Pipers playing limited 'tunes'?

[davedove]

I would venture a guess that those are the two most popular tunes and that the majority of pipers who play in bands know them and can play them rather competently. There might be a certain percentage of the band that is competent (at least) with lots of tunes, a certain percentage that have a slightly more limited repetoire and so on and so on...if they want to have everybody playing, they'd pick the tunes that everybody knows...thus, Scotland the Brave and Amazing Grace...again: this is a guess but it makes some sense...I'm sure that the pipers in the group will have the real answer.

I'd also wager that those are most often the songs that pipers/bands are requested to play. Those are the songs most people recognise as 'bagpipe songs,' and as such I'm sure most people would commonly ask for those two songs to be played, as they're the only songs they know that are played on the pipes.

I suspect that both of these are true. You also have to remember that a lot of bands only do so part time. They have jobs and lives outside the band. Sure, they practice, but they don't have the time to learn a lot of different tunes.

[Prester John]

My son plays with a pipe band, and in less than a year I can tell you that he has been required to memorize sets containing all the military hymns, a patriotic set including the Star Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle Dandy, It's a Grand Old Flag, America the Beautiful, and God Bless America.

The band plays sets that have 2-5 tunes in them each and so far my son has 8 of them memorized.

Sure 95% of the time people request Amazing Grace at a funeral, and Scotland the Brave afterwards, but how many requests do they get for Highland Cathedral, the Wedding March, or the Theme to Star Wars?

My son, who is 12, can play them all.

Can you tell I'm proud?