New beginnings
And another chapter in the life of the Keydet Piper has come to a close. As of yesterday, after submitting my students’ semester grades and attending the final faculty meeting, I am no longer employed by Fryeburg Academy. It’s been four years since I moved to Maine, and I’ve really enjoyed my time here, but it’s time to move on.
I’ve received many comments and compliments from my students and colleagues over the past few days, and many of them have said they’re going to miss my bagpipes. My piping has come a long way since I moved to Maine actually, in spite of the fact that there’s not a very high concentration of pipers in northern New England.
When I moved here, I was competing in grade 3 solos with no real intentions of moving up. I won piper of the day at the New Hampshire Highland Games in 2006, then again at a very small indoor contest at the end of October, and at the recommendation of the judge there I decided to apply for an upgrade. My initial request to move to grade 2 was denied, but I appealed and was moved up. I had no intention of moving beyond grade 2 at the time, until a judge at the Maine Highland Games in 2008 made a rather casual comment that I wouldn’t be in grade 2 for much longer. I set the goal of moving up after 2009, and I achieved that goal.
I also joined a band not long after moving, the newly-promoted grade 4 Graham Highlanders of St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont. I played with them for 2007 and 2008, then left to focus on my solo competitions. I met some good people in the band, and have a few very close friends from that experience.
Enough suspense already: where am I going? I’ll be moving to the Washington, DC area to start a graduate program at the University of Maryland in College Park. I’m pursuing a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, with the intention of working in the nuclear industry. I’m pretty excited about that,
I’ll still be actively piping, and will be competing with MacMillan Pipe Band at the following venues in 2010 (there may be some others I have missed). Hope to see you there!
- Glengarry Highland Games, Maxville, Ontario, July 31
- Virginia Scottish Games, The Plains, VA, September 5
- Ligonier Highland Games, Ligonier, PA, September 11, 2010
- Celtic Classic, Bethlehem, PA, September 24-26
Reflections on competitions
This is a post that I’ve been meaning to write for about a week now, but am finally getting around to it. Now that I’ve had a few weeks to look back on my first (and now second) competitions in grade 1, I have a few thoughts about my experiences so far in the premier amateur grade.
- Sound is very important in grade 1. The judges expect the instrument to be well set, very well tuned, and to be steadily blown. I went into my first contest with the same approach I used last year in grade 2, and while I didn’t get slammed by the judges they all commented that my pipes could be sweeter. Listening to the others in the grade, I see what they meant. While practicing since then, I listened very carefully to my pipes, and I feel that I’m able to tune the drones better than I was, and better able to keep them in tune. It’s still not perfect, but when listening with a more critical ear it’s amazing what you hear.
- Expression is very important. Every player in grade 1 is generally very good technically, and it’s expression and musicality that sets the best ones apart. In my 2/4 march this weekend the judge intentionally chose the same tune as the player who ended up winning the event; she told me after that I played very well (placed 4th out of 8), and in order to beat the winner I should concentrate on making the phrasing a bit more aggressive, especially at the beginning of the part. I’m not exactly certain what she means by that, but I recorded my performance so I’ll listen to it and see if I can learn from it.
After my second competition, I feel like I actually belong in grade 1, which if you were following the blog a few weeks ago was something that was on my mind. Although I broke down in my strathspey and reel, I placed in the middle of the pack in the other competitions, so I’m starting to feel better about this year. I’m still not planning to do as many competitions as I did last year, but I’ll definitely feel more comfortable about competing this year.
On geekiness
This weekend I’ve taken two of my students (from school, not piping students) to participate in a chess tournament. I’ve never been to one before, and it’s been interesting to see what’s involved.
As the first round of games came to an end and players started collecting in the lobby of the hotel, I was reminded of a joke, a shaggy dog story, with the punchline being something about “chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.” I’ll wait for the groans to subside before I continue.
I thought several times about how many of the players appear to be pretty nerdy, since all they seemed to talk about was chess: strategies, players, situations they had encountered in games. After a while though I realized I don’t have any right to judge them for that.
