Tune 9: Greenwood Side Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-29 | Number in Book: 8Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4While most of the tunes in the Scots Guards are not ones I have played before, some I have. As luck would have it, this one not only was familiar to me beforehand, but I've actually been practising it up for a competition in a few weeks.The problem is, this version is different to the one I've been learning, and a fair bit more complicated. Ah, it's the never-ending problem of a piper!For an acoustic (and significantly different-sounding, and quite beautiful) version of this tune, check out this link:youtube.com/watch?v=iwG595-o_dwThe original lyrics can be found here:genius.com/Joan-baez-the-greenwood-side-lyrics
ANZAC Day 2020 11AM Playing the Scots Guards 2020-04-25 | My second performance from my verandah for ANZAC day 2020.This one was at 11AM, in theory at the same time as hundreds of other pipers around Australia.
ANZAC Day 2020 Dawn under Coronavirus Playing the Scots Guards 2020-04-24 | Like many Australians under lockdown this ANZAC day, I decided to participate from home.This was filmed on my balcony at dawn. I was hoping my camera might pick up a little bit more of the early morning light, but unfortunately it struggled.
When the Battles Oer - Armistice Day 100th Anniversary Playing the Scots Guards 2018-11-11 | On the 11th day of the 11th Month in 1918 hostilities of the Great War ended.To commemorate this, pipers all around Australia played "When the Battle's O'er" at exactly 5PM, coinciding with the time when in France the Armistice was signed.I played at the WW1 memorial clock tower in Ulverstone, Tasmania.I filmed this event, but unfortunately, in accordance to Murphy's law, my camera gave up before I even struck up my pipes. Luckily I got all the audio on my voice recorder, so I was able to cobble together some semblance of a video.
Farewell to Camraw Playing the Scots Guards 2018-09-29 | Here's a little thing I did ages ago, but only thought to upload now.Not a Scots Guards tune, but quite nice nonetheless, and with phenomenal harmonies (which I hope I did some justice!)Apparently the name "Camraw" is just "Warmac" backwards - the bagpipe maker.So yes, I am still alive. I hope to upload more things in the near future, but I have several other unrelated projects in the works which are taking up my time.
Tune 41: The Crisis Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-31 | Number in Book: 48Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Number of Parts: 4I don't feel so bad about playing this one slow - in my opinion it sounds quite good at a slower pace.
Tune 40: Jim McBays Welcome Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-30 | Number in Book: 47Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Number of Parts: 4Sorry for the standard of this one. I was cold and tired and running out of time, so I just had to settle for the take I got.
Tune 39: The White Sands of Mersa Matruh Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-29 | Number in Book: 46Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Number of Parts: 4I think the best word to describe this tune is "relentless". That could explain it's alternate title, "Dust in the Drones", which I can imagine is not a pleasant thing for a piper to experience.
Tune 38: Scots Guards March through Jerusalem Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-28 | Number in Book: 45Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Number of Parts: 4While this tune is actually pretty fun and sounds good, I still don't understand why three out of every four tunes in this section have to be so complex. Didn't they realise that eight decades later somebody was going to try to learn one every day?
Tune 37: Mrs Pat MacLaren Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-27 | Number in Book: 44Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8Number of Parts: 4This tune has a nice enough swing to it, but it also has some parts that seem specifically designed just to trip pipers up. I don't think I fell for any of them, but if you notice any feel free to comment and I will feel free to ignore.
Tune 36: The 1st Battalion Scots Guards Farewell to Southampton Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-26 | Number in Book: 43Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Number of Parts: 4This is slightly (by a small margin) more melodic than most of the other 2/4s in this section, and I'm sure once I'm done with it all these 2/4s will blend into one big samey mess of tiny notes all crammed very close together in my mind.
Tune 35: The Hills of Kowloon Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-25 | Number in Book: 42Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8Number of Parts: 4I'm not sure there's much I can say about this tune that I didn't say in the video, other than to lament that 6/8s don't seem to be taken quite as seriously as 2/4s. I like playing 6/8s - they're fun. 2/4s can be too of course, but it does get a bit tedious playing a constant samey stream of them.
