Back to the bands

The Celtic Festival of Southern Maryland happened this weekend, and this event traditionally marks the start of the competition season in the mid-Atlantic region. I opted out of the solo competitions this time around, choosing instead to focus on my first band competition in about 18 months. Even though I took last year off to concentrate on my solos, I found myself missing the band competition scene.

A few months ago I committed to be a distance member of the grade 3 MacMillan Pipe Band from Rockville, MD. Rockville is a long way to go from Maine, but I have been a groupie of this band for a few years now, so I know most of the folks in it. They play good music and have fun, and that’s what I look for in a band.

This contest was not only my first competition with this band, but also my first band competition at the grade 3 level; it’s not really that much different than the myriad of grade 4 contests I’ve played.

The band ended up winning the MSR contest, out of a field of three bands. This gets the band off on a good start, and we’re looking forward to the medley competition at Fair Hill in a few weeks. At that games I’ll also be looking forward to the grade 1 band contest, featuring the 78th Fraser Highlanders from Ontario. I haven’t decided if I’ll be doing solos at Fair Hill, since I still have a lot of practicing to do on band music, so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep you posted.