I am indeed obsessed with bagpipes, but it doesn’t consume my being, and I am quite capable of carrying on a conversation with both pipers non-pipers about non-piping topics. No really, I am. But when there’s a bunch of pipers at a piping event, like a highland games or workshop, all we talk about is bagpipes.
Just like the chess nuts, pipers have a common connection, so it’s what we talk about when we get together. I retract my former comments about them being nerds and accept that they have the same level of devotion to a hobby that I have.
As they say, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones (bad pun on that cliche here). Or, as I prefer to say, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t walk around naked.
2010 Resolution: Make no New Year’s Resolutions
Every blog I follow has had a post reflecting on 2009 and/or looking ahead to 2010, so why should this blog be any different? I’ll stay away from the retrospective and stick to the future, because the past can’t be changed and it doesn’t help to dwell on it after extracting its lessons.
I stopped making New Year resolutions a long time ago, because in all honesty I usually forget them by February. In addition to usually being pretty vague (“I’m going to get more exercise and procrastinate less”) and therefore difficult to assess at the end of the year, they’re pretty generic and more often than not go forgotten and unaccomplished. So I’ve stopped making them.
Instead, I come up with a list of things I want to do during the year. They’re not necessarily for personal edification, just things I want to do. They’re better than your standard resolution because it’s a lot easier to decide if they were accomplished: like a checklist, it’s either done or it isn’t.
So here’s my list for 2010, in no particular order. Some are related to piping, some not, but all stuff I want to do.
- Learn two new piobaireachds. I don’t have tunes in mind, but since I play several amach tunes I would like to learn at least one new fosgailte tune and maybe another brebach. I will consult the silver medal list to see what’s recommended.
- Play one new light music tune of each type in competition. I know enough tunes to be able to play in grade 1 solos, but learning more is the way to get better. Proposed tunes to learn: The Braes of Castle Grant (2/4 march), Cabar Feidh (strathspey), Dolina MacKay (reel), Joe McGann’s Fiddle (hornpipe), Donald Cameron’s Powder Horn (jig), Ellenorr (6/8 march).
- Compete with a grade 3 band. I’ve played in grade 4 and 5 band contests, and I’m ready for more of a challenge. Although I’ve been invited to play with a grade 2 and a grade 1 band, I don’t have the time to put into keeping those repertoires up to that level . A grade 3 band is a level that will challenge me to learn new material, and it’s the most practical level for me to be a distance player. Look out MacMillan, here I come.
- Restart my academic career. This is my fifth year teaching high school, and it’s fun and all, but it’s more fun to be a student. More details will follow as they become available.
- Learn to juggle. This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and this is as good a time as any to get started. K and I got a juggling lesson from a very cool shop on New Year’s Eve and walked away with a set of juggling objects. Mine are very cool and have pirates on them.
The oddity that are blog stats
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a week, and I’m actually considering abandoning the blog idea entirely. The time and energy it takes to be a good blogger is quite extensive, and I’m still undecided on the positive impact of a blog. In fact the blog is now ineffectual as a way of promoting my piping services to potential clients (just try a Google search for bagpipes in Maine and I’m nowhere to be found), which was the whole reason that I started making websites some six years ago.
Anyway, I logged in today to make a short post. WordPress is kind enough to provide some stats on the blog, and shows a nice little graph of visits to my site by day. This is the graph that greeted me today:
Notice a relatively consistent number of visitors over the past two weeks, then the big spike in traffic yesterday. Why? I have no freaking idea. There’s often an increase after I make a post, especially if I post it on Twitter or Facebook, but there’s been none of that yesterday. No visiting forums and touting my website around, no handing out business cards. Just more visits. I don’t get it. Thanks for coming here though!
Just added: the quest for classic movies
In 1998, the American Film Institute published a list of the top 100 American movies of all time, the ones that everyone should see. I’m starting a quest to watch all of them. Currently I have seen 41 of these movies, which through a lengthy and complicated calculation I’ve been to determine is 41%.