Tune 34: Shanghais Farewell to the Scots Guards Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-24 | Number in Book: 41Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8Number of Parts: 4It really feels good to do a few 6/8s again.
Tune 33: John Morrison Esq of Assynt House Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-23 | Number in Book: 40Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4I started doing some research about this tune, but gave up very quickly when I noticed a deep rabbit hole ahead. Assynt house is apparently a dower house for Novar house. What's a dower house you ask? Well, that's where the rabbit hole begins.Even the title "Esquire", which I had obviously heard before but never fully understood, led to a wikipedia nest of Titles and heraldry that, as an Australian, I just couldn't wrap my head around.
Tune 32: Leaving Port Askaig Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-22 | Number in Book: 39Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8I'm mildly embarrassed at the mistakes I made in this one...
Tune 31: Dr MacLeod of Alnwick Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-21 | Number in Book: 38Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4While this whole tune has a lot going on and a lot of notes to cram into a small space, there's really only one bar in the third part that I stumble over every time.
Tune 30: The Laird of Luss Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-20 | Number in Book: 37Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4I'm still not sure how I got this in one take (apart from, you know, that I let a lot of horrible mistakes slide). I didn't even get Brown Haired Maiden in one take!
Tune 29: The Lonach Gathering Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-19 | Number in Book: 36Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4This tune is probably quite good as an exercise in finger dexterity and sight reading, but I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of how it actually sounds. What melody there is is labyrinthine and choppy, and even listening to myself play it I have trouble following it.I'm roughly 10% in to the book, and if I get many more tunes like this then I think it will be quite an uphill battle.
Tune 28: Captain Norman Orr Ewing Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-18 | Number in Book: 35Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Another tune composed by someone other than the person in the title. In this case Pipe Major W. Ross. Is it just me, or does one in every two pipe majors the world over have Ross in their name somewhere?
Tune 27: Scots Guards Farewell to South Africa Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-17 | Number in Book: 34Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4This one might just make it in to my regular rotation... if I can ever play it well at a reasonable speed
Tune 26: John MacKenzies Farewell to Strathglass Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-16 | Number in Book: 33Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8I find it interesting how very rarely is the name in the title of a pipe tune actually the composer of that tune. In this case it was Pipe Sergeant W. Ross.Usually there's a story behind this discrepancy, and the best one I've ever hear is the one behind Donald McLean's farewell to Oban.The legend goes that the Eponymous Donald was so upset that he didn't get a placing at the competition in Oban that he threw a tantrum and left, saying he would never return. The tune was written in commemoration of that tantrum.That story is almost certainly exaggerated to the point of being apocryphal, but hey - never ruin a good story with the truth.
Tune 25: Scots Guards Departure for Egypt Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-15 | Number in Book: 32Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4
Tune 24: Scots Guards Welcome Back to their Old Name Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-14 | Number in Book: 31Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4This section of the book might prove to be a little bot of a slog for me. These are tunes that have been added perhaps less because of having been proven by time, and more simply by virtue of their having been written by a guardsman. That's not to say they're necessarily bad, but they're certainly less familiar, and some of them seem less to follow typical melodic conventions for want of a better word, of bagpipe music, meaning the melodies are harder to follow at first and to learn.That being said, it's also kind of what I like about them - they're a clearer link to the past, the composer's fingerprints almost still visible and not worn away by time and repeated playing.
Tune 23: Bonnie Dundee Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-13 | Number in Book: 22Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8So this is the last tune in the regimental section of the Scots Guards vol I. The tune itself has done the rounds, and been used many times for different songs since at least the mid 1600s, but it seems to be Walter Scott's adaptation of it that it is most famous for.
Tune 22: The Highland Wedding Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-12 | Number in Book: 21Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4This tune is considered fairly advanced in bagpipe circles. As I was practising it on the chanter I was thinking to myself "how hard can it be if I can play it?". It's a whole different matter on the pipes though, as you'll probably hear with my many slip-ups.No individual part is any harder than, say, the hardest parts of Inverness gathering, and I would even suggest parts of Black Bear are harder, but the fact that it goes on for six parts it what really makes it a difficult tune.Throw in the fact I was having unceasing troubles with my drones, and by the time I got all the way through the tune I was happy not to do any more takes.
