Question for pipers and enthusiasts....

**Blu (Ontario)** · 14th October 06, 01:54 PM

Here's a question for pipers and pipes enthusiasts alike....

What do you believe to be the most challenging March,Strathspey & Reel? Do you have a personal favorite?

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**Blu (Ontario)** · 16th October 06, 08:17 PM

*sound of crickets*

*cough*

me me me me..... ahem.....

"You'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland afore ye"

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**wgority** · 17th October 06, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by Blu (Ontario)

Here's a question for pipers and pipes enthusiasts alike....

What do you believe to be the most challenging March,Strathspey & Reel? Do you have a personal favorite?

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Well, there may be a reason for the overwhelming silence here........ Asking what the most challenging MSR is opens a very loaded question. There are thousands, hell...possibly tens of thousands, of tunes of each of these types. When you start putting them into an MSR set you're looking at potentially millions of possible combinations. I've played pipes for about 25 years now, and I would never ask this question. I'm sure someone could come up with some combination of these three types of tunes that could be damn near unplayable for anyone but themselves.....would that qualify?

As to my own favourites of each type of tune, I like the following:
March - The Glasgow Police Pipers (The Black Bear is a long time favourite)
Strathspey - The Little Cascade or Maggie Cameron or perhaps Inverary Castle or The Laird of Drumblair......
Reel - The Sheepwife or The Smith of Chilliechassie, although McAllisters Dirk is a good tune too........

The MSR I like Most: The first one I ever learned which was "The Battle of Waterloo", "Dalnahassaig" and "The Fairy Dance".

Bill

**Planopiper** · 17th October 06, 07:13 AM

Another possible reason for the lack of responses is that this is a forum for people who like to wear kilts. If you have a piping question, you might get a better response on a piper's forum, like the Bob Dunsire one. www.bobdunsire.com.

**timber** · 17th October 06, 08:10 AM

I for one really enjoy listening to bagpipes, but I am completely in the dark about what each type of tune is. Could someone explain what marches, strathspeys, and reels are?

**Macman** · 17th October 06, 09:43 AM

Blu, I haven't learned an MSR yet because I'm still so new at it, so I can't help. I'm working hard on "Bonnie Dundee" right now.

**Blu (Ontario)** · 17th October 06, 04:23 PM

Thanks for responses, guys.

I know.... it's a kilts board, but I thought the topic might generate a bit of interest since so many members seem to spend time at various highland games. Who'd have thought kilt wearers might have an interest in pipes and vice-versa.

**cajuncelt** · 20th June 07, 02:57 PM

I'll take a stab at this, but will probably get tongue-tied:
Marches come in 4/4, 3/4 (retreats), 2/4 (quicks), 6/8, ect. times and are written for competitions but the timing is to march to as opposed to dance.
Strathspeys have a strong, weak, medium, weak timing and are written (traditionally) to perform a strathspey dance to.
Reels are the quicker paced dance tunes that most are familiar with if not mistaken for jigs.
These are general blanket statements, but I hope help some.

Originally Posted by timber

I for one really enjoy listening to bagpipes, but I am completely in the dark about what each type of tune is. Could someone explain what marches, strathspeys, and reels are?

**timber** · 21st June 07, 06:15 AM

Originally Posted by cajuncelt

I'll take a stab at this, but will probably get tongue-tied:
Marches come in 4/4, 3/4 (retreats), 2/4 (quicks), 6/8, ect. times and are written for competitions but the timing is to march to as opposed to dance.
Strathspeys have a strong, weak, medium, weak timing and are written (traditionally) to perform a strathspey dance to.
Reels are the quicker paced dance tunes that most are familiar with if not mistaken for jigs.
These are general blanket statements, but I hope help some.

Thank you. That makes sense.

**Blu (Ontario)** · 17th October 06, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by wgority

Well, there may be a reason for the overwhelming silence here........ Asking what the most challenging MSR is opens a very loaded question. There are thousands, hell...possibly tens of thousands, of tunes of each of these types. When you start putting them into an MSR set you're looking at potentially millions of possible combinations.....

Pretty amazing considering the limited number of notes!

I guess the scope of the topic was a bit of a stretch... but worth the shot. Sometimes you just never know what will capture people interests.