I’ll be keeping track on this page, much like I’m keeping track of my quest to play my bagpipes in each of the 50 states. Feel free to check back and offer your suggestions for the next movie I need to see.
Yar mateys
I’ve just realized that International Talk Like A Pirate Day is coming up soon: September 19, to be exact. That also happens to be the date of the New Hampshire Highland Games, during which I will be playing in the solo competitions. You can believe that I’ll be talking like a pirate:
- “Yar, ye say there be two to play a’fore me? That be fine.”
- “Yar, for me piobaireachd today I be playing Black Beard Donald’s March.”
- “Yar, me strathspey today be The Pirate’s Hook” (any other day it’d be The Shepherd’s Crook)
Since this will fall on Saturday, I’ll have to celebrate in my classes on Friday. The sad thing is this: my school’s homecoming is the following week, and our mascot is the Raider (like a pirate). If homecoming were a week earlier it would be perfect!
What’s wrong with this picture?
I’ve seen this before but came across it again this morning. Things that make you go crazy.
Reminds me of home
I saw this today on the illustrious Fail Blog:
see more Fail Blog
It caught my attention because of the station stamp in the bottom right hand corner: WBAL in Baltimore. I used to watch that channel when I lived in Maryland. I’m so proud!
Any by the way if you’re not sure what’s wrong with that picture, go look it up. Hint: I’m pretty sure that Prince Harry spends the majority of his time on dry land.
Go Maryland… you rock!
An accustomed ear
I was listening to Weekend Edition this morning on NPR and there was a brief chat with musician Paolo Nutini about his new album. In the introduction, interviewer Scott Simon identified Nutini as being Scottish, which was immediately obvious as soon as the singer spoke for himself. He talked for a while, and it was clear that Simon had a terrible time trying to figure out what he was saying.
The funny is that I didn’t have any trouble with that. At all. It was perfectly clear to me what he was saying. Having been around a number of Scottish people off and on over the last few years I seem to have gotten used to the accent, and if he hadn’t been described as being Scottish in the introduction I’m not sure I would have really noticed the change in accent for a few minutes.
I guess you just get used to it.
Glasgow Lands Wrapup
Yesterday was the Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival in western Massachusetts, my fourth solo competition of the season. The forecast was for quite a lot of rain, but it turned out to be a very nice day. The humidity in the morning was oppressive, but in the afternoon in seemed to break and turned out to be nearly perfect. Alas I didn’t have my videographer, so there is not a visual or audio record of the day’s events, but I’ll recount now as best I can.
This was another games with only two solo events, piobaireachd and MSR. It was the MSR I played first, and judge Peter Kent picked Mrs. John MacColl of my two marches. It was the first time I’ve played that tune in competition this year, and that considered it came out fairly well. I also switched my strathspey to Shepherd’s Crook, replacing Arniston Castle, and the strathspey I felt went very nicely. The reel started well, but I had a memory bubble in the first part (the same place as my first mistake in the reel in this video). The judge commented after I finished that I “skidded, but didn’t wreck,” which was a good way to put it. I spoke to him after the competitions were over and said that mistake had knocked me out of the top prizes for the day. As it was I came out 5th place of 17 people, and after that slip I was quite pleased with the result.
I then went to play my piobaireachd, and I was extremely satisfied with it. I did feel that I couldn’t really get my pipes in tune (I felt that about the MSR as well), but after messing with it for a while I decided that it wasn’t going to get much better and just went with it. Judge Nancy seemed to think it was ok though, so I’m thinking that I might have been trying to get it perfect when I had already gotten it to the point where it was very good. I don’t have much else to say besides first place, so I’m happy. They had split the grade 2 piobaireachd into two parts, so I was only played against six or seven others in this event.
It was after my solos that I really started enjoying myself though; I wandered off to get some lunch (fish and chips were good, but not as good as the ones I had had in Scotland; go figure), and spent some time waiting for results while chatting with some judges and fellow competitors. I think my favorite part of going to the games is seeing the other people there, and seeing the same people at many events. I then grabbed my notepad and folding chair and settled in to judge the pipe band contest from the sideline.