Inverness Whistlepipes Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-11 | I did one pretty good take of the Inverness Gathering, but then it turned out the camera was out of focus. Not wanting to waste the take, I cobbled together this.Make of it what you will...
Tune 21: The Inverness Gathering Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-11 | Number in Book: 20Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4The Inverness Gathering is the name for the highland games held annually in Inverness since 1822. Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, was the obvious choice for this event intended to revive some of the old scottish traditions.
Tune 20: The Mucking of Geordies Byre Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-10 | Number in Book: 19Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8This is played as a comic tune in acoustic settings - it's about a lazy farmer family who get what's coming to them when they finally get around to cleaning up the "byre" (cowshed).I suppose it's a bit of a sign of changing sensibilities. I feel like these days one wouldn't need a "cummupents" tale about being lazy. A lazy farmer isn't going to earn any money, and that's it's own punishment - they don't need need to be roughed about by pigs and cows and thrown down into animal mess to underline the point.That's not a criticism of the song mind you, it's just an observation about how these things change.
Tune 19: Corn Rigs are Bonny Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-09 | Number in Book:18Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4The poem on which this is based is quite an early one of Robert Burns. One Anne Rankine, an Inn-Keeper that lived near Burns, claimed to be the Annie mentioned in the lyrics, although there's every chance she just made it up to get publicity for her inn.
Tune 18: Hot Punch Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-08 | Number in Book: 17Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8Made some adjustments to my equipment before shooting. Lighting is better, but the top of my head has been cut off and I'm off centre. I might just about have it all sorted by the time I get to the end of the book!The connection to Orange and Blue I just read somewhere. I can certainly hear some similarities in the tunes, but I wouldn't say it's immediately obvious that one is just a version of the other.
Tune 17: Brothers Three Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-07 | Number in Book: 16Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8Somehow I suspect that this tune has little to do with the Australian boy band that appeared on the X-Factor...
Tune 16: A Mans a Man for a that Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-06 | Number in Book: 15Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4I'm sure the words to this tune have some kind of oblique symbolism that is pertinent to haggis, but I suspect you might need to be scottish to understand it. I do know, however, that the tune sounds oddly appropriate as you watch that delicious package of cow guts being paraded around a hall...
Tune 15: The Brown Haired Maiden Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-05 | Number in Book: 14Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4The song on which this tune is based on is actually more of a slow air, and the bagpipe version (of which there seem to be endless variations) is quite different to it in many places.
Tune 14: Dovecote Park Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-04 | Number in Book: 13Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8There's certainly a few bagpipe tunes I've played that I've liked less than this one, but I don't think it will exactly get into my top 10. It starts nowhere, ends nowhere and doesn't go anywhere in between.
Tune 13: The Black Bear Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-03 | Number in Book: 12Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4I'm reasonably happy with this final take, apart from the fact that my drones were going out of tune (or rather they were still tuned to what the chanter was doing before 10 minutes of playing).As promised, here's a link to some of the story behind this tune:http://cornemusique.free.fr/ukblackbear.phpInteresting to note is the uncertainty over what the name means: does it actually reference a real bear, or is it a corruption of the word "beard" or the surname "Baird"?Anyway, I didn't play it nearly as fast as it is supposed to be played, but it was still quick enough in my opinion. Given that it is supposed to be played at the end of the day when the soldiers return to their barracks, I can understand why they would want to play it so fast, but I don't know why they didn't just use a slightly easier tune...I also realise there are much harder tunes out there (many of which I still have to look forward to), but I don't think anything as fundamental or essential as The Black Bear can challenge it in terms of difficulty.
Theme from Jurassic Park Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-03 | Just happened to hear this tune and I decided to see if one could play it on the pipes.Turns out the answer is "yes", but it sounds awful (and I mean absolutely godawful) with the drones going.
Tune 12: Scotland the Brave Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-02 | Number in Book: 11Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 4/4I'm not sure there's much else I can say about this tune that I didn't say in the video, except that I imagine a lot of people don't actually realise there are words to it.I don't know how they go though...
