Last Parade

My parade last weekend went really well. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunhsine and aorund 65 so not too hot, not too cold, and no rain! We had 6 total pipers and 4 drummers, so not the greatest turnout, but 6 pipers and 4 drummers make a lot of noise so I don't think our audience missed out on anything.

Interesting comments from the parade watchers included one small boy who yelled "Those men are wearing skirts!" and some teenage girls who said they "liked guys in kilts".

The last little bit of the parade had a pretty steep slope, and wouldn't you know it we started a new set of tunes just as we turned up the corner to go up the hill. So we were playing up the whole hill! Needless to say I was wiped out by the time we got to the top, my lips were shot and I didn't have the breath I needed to blow. I made a valiant effort to play the last two sets but I was finished.

Our last parade of the season. And the conclusion of my first successful parade season:woo-hoo me!

I took some good pictures of my piping gear this past weekend so I plan on having a whole bunch of anatomy of a bagpipe/r in future posts.

Pipe on!

Piping Possible

Well I did it. I lasted the whole parade with my drones open and whaling away-yay me! It was definitely a challenge and I had the corks tucked into my pocket just in case, but I didn't need them, I wasn't even tempted.

Every parade is interesting and different, which is a great part of the fun. It's ineat to see all of the different floats and people who participate in the parade.

As we were getting our gear out one of the bass drums rolled down a short steep hill and nearly hit a van, a drum roll-tee hee.

After we tuned up we had a nice conversation with some guys on some old school bicycles, the kind with a huge front wheel and little back wheel. He talked to us for about a half hour about his bicycle, he's logged 11,000 miles on the thing! And I thought we were somewhat obsessive fanataical about the bagpipes!

The parade itself went well. It was a little muggy but I think my pumping adrenaline nullifed the heat. This parade was the best for me in terms of marching, by that I mean I was in step the majority of the time. And I played every single tune. At all the other parades I've had to take a break and just not play one or two the tunes.

After the parade was done the other floats must've had tons of leftover candy and thought to themselves, Look there's a bagpipe band, their decibel bending noise has bugged us the whole parade! Let's throw bubble-gum, suckers and smarties at them! They only have one free arm afterall so they won't be able to catch it and then they'll have to squat down in their kilts!

Then when we were walking back up the parade route to our cars another float pelted us with freezies, who in the world throws out freezies at a parade? I had to shield myself with my bagpipes!

But all in all it was a fun parade experience.

Pipe on!

To March or Not to March

This is my first summer of marching in parades with my bagpipe band. We only do 1-2 parades a month plus a few other performances throughout the summer.

I've never played an instrument that required me to march before, and guess what, I can't really march. If the tune is a 4/4 it's obviously a lot easier, but even then I often have to do a bit of a hop and a skip to get back into step.

This is all compounded by the fact that I also have to focus on blowing and remembering memorized tunes. Plus I have to make sure I'm not going to run into the rank in front of me, that there's enough space between me and the guys on either side of me, ignore the shouts of "What's under the kilt!" from parade watchers, and dodge the occasional horse nugget or child making a mad dash into the street for candy.

I will confess that I have been cheating a bit on this by putting corks into my 3 drones, avoiding the additional challenge of marching and striking in.

I have a parade this weekend and a lot of guys in the band can't come so I think I'll have to go sans corks.

Wish me luck and pipe on!