The grade 4 medley contest was enjoyable, and it’s been a while since I was able to watch a band contest at this level all the way through. Stuart Highlanders were on first, and they started well with a very strong performance for grade 4. They were only eclipsed by the Schenectady Pipe Band, who played a medley worthy of grade 3, and were the clear winners. For the record, I had picked all five bands in the order in which they finished, so that made me feel like I know what I’m talking about.
I wasn’t so successful with the grade 3 MSR, though I did pick the winner correctly. The Stuart Highlanders were the last band to play, and they were the clear winners in my opinion (and the real judges’ opinions as well, apparently). Of the seven bands that played, they were the only one in the prize list I had picked correctly.
The grade 1 contest was very enjoyable, and featured the east coast’s two grade 1 band, City of Washington and Oran Mor, as well as a challenge up from the grade 2 Manchester Pipe Band. There was an MSR and medley contest, and again it turned out I had picked the order correctly in both events. I wasn’t taking notes for this one, but I went with my overall impression, and I felt the results were pretty clear.
I watched the closing massed bands from the sideline and was somewhat surprised to hear my name announced as half of a tie for piper of the day. I figured the 5th place would knock me out of contention, but I guess not. The award is a story for another day, but I’m not upset or anything. Seriously.
The only thing that could have made the day better was if I had been able to stay for the Enter The Haggis contest in the evening, but with a long drive home I figured I had better get on the road. It was easy to spot the people who had come in just for the Haggis concert, as they are a unique crew. That’s a story for another day again.
Traditional music festivals
I spend a number of weekends each summer at highland games all over the northeast (as well as some further afield), but today I’ll be at the Common Ground Roots Music and Arts Festival. There are two weeks of instruction and master classes in all kinds of music, arts, and academic classes, and the weekend between the two is the music and arts festival.
I’ve been once before, but not for several years. A short summary: excellent musicians playing excellent music all day. There are four main venues and a complete schedule of performers at each, playing individually or in small groups. The music ranges from Appalachian and bluegrass to rock and blues, Celtic to jazz, with just about everything you can imagine thrown in somewhere.
For anyone even remotely interested in music, the festival is a great way to spend a summer day. I’m looking forward to it.
My just desserts
Yesterday I posted about a friend of mine who had survived a plane crash. Pretty amazing that he was able to walk away from the plane, which was completely destroyed.
I have to admit an incorrect assumption; my last sentence indicated that I thought the pilot would agree with me that it was just one of those things that happens. I got an email from him yesterday afternoon in which gave the following quote:”My Guardian Angel apparently was with me – I walked away basically unscathed.” Note the capitalization too.
It doesn’t seem like his style, but surviving something like this could certainly make you think about such things. It could be one of things that people say; my mother always like to say “knock on wood,” but I don’t think she seriously believes in it. It could be the same with the lottery ticket comment that spawned the post in the first place, said by the DPS just to reiterate how amazing it was that the pilot survived.
Does he believe he was saved by a Guardian Angel? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter though; I’ll eat my humble pie with a side of humility.
A bad sign?
I’m currently on hold, waiting to speak with customer service rep for a certain satellite radio company. I won’t name the company, but they’re not joking, if you get the pun.
Does it say anything about a radio company that the hold music is unintelligible because of poor sound quality and frequent static?
Very entertaining video
I found this video this morning: it’s tremendously entertaining. It doesn’t have anything to do with bagpipes, but it’s still fun.
Chrome
I’m hoping that Google comes out with Chrome for Mac sometime in the near future. I use it on my Windows machine at school, and it’s a great browser. It’s much better than Internet Explorer, but it doesn’t take much to be better than IE. Match the superior browser with the superior operating system and you’d have a winning combination!
Memorial Day Reflections
http://www.ace-clipart.com/american-flag-photos-01.html
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day set aside in 1868 to remember the sacrifices of those who have given their lives in the service of this nation. I won’t spout political rhetoric or get into the philosophy of protecting the US and the people who live there (I’m not sure how much the US actually needs protecting these days), but I do think it’s important to remember those who have served and died. Don’t focus on the wars, battles, or skirmishes, but on the people who fought in them.
