Pipers & Drummers - Check in!

[PipeFuzz]

I'm sure there a few of you out there - check in and let us know, where you are, band (if) etc!

I'll start.

Located just south of Detroit.

Pipe Major - Windsor Police Pipe Band, Windsor, Ontario.

[EagleJCS]

Hi PipeFuzz.
I'm currently the Pipe Sergeant for the Louisville Pipe Band (stepping down in November after 5 years in that role).

There is a Community Group on here called the XMarks the Scot Pipes and Drums. It lists a lot of forum members that are pipers or drummers, though it's not active. (Most of the Community Groups have died down quite a bit since they were first opened.)

[Piper]

Guess I'm a "free range" Piper. No band affiliation. I tell folks I play for my enjoyment, and the neighbors' annoyance. When I first took up the pipes I was a shift worker, and was only off 1 weekend a month. I was not about to give it up to a parade somewhere. My old instructor was very much an old school band piper. Former PM, etc, so he kept me on the straight and narrow. I do play with a Masonic group that sometimes plays in the various Lodges. It's an interesting arrangement. We're never sure who's going to be there, or what we're going to play, until we get together that evening and sort it all out. Always bring it off well though.

[pbutts]

If you scroll down the list of forums almost to the end there is a Celtic Music Forum. You'll find a number of piping threads in there and it's likely one of the moderators will park this thread in there.

After a long hiatus (a combination of health, career, and family factors) I started back on the pipes in 2012 with the Kalamazoo Pipe Band. We're a Grade V street band, but did make our first trip in a number of years to compete at the St. Andrews Highland Games last weekend.

Are you a downriver native? My original piping instructor was a student of Walter Rose and a member of the St. Andrews pipe band back in the '60s.



My favorite place to play: the Bay of Islands in the North Channel of Lake Huron.
Pipes: '89 Naills with catalin mounts and nickel slides.

[416 Rigby]

I play every day over my lunch break. I have 5 or 6 places that I play depending on where I am for work at the time. No band, just a "hobbyist."

My motto: Perform random acts of bagpiping.

[piperchris]

I'm here smack in the middle of Los Angeles. I am very eager to join a pipe band. Unfortunately the only viable alternatives seem to be a really long drive away from me. There is no central LA pipe band. There is the LA Emerald Society P & D but they really only want current or former law enforcement. The Pasadena Scots are sadly nearly defunct. If anybody out there has any suggestions PLEASE let me know! I wouldn't even mind driving a bit and I hope I'd be able to find a carpool. I've been piping for about three years. Thank you everybody!!!

[OC Richard]

I'm a piper, currently playing in the Long Beach Fire Department Pipe Band.

This year makes 40 since I got my first pipes (I'd been on the practice chanter for a year or so).

Maybe each person checking in could post a (fairly) recent photo of themselves, and of their pipes? (It didn't happen if there aren't any photos, as they say!)



My main squeeze, c1900 Lawries

[WalesLax]

Saffron United, Babylon, NY, and prior to that I was with City of Chicago Pipe & Drums.

[416 Rigby]

Ok, Richard, here I am with a set of silver and ivory pipes that were actually played on the battlefield in WWI. It gave me goosebumps to play a couple tunes on them. Very humbling. A Ross bag had just been fitted to try, so forgive the lack of bag cover.


And here are my McCallums, my retirement from the military gift to myself.

[Celtic Mom]

I am a pipe band mom, so I don't know if that counts! My son is eleven, he started when he was eight. He plays with Wasatch and District Pipe Band out of Bountiful Utah. He plays McCallum AB4s with Mopane wood mounts. I drive him to lessons and practices, and ended up as assistant to the Quartermaster and on the Board of Directors because of it.