Life’s Lessons


Patron HRH The Prince Charles Duke of Rothesay, KG, KT, GCB


L


The National Piping Centre Founders


Sir Brian Ivory CBE FRSE MA CA Lady Ivory DL MA ARCM FRSA Sandy Grant Gordon CBE MA


The National Piping Centre Board Sir Brian Ivory CBE FRSE MA CA Lady Ivory DL MA ARCM FRSA Alan R. Forbes BSc FFA Allan G. Ramsay BA CA Fraser Morrison MA CA


The National Piping Centre is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status.


Registered in Scotland No. 139271 Registered Charity No. SC020391


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PIPING TODAY ISSN 1479 7143


Editor: Roddy MacLeod MBE BSc Features and all editorial enquiries: John Slavin/Designfolk


email: pipingtoday@designfolk.com Mob: 0781 513 1116


PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PIPING CENTRE 2012 Unless otherwise noted, the text, photographs and adverts are copyright © of the writer, photographer or designer. All rights reserved. The contents may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without written permision of the editor, Roddy MacLeod. Excerpts and entire reviews may be printed as long as credit is given to the author, artiste and/or photographer and the Piping Today magazine.


AST year was a difficult year with so many friends and acquaintances in the world of piping passing away. When we were reporting on these sad news stories through the pages of Piping Today, little did I realise that my


own father Malcolm, or as he preferred and was known by all, Calum, aged 81, would also pass away before the end of the year. He died on December 28, 2011. I hope you won’t think it too self-indulgent if I take this opportunity to pay tribute to him for his influence. It was my father who brought piping to our household. His Lewis background and my mother’s Benbecula upbringing made it an inevitable happening that our family would be surrounded by Gaelic language and music. My father dabbled in the pipes and I remember him making our Shetland Collie dog howl when he first attempted to keep the pipes going. Nevertheless, he went at it with enthusiasm like he did many things. I think I was about five-years-old at that time and before I could play anything, he had already encouraged both of my older brothers to start learning the chanter and meantime my sister was Highland dancing. He was an active supporter and member of the fledgling Cumbernauld Caledonia Pipe Band which was a new band in a new town. He was also active in the Gaelic choir and in running local ceilidhs. Over time he supported me by taking me for lessons and by encouraging me to take part in solo piping competitions. His piping hero was Donald MacLeod and I remember he took me to see what was billed as Donald’s last recital, which Donald gave alongside John Burgess in Edinburgh. The recital was an unforgettable experience for me and I remember sneaking in a tape recorder, albeit forbidden, and I recorded the whole recital. I nearly wore that tape out by listening to it so often. I guess that recital started my love of Piobaireachd as I clearly remember Donald’s rendition of A Flame of Wrath for Squinting Patrick and John Burgess playing a magical Battle of Bealach Nam Brog. Their light music was flowing and flawless and I had never seen pipers play with such apparent ease. My father used to say: “Look at Donald and watch how he just seems to pick a spot in the corner of


the room above eye level and he doesn’t flinch. Nothing disturbs his concentration. There is a lesson for you.” He would also just give a shake of the head and a smile at the mesmerising fingers of the incredible John Burgess who was to become a family friend. My father also used to frequently tell me about the standing ovation Iain Morrison got at the National


Mod one year. It might have been in Stirling. “Never heard anything like it!” he used to say. “You need to listen to him!” He was obviously more of an aficionado than I knew. Iain Morrison and Donald MacLeod were both Lewis men of course, so it was only to be expected, but also well deserved that they both found such favour! My father used to say “try to play with some Blas”, a phrase I have since heard from many Gaelic


speakers, particularly those from Lewis, meaning play with a style or an accent or more probably with a bit of the Hebrides in your heart. Whether I have ever managed to play that way or not doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that


he tried to instil that in me and tried to make playing music not just about playing the dots but to make it something much more. Funnily, I always remember the great drummer Alex Duthart saying “it’s not about playing the dots,


it’s about the spaces in between”. He may have gotten that from someone else, I am not sure, but it was a lesson Alex used to often give when I was in the British Caledonian Airways Pipe Band. My father, without me even knowing, was letting me hear the master pipers from a young age and so I was being allowed to absorb great music with all of the nuances and stylistic touches that are hard to teach and sometimes can only be experienced. These were great lessons, perhaps obvious, but maybe the best lessons I have ever had without realising


it. He taught me to listen, he found a great teacher for me, he told me try to develop my own style and to experience the best players first hand. If there was to be a definitive manual for learning music then that advice would surely be embedded in its philosophy and it will be the same advice I will continue to pass on in my role here at The National Piping Centre with a debt of gratitude to my father.


by RODDY MacLEOD MBE, BSc Principal, The National Piping Centre


PIPING TODAY • 5


EDITORIAL


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