Keep in mind that many of the war dead have been young men under the age of 25. Many of them would have seen their friends and comrades dying all around them moments before their own death, and that’s something that no one, especially one so young, should have to face. It’s no wonder that those who survive combat are forever affected by its memory.
The national moment of remembrance happens at 3:00 pm local time today, and I encourage you to take a minute to reflect on the young people who have had their lives cut short by the horrors of war. Whether they believed in a greater cause, saw the military as the only way out of their home town, or were attracted by the enlistment benefits, they died in ways that no one ever should. Remember that, and remember them. We owe them more on this day.
Dedicated to my Brother Rat, Capt (post) Luke Wullenwaber, killed in action in Khaladiyah, Iraq on November 16, 2004.
A Movie Ponderable
I’m watching The Time Machine on DVD at the moment, the 1960 version. I’m enjoying it so far, but it’s still early. The beginning of the movie opens with four gentlemen invited to dinner at the home of a mutual friend. The friend arrives late, dirty and disheveled, after returning from the distant future.
I’ll say that again: the man arrives late, just as the others are sitting down to dinner. Certainly, any man with a time machine has no excuse for arriving late for anything? If he returned promptly at 8:00 for dinner, couldn’t he have made it five minutes earlier? Or a whole hour, and give himself time to get cleaned up before his friends arrived?
Marty McFly made the same realization in Back to the Future; just made me wonder.
Piper Spotlight: Gavin Stoddart
Here’s another installment of Piper Spotlight, this time focusing on P/M Gavin Stoddart, MBE BEM. Gavin is an army piper, playing first with the Scots Guards and later with Royal Highland Fusiliers. He spent the last 16 years of his army career as director of the Army School of Bagpipe Music. His professional competition career lasted only ten years, but was certainly illustrious: he won the gold medal at Oban in 1981 and Inverness in 1983, and won the overall title at the Glenfiddich twice (1983 and 1988). In 1983 he was awarded the British Empire Medal, and in 1999 was honored as a Member of the British Empire for his services to army bagpiping and drumming.
My first encounter with Gavin was during my first trip to Scotland in 1999. He was in charge of the massed pipes and drums at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, in which I was supposed to participate. I hadn’t learned the music properly (or indeed at all, since I had only been playing for a year), and so got a thorough tongue-lashing from Pipe Major Stoddart. I was still able to participate in the Tattoo, but unfortunately not as a piper.
In June 2006 I actually met Gavin again when he was an instructor at the National Piping Centre’s summer school in Winchester, VA. I told him that the last time I saw him he had yelled at me, and he grinned and said, “Well I’m sure I didn’t mean anything by it.” Over the next few days, Gavin turned out to be a warm and easy-going fellow who told stories as well as he taught bagpipes. His stories often started with a phrase like “So I was judging the MSR at the Glendfiddich one year…” and continue with an account of how a wonderful performance was lost in the last two bars, or how a certain piper won first place in the MSR despite the minor technicality of playing the wrong strathspey.
After a few days of the class I was quite comfortable around Gavin, and was thus much less nervous when I learned he was to be my examiner for the piping proficiency test I was about to take. He was kind enough to cut me some slack when I didn’t know the name of all the piobaireachd movements (I knew how to play them, 
but wasn’t certain what they were called), and after I was done told me that he enjoyed listening to my piobaireachd. He was also kind enough to pose for a photo with me and my newly-earned intermediate piping certificate. I had a lot of fun during that week, and I’m happy that my only interaction with Gavin wasn’t that he yelled at me. Thanks Gavin, for being a great role model for aspiring pipers.
Still waiting…
The other day I posted about my geocaching adventures, specifically how the search for my 100th cache find was thwarted by low batteries in my GPS.I had hoped to go back and grab #100 on Monday, but forgot that I had signed up to donate blood that day. Tuesday night I’m going to a Sea Dogs baseball game, so I’m afraid the milestone will have to wait for Wednesday night. Argh.
