interesting thing happened at my mom's funeral

[Kiltedfirepiper]

well as you all know, things went really well.

Vinnie and I played "on the turning away" (pink floyd) and going home.
both with harmonies. and didnt miss a note, honestly it was the best we ever played together EVER.

well FF to the end of the whole thing and we are gathering up the flowers ect.

and the Funeral director pulls Vinnie and myself aside, apologizes for bringing it up NOW, but then explained that we sounded SO good, and she wanted to know if she could call on us for other services. even though there is a pipe band in town ( of which Vinnie is Pipe Srgt. ) she said that finding a piper is neigh impossible as of late. Vinnie told her our price, and she said no problem!


well I just did my first paid gig EVER on Wed. and it went well!
I feel good that I could help to honor the deceased, even though part of me feels bad for charging them to play. the Scot in me says

years spent learning
kilt
pipes
pipe maint. ( reeds, hemp, repairs ect.)
hose, flashes, gillies , sporan, belt, cover
time to get there, wait for 2 hours, play, time to get home
+ babysitter

= fee being worth it

the widow also pulled me aside and said that I was in her address book now and if she ever needed a piper that she'd call on me, which to me is quite an honor.

now I'm getting calls from other funeral homes to do more gigs!
my next one is a WWII vet w/ full honors( color guard, taps , gun volley)
I thought the last one was nerve wracking.....this one is going to be worse!!
I just hope they have a real bugler not the "taps in a can " set up

anyone involved in a Military Color Guard?
advice on how things are done, protocols, ect would be helpful

the service is on Sat.

TIA
Scott

[brandycr]

Congrats!

[Mr. MacDougall]

The military color guard will do their own thing. Find the NCO in charge of the detail before hand, and find out if they'd like you to play while they're folding the colors, perhaps.

[Kiltedfirepiper]

well at my grandfathers funeral, they played taps right when they lifted the flag off the coffin, when tapps was done I started playing amazing grace while they folded the flag, and completed AG when they handed the flag to my grandmother.......it worked out well but I understand that the NCO is the HMFIC so I'll follow his lead thanks for the info


KFP

[macwilkin]

Our own piobear has two very good articles on his web site about piping at funerals:

http://home.sprintmail.com/~ejb/pipi...ary_honors.htm

http://home.sprintmail.com/~ejb/funerals.htm

They're worth perusing.

Regards,

Todd

[gangreenfootball]

Congrats

[Cawdorian]

During my youth I spent about a year doing the color guard thing in ROTC, a full military funeral with a 21 gun salute is awesome. The only bad thing about it was the firing squad was always behind us. Sometimes the family was unprepared for the noise generated by the 21 gun salute. Many of them were quite startled.

At that time we had a real bugler for Taps, it is sad that they now only provide a recorded version of Taps. I don't recall that we ever did a funeral with a bagpiper, but that was more years ago than I like to count.

[RK-REX]

Good job Scott!!!

[ozone]

Part of the reason you cant find a real person to play taps is that, because of the HIGH cost of No Child Left Behind act, schools dont offer music education any longer. So, who's gonna learn to appreciate playing a bugle or trumpet?!? Call your congress-person and senator person and complain about NCLB being an unfunded mandate that is killing local school districts. NCLB should either be funded or tossed.

--This message brought to you by the husband of a school psychologist :-)

[RK-REX]

That post shouldn't last long....