still the expectation of uniformity when you compete in Scotland. Performing in that arena presents its own challenges. You always have to remember what a pipe band sounds like, to be true to it. If you mess with it you lose that second and third harmonic that you get when it all comes together. “When I recorded Shotts and Dykehead with
Bagad Brieg, in their album La Boum Ecosse, I didn’t use the normal compression that I might do with a recording, nor did I switch off unused microphones; otherwise I’d have lost the boom that I got from that recording. The 60 to 70 performers on stage at one period of the con- cert gave such a huge amount of rumble that it made the recording what it was. That’s what we heard in the hall. That’s what I tried to put down on the CD. “Working in Scotland, apart from the competition and commercial world, I was also exposed to a much broader range of pip- ing. Working with John Wilson and Simon McKerrell, I gained so much just listening to them talk about different styles and types of music. In the Highlands, too, the sheer en- joyment of the music is apparent, completely separate from competition. I saw people there
that I never saw at competitions. Singing along in Gaelic to a piper playing in the West Highland style is fantastic. Hearing Alasdair Gillies at the Scots Guards Club with a good curry and a pint for a few quid or at the Brit- ish Legion in Inverness; the place was packed. No competition, no pressure of expectations. That love of the music outside of the com- petition spectrum was great to see. Guys like Lorne MacDougall and Rory Campbell: the music these pipers are bringing to the world is phenomenal. Lorne’s album Hello World is outstanding.” Much as it is easier to ask who hasn’t Mur-
ray recorded, it may also be easier to ask what Murray hasn’t done. Add into this his collec- tion of music, Philharmonic, considered by many to be one of the definitive collections of bagpipe tunes in the modern idiom and you get to see Murray as a quiet constant in the bagpipe community. He has gone on to develop bagpipe cases, stand-alone bagpipe tuners and pipe chanter tuning tape. Murray’s enthusiasm for the music of the bagpipe in all its forms and styles is evident, but so is his passion for a quality instrument and quality bagpipe products in general. This desire has seen him design one of the best
and most affordable bagpipe tuners on the mar- ket, the HBT2. Hot on the heels of the HBT2 came the iPhone application, Bagpipe Tuner. Murray also developed Tunetape, a product that was almost begging to be invented, for pipers frustrated with tape that was either too adhesive or too soft, slipping halfway through a performance. “Getting a product to market takes an enormous amount of time and effort,” he said. “Whether it’s chanter tape or a bagpipe tuner, the research and the development is the key. Even with the iPhone app, the development of the programme is very expensive. The iPhone app is, I believe, a great introduction to bagpipe tuning. I believe a standalone tuner, though, should be in every pipe bag. I can’t get around this concept that you should only be able to tune by your ear. All musicians have tuners in their pocket or bag. Whether they use them constantly or not, it doesn’t matter. The key to tuning is to train your ears and the best way, I believe, to achieve that is to use a tuner to check what you are hearing. As your skills develop, your blowing steadies while you tune, therefore your skill increases. It’s obvious. “If you go into a studio, you always have a
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PIPING TODAY • 14
tuner. It saves time and money when recording. On the boards, the confidence that you take with you when you can tune your drones, and chanter, is evident. The only way to achieve that, in the most part, is to practise it, and practise it with a tuner. It’s a device that can help many pipers achieve what may be difficult for them to do.” Ten years with Victoria Police Pipe Band culminating with the 1998 World Pipe Band Championship, HYPE TV, the Silver Medal at the RU Brown Piobaireachd competition in 2003, founding the Victorian Pipers Associa- tion with Ian Lyons and Brian Niven, multiple recordings with Victoria Police Pipe Band, including the legendary Masterblasters CD, numerous recording and production credits of piping luminaries — it’s a full list. What does the future hold for Murray Blair?
A new recording for Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in New York, continuing product development (the HBT3 is on the cards) and with Bagpiper Case having sponsored a recital competition on the eve of the Australian Pipe Band Championships in Ballarat this Easter, the piping roots set in Australia by Jimmy Blair and his son Donald are strong, and through Murray, getting stronger. l
BAND PROFILE PROFILE
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