As I was writing it I thought I might create another blog about geocaching, and so have I done. Called Keydet Caching, it will focus on my geocaching adventures and general thoughts on the subject. You might notice I’ve gone back to Blogger for that one; WordPress seems to be a bit more professional, but Blogger has much more to customizeability.
Now instead of one blog not updated very often, I’ll have two!
The best-laid plans
Me: “Hi, my name is Nathan, and I’m a geocacher.”
Support group: “Hi Nathan.”
Yes, I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to geocaching. It’s an organized outdoor activity that uses the GPS satellite constellation; if you have a hand held GPS unit, you can find things that people have hidden places. It’s basically an abuse of a multi-billion dollar government satellite array to find $10 worth of tupperware and trinkets somebody hid out in the woods. I guess it’s no worse than using the same technology to navigate your car to the grocery store, but it’s far less practical.
The way I got into caching was because of my bagpipes. I was practicing in a park near on the way home from work when I lived in Pittsburgh, and as happens when one pipes outside, it tends to attract passersby. This particular group was a father and son; the son trundled off to some part of the park carrying something that looked not unlike a cell phone while his father stayed to chat with me. He told me about “this stupid little game” (his words), and how they could have used my help on a puzzle cache a while back; one of the clues was written in Gaelic. I found his assumption that I know Gaelic because I play pipes fascinating (I play mahjong but don’t speak Chinese), but I was intrigued by this activity he described. After ten seconds with a search engine I had a name: geocaching.
A year or so later I actually got a GPS unit, and have been caching ever since. There are caches all over the world, so anywhere you go you can probably find some caches nearby. It extends the time required for a drive if you’re stopping for 15 minutes every few miles, but it is pretty cool. It’s pretty geeky, but I do enjoy it.
So I went out geocaching today, as I often do on the weekends. I started the day with 92 finds (actually a low total compared to some people who are truly obsessed), and had planned to find my 100th cache. I spent the time walking between the first three or four caches I found composing an introspective and reflective blog post about my 100 finds, but unfortunately it will have to wait: I was forced to stop after finding 7 new caches due to failing batteries in my GPS. I usually carry a backup set, and ironically the one time I don’t have spares is when I need them. I did stop at the store on the way home (the whole point of the trip into town) and debated buying batteries so I could go back and grab one more, but I have a plethora of AA’s at home and nothing planned tomorrow after school. Wait until then for that blog post; in the meantime here are a few photos I took this afternoon. They are from the top of Cathedral Ledge and White Horse Ledge, overlooking North Conway and the Mount Washington Valley. Yes, those are rock climbers.
Piper Spotlight: Glenn Brown
I’m starting a new series of posts about some people I’ve met in piping. The people in the spotlight aren’t selected for their piping ability alone, but for how they interact with the general public of the piping world.The piping world seems to be full of people with these traits, so there should be no shortage of people to be Spotlighted.
The first piper to be featured here in the spotlight is Glenn Brown, originally from Milton, Ontario. Glenn is a top-notch piper, often seen in the top competitions, and he has pipe band in his blood: his mother Gail was the first woman to play in a grade 1 band at the World Pipe Band Championships, and his brothers Graham and Blair are both world-class snare drummers and judges. For a while all three brothers were commuting from Canada to Scotland to play with the Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band. Later Glenn spent a while as the pipe major of the grade 1 Peel Regional Police Pipe Band in Ontario, and now lives in Scotland where he teaches at the National Piping Centre and plays with Scottish Power Pipe Band.
I’ve had the privilege of hearing Glenn play a few times, and he’s one of those people who is always a joy to listen to. His pipes have a truly magnificent sound: rich and mellow, but at the same time bold and confident. The sound says “I know I’m a good player, and I’m going to play a good tune for you today.” He has the technique and training to back it up, and the result is a high quality piping tune.
