Came across this old album cover, probably from the 1960s (pre-amalgamation) of the Pipe Major of the Royal Scots Greys. Note that he plays with hands reversed, but not with the bag under the other arm
Here is another Pipe Major, Donald MacLean of Lewis, playing the same way
The story I heard about pipers who play this way is that they learned to play reversed (hands and bag-arm) but when they went into the Army they were made to switch their bag-arm. Don't know if that's true. They obviously have to use a different strike-in approach than most of us pipers do.
The Strathclyde Police Pipe Band has been known for having a number of ciotach pipers, hands and bag-arm reversed, the problem being in Full Dress that you have the plaid under the same arm the bag is.
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