Blowing excellent tone and having a stable,
well-balanced and harmonic pipe is a hallmark of Ian Lyons’ playing. It is interesting to note that Ian can move between the worlds of syn- thetic and cane with ease and can produce a sound that meets the critical benchmark set by luminaries such as Richard Parkes when play- ing cane and sheepskin or receiving “Bagpipe superb throughout. Strong presentation” on piobaireachd crit sheets from Bob Worrall when playing synthetic. He said: “I’ve always been a bit OCD, a bit
obsessive, about sound. When I was 14, my fa- ther asked me to tune the Banbridge Pipe Band by ear, and I was able to do it. I’ve always been good with that. I’ve never had an issue about tuning my pipes. Later on, I learned everything I know about setting up a pipe band and getting good tone from my time with Victoria Police and then perfected those skills during my time with 78ths. The time we spent at Victoria Police as a group, talking about it; talking about tone, was just mad. Years of it. In any normal person’s timeframe, it would equate to about 30 years of talking about tone. Not just two practices a week, we were continually talking about tone, perfecting it, not just achieving it. My dad instilled it in me early on, ‘If you can’t blow tone, you just won’t get there.’ In the 1980s, in a lot of the top bands, pipe majors would pick players based on their ability to blow tone. It’s different now, you have to be both an excellent player and have excellent tone.” Looking at that period, and the Victoria
Police pipe set-up, Ian has a different view to some on their sound. “Until I came to Australia, I’d only ever
played sheepskin and cane. I’d barely ever seen a synthetic bag or a plastic reed. We knew that the sheepskin and cane system was hard to run in Australian conditions. In Victoria Police, we developed our own sound, our own distinct formulae. It worked, and we stuck with it,” he explained. “We always used cane as a benchmark and
tried to replicate that sound as best we could with synthetic, but knew deep down that synthetic could never quite get us there. The pay-off was the stability and longevity in our sometimes extreme weather conditions. Hav- ing vision and faith in a sound that was distinct and identifiable as their sound, may have been the key. “Aim for developing excellent tonal quality. Stick with it. Develop it. In a lot of ways, we
PIPING TODAY • 12
had an advantage in that we had control. Our system of the time was not overly affected by weather. It could have been hot and sunny or lashing down. We could control our instru- ments regardless of the climate. Bands these days seem to be searching for something or often, searching for ‘something else’. They listen
“The ultimate drone sound comes from cane but it does come with its own pitfalls. Cane is the ultimate bagpipe reed sound but the right synthetics can create a great bagpipe sound as well,” he added. “Moose products were devel- oped to make piping a more accessible hobby to more people. The synthetic revolution has
‘There are some fantastic compositions out there. They’re technical. They’ve got heaps of
harmonies, however, you’ve still have to appeal to the demographic to which you’re playing. Judges are a big part of your audience’
to a band that has a great sound and chase that instead of developing, working and sticking to a system that suits them.” This excellence in tone was developed early and continued to evolve in that short but impressive Victoria Police era. In this game- changing period, Victoria Police Pipe Band produced some of the greatest recordings and live performances ever. “Nat Russell was the ‘Grand Architect’ of that whole period,” admitted Ian. “His leadership and drive was the key to Victoria Police. Intelligent leaders use all their skills to get the best out of their people. Nat was making everything happen at the time and our constancy as a team was an essential part of it. “There has been talk in the past that Victoria
Police was a ‘guest player project’. Untrue. We won the Worlds with 14 pipers, 10 of whom were there from beginning to end. It was truly a Champion Team, not a Team of Champions. Most of what I learned about sound within pipe bands and developing tone, I learned from Robert Crozier and Ross Bates. Every single step of the development of our sound was discussed hundreds of times. The qual- ity, characteristics and combinations of reeds, chanters, drying systems was thrashed out on a continual basis. Three to four times a week. Hours at a time.” There is no doubt that Victoria Police was
the formative influence on Ian Lyons’ develop- ment as a Grade 1 player and pipe major in Australia. Yet Ian plays sheepskin and cane with FMM. In Australia, he plays his own, Moose Products synthetic bag, valves and drying sys- tem developed with Nigel Hyland, and moves comfortably between the two.
made it easier for kids to play, for older pipers to play. It’s made it easier to set pipes up and not have to play them every day, or have to spend great amounts of time re-seasoning bags and keep drones going. It’s been of great assistance to lower grade bands and players to get their pipes up, steady with good tone throughout a performance. That’s not to say we want to make it ‘easy’, it’s not all about that. It assists in raising the reliability of the instrument for many hobbyist players who may otherwise give up due to the vagaries of cane, regardless of the climate.” That Victoria Police experience and the antipodean influence to feel free to push the traditional boundaries may have influenced Ian in his product development, but he is a still a traditionalist when it comes to competition medley construction. “To a certain extent, you have to look at what judges are looking for. My dad used to say to me, ‘No matter what you do, I will never like heavy metal music’. That idea goes for pipe bands as well. There are some fantastic compositions out there. They’re tech- nical. They’ve got heaps of harmonies, however, you’ve still have to appeal to the demographic to which you’re playing. Judges are a big part of your audience.” When asked how that sits with the ground-
breaking way Victoria Police influenced medley construction, Ian believes that it is about keeping the interest of the judges. “Med- leys sometimes have too much going on, too many harmonies and too much for the judge to absorb. Keep it simple. Select tunes that work well together, and have some new music within the medley, but it has to work with the whole of the medley.”
PROFILE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52