I’ve played with several pipe-bands, all with different kilts.

First band I’ve played with was the Concord Pipe Band.
Here we first wore Gordon Day Dress, after that the Modern Gordon.

Later i played with the 48th highlanders of Holland and City of Amsterdam.
Stewart of Fingask and Modern MacPherson Tartan.

In 2001 I played with the Highland Valley pipe band.
They wear a Modern Hunting Stewart.

On this day (2011) i got my own Kilt.
A Isle of Skye Tartan.

I’ve been playing a long time for Highland Dancers. And here are my tips for you.
If you have additions or corrections let me know.

Practice

• Practice, with and without the dancers.
• Get to know the tempo the dancers would like.
  (Have them practice the tempo mentioned in the piping books)
• Start in time with practicing (see below)
• I wanted to know what it takes to be a highland dancer, to understand what they are doing, so I learned to dance the Highland Fling myself.

Before starting

• Alway sing/hum a few bars. So your on the same line with the dancers, and setting the tempo. (If they can’t hear you, use your hand for the tempo)
  Some dancers are prepared for the dance they have to perform in advance, a change in order can make them nervous.
  (Check lead dancer for a okay sign, with Anke I had a almost invisible nod, and I could see when she was not sure about the Tempo)
• Are the Dancers distracted? Then I would hit the bag of my pipes to get attention.
• Face your Dancers if possible.
  Playing with multiple pipers? Let them face you, ideal would be if they see the dancers also.
• Are they doing the sworddance?
  Hit your bag to make a little drone sound to time their movements to place the sword on the ground.
  (I’ll post a movie about this when i find it again)

While playing

• Watch the group, and look for signs when they are stuggling.
  When you play too slow, you see them wanting to have more time in the air. (Hangtime)
  When playing too fast, you will see them making little hops, instead of the higher jumps.
  (You get angry eyes from the lead dancer 🙂 )
  Adjust your speed (but slowly)
• Always keep you eye on the lead dancer.

Stopping

• Always step forward when planning to stop playing.
  Sometimes we have to stop when a sign has been given, because of something happening or planned events. Then you will have to end at the end of a part or when playing a set, at the end of the tune. (Practice this!)
• Sometimes you or the dancers can be mistaken with the number of repeats.
  When you or the dancers are messing up. Get a clean ending.
  When the crowd is unaware, keep it that way. Keep a straight face!
  When they notice, tell or make I sign that you are sorry. on some occasions you can start again.
  (Take away any blame from the dancers, they are also nervous, it helps them for the next dance)

Nervous?

Focus on the dancers, not the public.
Don’t play tunes you haven´t practiced enough.
(This is a common mistake, because the dancers want to perform them before you are ready. When they start practicing a new dance, let them have you informed if possible, so you can practice at the same time)

Tunes I play are in: (links to pipetunesearch, my search engine for tunebooks)

https://pipetunesearch.henriaanstoot.nl/?select=listbook&book=L
https://pipetunesearch.henriaanstoot.nl/?select=listbook&book=AHCA

The result!

I love the music of the Canadian Band “Rare Air”.

I’ve got 3 Rare Air cd’s

• Hard to beat
• Primeval
• Space piper

Their sound was a fusion of Celtic, rock and a Caribbean beat, and their last cd (1991) was jazz-oriented.

Snake MacMurray, new swing reel, Chicago Shopping Mall .. but Death of a spacepiper blew me away.
I’ve heard some accidentals in piping, like playing natural notes and vibrato’s .. but nothing like this.

So i wanted to play this wonderful piece!
I sat down with a friend of mine, Thomas, and wrote the thing down.
(I will post these when i find them again)

So here is a clip of me playing the piece. (until the part i played for the dancers of our pipe band to come marching in.)

Most of the audience had no clue pipes could be played like this, and there is an audible reaction in the movie clip.
(There were some guests from other pipe bands in the audience, they came after the show to get more information about this tune.)

I ordered reeds again for our pipe-band.

A nice set of reeds from P/M Linden “Dixie” Ingram.
From which we got lessons at the Breuberg Summerschool.

Now i have to sort them by strenght and tuning. I have to take into account: peoples strenght to blow them, which ones needs scraping, hard blowers who get them into shape at the end.

Above is easy, middle and hard to blow .. increasing in strenght from left to right.

Next to do, is give them a number, and assign them to players.

While doing so i started playing with them to make a little website visitor counter 🙂

https://media.henriaanstoot.nl/websites/tapsalteerie/en/

The folkband Tapsalteerie dates back to the spring of 2001. While enjoying a nice glass of wine Henri and Henny discovered that they had the interests in folkmusic. Together with Monique and Matthijs soon a band was formed. Recently Coline joined the band. From their mutual interests a varied repertoire was put together. Tapsalteerie plays Celtic music from Scotland, Ireland and England. Some tunes are played in their original state as much as possible, others have received a modern face-lift. The band is inspired by: The Tannahill Weavers, Mackeel, The Rogues of Scotland and Fairport Convention.

Our last big performance, as a whole band. In the years after stopping we played with Henny on different occasions.

Our band started in 2001, when i joined the Highland Valley Pipe Band.

A few years later we started the Nae Bother Folkband

Somewhere in 2006 i made a drone trainer for our pipe band.

I was based on Flash, flash is dead. So i redid it in pure HTML5.

There is a long explanation howto tune in Dutch, it was in the Bands Wiki. Listen to the wave-beats and get it in tune!

The page and source can be found here. (Just save page source to your computer!)

https://media.henriaanstoot.nl/dronetrainer.html

We made a template to make some bagpipe covers, using a sheet of plastic.