Pipers, another bizarre question

[Alan H]

This is unreated to the other one, so I thought I'd start a new thread.

Piper George, and in fact most pipers I know, go to a lot of competitions. They play for judges and get graded and ranked against other pipers. Bands go to competitions and get graded. Not ALL bands go to competitions, but most/many bands are a "Grade One Pipe Band" or a "Grade Four Pipe Band".

That is so totally foreign to me. I haven't been "graded" since solo and ensemble festival in my junior year in high school. My high school band went to some festivals and got judged, but that was...um....a LONG time ago. The notion of music as "competition" is........I dunno. I can't quite wrap my head around it.. Certainly there is competition in music, you must win an audition to get the plum job in the orchestra, for example. there are international music competitions, the Tschaikovsky competition is one famous one. But I don't go to clarinet conventions and play selections from a set of 500 tunes, which all clarinetists must know, to get graded and judged on my clarinet playing.

To me it feels as if THE MUSIC and PIPING are two very different things. Music is music, just like it is for any musician, but PIPING is a competition.

Comments?

[Livingston]

Alan, I am not a piper OR a judge for piping competitions but I am a Steward at the Longs Peak Games. When you listen to that many pipers during a day you can tell the difference between the lower and higher grades. Just remember, the Grade 1 etc is similar to school grades. You have to get to a certain proficiency to move on to the next one and the competitions are more to see where you are than "against" someone else.

[SteveB]

I just plain prefer going to pipe band concerts, rather than competitions of festivals.

[beloitpiper]

I don't compete. My band does not compete. I don't have anything against piping competitors, but I've never had the desire to compete. I understand why they do, though. There's the prestige of being a Grade I piper, and you get into better bands, but it's not for me. Although, my street band [note: in the piping world, a "street band" is a band that does not compete, just marches, hence "street"] has beaten out a LOT of competing bands at parades and festivals. So yeah, we're passionate, but we also have fun, which I believe a lot of competing bands don't have. When my band is done with a performance, we hang out, have a few beers, and are friendly. Almost every other band I've seen of been with, when they're done, just split up and see each other at the next rehearsal.

[JerseyLawyer]

I suppose I should start with the basics. Competitive pipe bands are graded from grade 5 (the lowest) to grade 1 (the highest). The musical requirements change with the grades so that at grade 5, you play a quick march medley of about 2:30, whereas grade 1 bands have to provide a selection of three MSR (march-strathspey-reel) sets and two medleys, of which the judges will pick one of each (usually by blind draw at the line). The lowest grade 5 bands can be pretty bad. The best grade 1 bands are world champions. Listen to a few of each, compare the sound, and anyone can hear the difference.

I would disagree with your statement that "many/most bands are graded". I think on the contrary that most bands don't compete, and are just parade bands. There are certainly more parade bands, of varying qualities, than competition bands, at least in my area. One of the most traumatic things for a band can be the move from just being a "beer and pretzel" band to competing, because there's a change in the level of dedication involved. That's not to imply that there's anything wrong with being a good street band, by the way, as not everyone enjoys competition.

Soloists, by the way, are graded from grade 4 (both junior and senior, depending on age) to grade 1 amateur. Above that is "open", which is professional, and consists of the best solo players. As far as I can tell, that means the winner not only gets a medal, but a medal plus $100! In the United States, we only have one system, which covers both light music and ceol mor. In Scotland, I believe soloists are rated separately in each.

In both bands and solos, there isn't any set music that must be played, though there are set types of tunes that must be played (i.e. an MSR, or a 6/8 march in a 6/8 competition, or a hornpipe and jig in a competition for that, etc.). At the lowest levels, you just tell the judge what you'll be playing. When you get to higher grades, you give them a list of tunes you'd like to play, and they pick. The higher you go, the more options you have to give. Also, generally, the more difficult the tunes you offer up should be. In Grade IV Senior, you should almost certainly not be saying, "Sir, I will be playing 'The Highland Wedding'."