Tune 11: The Back of Benachie Playing the Scots Guards 2018-07-01 | Number in Book: 10Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Benachie (also spelled Bennachie and Beinn na Cìche) is a range of hills in Aberdeenshire. As with so many very old popular folk songs, there's no real consensus about the origins of it, and there's a few different versions of the melody, as well as different lyrics.The version for bagpipes used by the Scots Guards is quite catchy though. I hope you enjoy it!
Tune 10: The Drunken Piper Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-30 | Number in Book: 9Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4This is quite a busy tune, with a lot of flipping back and forth between dot/cut and cut/dot notes, giving it that "drunken" feeling. It seems to be quite a popular tune, in many piper's regular rotation including my own.
Tune 8: The Piobaireachd of Donald Dhu Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-28 | Number in Book: 7Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8Oh no, I mentioned Donald again!You might notice this tune as well as the last are very slow for 6/8 marches. That's my bad. I wasn't thinking so much about how one would actually march to these when I was setting the pace - I just kept about the same pace as when I was practising them! To get a better sense of how they should sound, feel free to play them at 1.5 speed, or ever 2x speed.
Tune 7: All the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-27 | Number in Book: 6Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 6/8I'm not sure exactly what this tune is about. As far as I can tell it was written by Walter Scott. Typically blue bonnets are associated with Jacobites, and the lyrics to the original song would appear to support this, but the novel it first appeared in is set during the reformation...Dunno. I'm sure someone can tell me, but right now I have a bunch more tunes to practice and record, so it will have to remain a mystery for the time being.
Tune 6: Donald Blue Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-26 | Number in Book: 5Tune Type: Slow MarchTime Signature: 2/4Apologies for the flagrant use of the name "Donald". I promise it will happen again (When I play Donald Cameron)This is a tune that is hard to find information about, as there is a Reel with the same name that tends to hog all of the search results, so unfortunately I can't say much more about it.
Tune 5: Brose and Butter Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-25 | Number in Book: 4Tune Type: Retreat MarchTime Signature: 9/8I don't know about you, but this tune makes me hungry.And yes, that is the way the ending is supposed to go. It's just one of those pipe tunes that finishes in the middle of nowhere.
Tune 4: Johnny Cope Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-24 | Number in Book: 3Tune Type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Yes, I was playing bagpipes at 8:30 in the morning on a weekend. I told you it's a tune used for waking people up! So far I am still waiting for the many thanks from my neighbours. I worry, given none of them are very close, that they didn't hear it. Next time I may have to use an amplifier.
Tune 3: The Garb of Old Gaul Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-23 | Number in Book: 2Tune Type: Slow MarchTime Signature: 2/4It seems this tune has quite an esteemed history, and if you're thinking "hey, isn't Gaul in France? What does that have to do with the Scots?", well Gaul was, at least at the time the tune was written, considered the Celtic Heartland by many.The second part of this tune is a bit tricky, especially the triplets that come at the end.Also, still figuring out the finer points of the lighting, as you can see, but at least you can make me out now.
Tune 2: The Highland Laddie Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-22 | Number in Book: 1Tune type: Quick MarchTime Signature: 2/4Why am I leaning out of a window for the introduction of this video?I saw a Bandicoot, and I was hoping to get a video of him.Why is the lighting and focus still terrible?OK, I cheated on the "one a day" thing and recorded this right after the first one.What's with the mistakes?I usually play a different version of this tune. Sheesh, get off my back Already!
Tune 1: HRH Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucesters March Playing the Scots Guards 2018-06-21 | Number in book: 78Tune Type: Retreat MarchTime signature: 3/4Here's the fIrst tune in this series, uploaded on the Winter Solstice.Part of the reason for this series is to kind of usher myself out of the very miserable winter of far southern Australia, one tune at a time. I'm not sure, then, if the unusually beautiful weather today was appropriate or somehow in opposition to my purpose.It also messed with my lighting, which I had painstakingly set up the day before, so my apologies about that. Hopefully I'll get those kinks ironed out soon enough.