At Maxville in 2008 K and I watched the competition for former winners of the Canadian Gold Medal. There was some great playing for sure, but when Glenn arrived on the stage it was clear that he was in a different class than most of the other competitors. His pipes were definitely the best sound of the day, and he played an awesome tune (I think it was The King’s Taxes). We had placed him first; as it turned out he didn’t win the competition, but we still thought he should have.
The reason I chose to highlight Glenn was what happened the day after that competition. We came across him at the games the next day and introduced ourselves. K and I both offered our sentiments that he should have won the piobaireachd, and his response was gracious humilty. He had every right to be upset about the results, but showed no signs of it. It was his unspoken reaction that was really classy though. He expressed genuine interest in what we had to say, and while we were talking to him we had his undivided attention. Even though he’s very well known to most everyone at the games and there were plenty of good pipers and drummers to talk to, he stayed and chatted with us, lowly and unknown pipers who hadn’t even properly introduced ourselves, for a few minutes without appearing at all distracted or uninterested.
A similar incident was repeated at Winter Storm this year. I saw Glenn play in the MSR competition, and he had the same awesome pipe sound we had heard at Maxville; in fact I also overheard a fellow competitor ask Glenn to listen to his pipes before he played, so good is Glenn’s ear for pitch and tone. Glenn was one of the six finalists in the MSR and placed second in the final round. Here’s the video I took of his MSR, with a link below it to the video from the final.
We caught up with him at the Winter Steam party the following night, and we again got the same warm and genuine response he had given us at Maxville. As I recall he actually approached us and started the conversation. He happily chatted for a few minutes and was kind enough to pose for a picture with the two of us.
So Glenn Brown is the first person to be featured in the Piper Spotlight. He’s a a great piper, but also a great person who doesn’t mind taking time to chat with the less than famous pipers. Thanks Glenn, for taking time for The Rest of Us.
The judge’s dilemma
I’ve said for a while that I don’t want to be a piping judge. Not to say I don’t want to compete at the professional level, but I don’t want to be a judge. I have a lot of respect for judges, but I don’t want the responsibility of being one.
First, here’s a short rundown of how the judging works for piping events. The competitor approaches the judge, identifies which tunes he or she will be playing, warms up for a few minutes and does a final tuning adjustment, then plays. A quick “thank you” to the judge, then the next competitor is on, though it’s sometimes a few minutes. While the competitor is playing, the judge fills out a scoresheet with notes and comments. There is no assigning of points at that time. When everyone in the event has played, the judge will rank the competitors from 1st place to 6th place (sometimes more). He or she doesn’t assign points during the performance, it’s a very subjective “this person played better” ranking.
So when a judge is making the rankings, he or she has to think back to the very first competitors of the event and remember little things about each one. I’ve talked to a few judges about their process, and most seem to order the scoresheets as soon as the person is finished playing. So the first competitor will be in first place until someone else plays better, at which point the judge places that scoresheet on top. That’s a pretty good system, at least the most logical that comes to my mind. Still, when a really good player comes along later in the competition, the judge must compare that competitor to those who are already in first or second place from earlier.
The most drastic example of this I’ve seen was at Winter Storm in January. I watched (and recorded) a good portion of the Ceol Beag MSR competition, which featured a lot of really good competitors. I recorded 17 pipers, and there were maybe 8 more who I didn’t hear. Anyway, the competition started at 8:00 a.m. and finished around 2:30 p.m., so when ranking the players the judges had to think about over 6 hours to the first competitor. There was a break for lunch in there too, which opened up the opportunity for distraction. On top of that, this is a professional competition, so these people are GOOD.
So in summary, a judge has a very difficult job. I respect the judges I play for, I admire their musical skill and critical ear and I appreciate their feedback, but I wouldn’t care to be one. It’s a hard job that many people don’t seem to appreciate.
Any judges out there who would care to comment on this? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
On the road again…
The grand tour of the Mid-Atlantic region begins Monday. We fly from Manchester to Baltimore, visit some friends and family in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and conclude the trip with solo competitions at the Celtic Festival of Southern Maryland on April 25. I’ll be sure to post the results of my competitions once I get back to a computer, and I should be able to have the contest recorded like last time.