Soloists are judged on their execution, musicality, tuning, steadiness, and suchlike. Again, listen to a Grade IV competition, then listen to an Open competition, and you'll hear the difference. Bands are a bit more complicated. Usually two judges judge piping, based on the same sort of things as soloists, plus unison and band tone, one judge handles the drums, based on criteria that are a mystery to me, a non-drummer, but involve execution, timing, and the like, and a fourth judge judges ensemble, which is how the pipes and drums play together, and the overall musical effect, with special emphasis on the mid-section (the bass and tenor drums) and their contribution to the band sound.

Musicality is important, and it's the reason that judges are always people who have played to a very high level. Listen to enough competitions, and you'll notice that especially at the lower levels, people play too slowly, and, as someone once put it, "play marches no one can march to, and strathspeys and reels no one could dance to."

Anyway, all these criteria are checked off, comments added, and by some magical formula, the judge comes up with a score out of 100. The one with the highest score wins.

I don't know if that is helpful, or answers all your questions, but there you go.

[Ancienne Alliance]

That is so totally foreign to me. I can't quite wrap my head around it..

Comments?

It would be interesting to point out the historics of piping competitions. How they came about in the late XIXth century.
After many political events and issues, tradidional scottish piping was almost lost. Competitions were then organized with money prizes to encourage people to get back to piping.
Maybe someone from the rabble, more qualified and fluent than I am can develop this point ?
Thank You.

[Barb T]

Our band (the Mohawk Valley Frasers) has a very long history of competition, and, in fact, if you play with our band, you must compete with the band. If you don't want to compete, you find a different band to play with. We field three competition sections, a Grade 3, a Grade 4, and a Grade 5 competition section (we have 34 pipers in the band, plus 24 snares, 3 base drummers, and a few tenors, so we have the numbers to do it). Membership in the Grade 3 and 4 competition sections is by blind audition. Anyone who can't play well enough for these grades or who chooses not to audition competes with the Grade 5. We do an average of 6-7 competitions a summer plus parade and performance gigs.

I'm not saying that all bands should do this, just that this is what we do. For me, personally, the expectation of playing in a competition band has made me a much better piper. I play harder music and I practice harder than I would if I were just doing gigs on the street.

[Livingston]

Yeah. Barb and Jersey explained it much better. I know of those things but, since I don't play or compete, I don't know them that well.

[Alan H]

OK, this is interesting. I don't know of any local non-competing bands that are active. The one based in my town is technically non-competing, but then they're barely hanging on with three pipers on a good day, a bass drummer and they scrounge other drummers from friends and so on.

Were I to play in a band, either pipes or drums I guess I'd be inclined to play in a "street band", and have fun with it and forget the competition aspect. On the flip side, I bet Piper George would say that preparing for the competitions has helped him become a much better piper, so there you go.

This has been a good insight, thanks!

[Mr. Woolery]

I would prefer to play in a street band with a fair selection of the old standards for pipe music. The one and only local pipe band doesn't really ever play those old chestnuts (Highland Laddie, Brown Haired Maiden, and so on) because their repertoire is based around playing for competition, where the pipe major wants tunes nobody else will be playing. And there's a reason the classics are classics and the others are not. Even when they are the same age and from the same book.

However, individual competition is exciting to me. I can select my own tunes (my 2/4 for this season is one from my mother's first pipe band, copied from the hand-written settings by Donald MacLeod, included in the hand-bound mess of tunes from about 1966 that she still had on the bookshelf), I can play at the tempo I feel is best for the tune (as opposed to the band, which tends to play everything so fast they lose the finer expression), and I can choose whether to play on the day at all. Further, I can, if I choose, play with different chanters for different competitions so I could play my piobaireachd at a lower pitch than my march and air. Which I feel suits the music well.

In short, I am not hot on the band competitions, but I like solo. It gives me impetus to improve my piping for myself. It helps me to stay on-task about my own development as a piper. There are lots of tunes I want to learn, but until after June is over I am only focusing on learning my competition tunes very well. When it is time to take a break, I will turn to some of the old standards (there are about 50 I want to learn) and try to start filling in the gaps. But for now it is about fine-tuning my own capabilities.

-Patrick