Michael Grey

Here’s a humourous take on one piper’s passion for cane reeds – courtesy of Bryan “Huddy” Huddleston, an excellent piper in the grade one band.

A sense of humour is always high on any band member’s list: “things I need to succeed in a grade one pipe band”.

An example of the bad: “Don’t play sheepskin bags. They smell, and require TONS of maintenance.”   

 Well, turns out that I now play a sheepskin bag, and love it!  They don’t smell, and don’t require much maintenance at all.   

But the best piece of advice that I have ever heard is this: “Play fewer tunes and more exercises”.  

Boring?  Yes.  But productive. 

I was told this by Pipe Major Bill Allison of my first band, The White Heather Pipes and Drums.  Though playing exercises may be boring, in the end you become a better piper. 

If you can comfortably play your execution in exercises, than you will be able to integrate good technique into tunes easily, and successfully. 

A good technique that I have learned to improving technique is to make a list with your worst piece of execution at the top and your best on the bottom.  

Work on the first doubling, grace note, and so on, on your list, then, when you feel that piece of execution has improved enough, move it to the bottom of the list; repeat with the rest of the list until you’re through. Then repeat the list over again, and again, and again.  

The result will be that you become a better technical piper.  

Try it.  

Cheers,

Kyle

Kyle Coughlin

Toronto Police Pipe Band

Here’s your inspirational photo of the hour (taken while walking along Cowcaddens Road, towards The National Piping Centre, Glasgow, [August 2008] with TPPB alumnus, Derek Midgley).

The photo may just be a roadside box of City sand for icy roads, but, I say, it still has a certain charm, and symbolism. Maybe even a metaphor for Glasgow:

A lot of practice and a little grit and you'll be on your way!

Michael Grey
Toronto Police Pipe Band

Having attended or played at many a Burns dinner, the most we had on our mind was the yearly dusting off of “A Man’s a Man for a’ That”. Little did we know things were about to take an unbelievable twist.

The evening was going extremely well: our pipes were humming and spot-on together, we had a warm and receptive crowd and the gentleman who gave the Address to the Haggis was fabulous. Colin and I both agreed afterwards that it was the best ode we ever heard. All in the room toasted “To the Haggis”, and threw back our scotch (Drambuie for me, thanks) as is customary.

Then in a moment which I can only describe as surreal, the gentleman who gave The Address, fell backward, stiff as a board, and struck his head on the floor.

As you can imagine, the crowd reacted with shock and disbelief.
Afterwards several people said they thought his collapse was a Pratt fall as that was just his kind of humour. All I remember hearing was Colin say, “Kelly, he’s down!” That was enough to jar me back to reality as we both threw our pipes and ran to his side.

From my 12 years experience as an Registered Nurse he appeared to me to be having a seizure. He was unresponsive and his face, arms and legs were rigid. Colin, who is a trained First Responder through work, called for people to move back and give us some space. I believe he also shouted, “It’s okay, she’s a nurse and she knows what she is doing!” I was really hoping I did, but you never know how you will react until you are in the moment. R.N. or not, I would be glad when EMS arrived.

When the gentleman stopped seizing, it was evident that he was having difficulty breathing and his pulse was weak. I put him in recovery position and then tried to re-acquire his pulse. A few seconds later Colin said “his face is turning blue” and I replied “I can’t get a pulse”. We quickly flipped him on his back and started CPR: Colin doing the chest compressions and me doing the breathing.

The compressions actually brought a pinkish hue back to his face but we both knew that CPR only keeps blood circulating until EMS arrives with the defibrillator. CPR doesn’t usually get the heart beating again, the defibrillator does. CPR buys the victim some time: seconds and minutes count.

By now someone across the room started shouting instructions from the 911 operator. The first thing they said was “Stop doing CPR, check to see if he is choking”. Colin and I looked at each other stunned, not quite understanding what we heard. I shouted back “We are so beyond that! He’s not choking, he isn’t breathing and has no pulse!” They I shouted back “keep doing CPR, until EMS gets there. Do 600 compressions”. We weren’t about to count compressions but there was no way we were stopping.

In critical situations, the perception of time is warped and expanded and it seemed like forever before Toronto Fire and EMS arrived. Someone told us later that it was only seven minutes until EMS arrived and 9 before he was defibrillated.

When EMS arrived they relieved Colin and I and began to work on him. As we stood watching all I could think was, “I hope he doesn’t die here in front of his wife and all his friends.” Looking around the room, I saw many grave and pale faces. People had their arms around each other and many people were saying silent prayers. I was relieved to see that several people were comforting the gentleman’s wife.

The few minutes before the defibrillator was ready felt like forever. The device itself actually speaks and we could hear it giving directions…”charging, clear, clear, clear, all hands off, beep, beep”…Wham-mo (well that’s my word for it).

After a while we could hear the firemen and EMS say we’ve got a heartbeat…he’s starting to breath on his own. The 100 or so people in the room collectively sighed, hugged each other and cried. When they transported him to hospital, he remained unconscious but his heart was beating and he was breathing on his own.

A week later, messages from his family inform us that he remains in hospital and is conscious and stable. He apparently suffered a massive heart attack but brain scans reveal that there was no damage due to anoxia. Whew!

Upon reflection, I learned a few things about people and myself. I learned that the positive outcome was a testament to what CPR training can do. I learned that it is difficult and strange to accept praise and thanks for these kind of actions because if you have the ability, you just react and don’t consciously choose. I learned about my friend Colin and how his innate qualities of being a man-of-action and natural-born leader, make him a good guy to have beside you in a crunch. On a personal level, I learned that I can function calmly in a crisis and although I may not have acted perfectly, it was good enough.

Kelly Crowe & Colin MacPherson
Toronto Police Pipe Band

It’s finally here; the last day of the year, 2008…hard to believe that yet another entire year has passed us by.   Hopefully for most, you have had some great experiences over the past year, and have also had some great pipe band moments!   

As both our bands have gone their separate ways for our Christmas break from pipe banding, I am starting to remember that there was something that I was supposed to learn, and of course have off for our first practice of 2009: A huge stack of new music!  This of course raises the question:  how best to learn music?  And a second and more important question:  Do I still have enough time to get it done prior to that first practice?  

My suggestions are aimed at pipers, they’re my perspective…but I believe they might be useful for drummers as well.  I’d love to hear your thoughts drummers!

Being the PM of the grade 3 band for the last few years has really let me see a lot of different learning styles and common problems that usually hinder a player’s ability to master a new tune.  I’ve watched some players play a part FOREVER until it’s memorized, usually repeating the same error, then moving to the next part, and repeating.  I’ve had players do sort of a step latter thingy, where they play first part twice, into the second part, then play the first part second part into the third part, and so on.  I have also had people talk about a counting method, which I still don’t understand, and please – I’ve love to figure this out!  My biggest pet peeve though, is when there is that one part of the tune where there is an odd bit, or a second timing, or something, like in the fourth part of “Doctor Ross’s 50th Welcome to the Argyllshire Gathering”, where one little note changes, and for some reason half the players mess it up repeatedly!  But getting back to my point… 

So here it is: my tips for memorizing a tune:  

1.  Although this whole topic does sort of depend on the talent of the player and the difficulty of the tune, for me (and I believe for most players out there) playing a tune slowly and to a steady beat, be it a metronome or your foot, will allow you to think about what you’re doing, and will also let you play the easy bits just as well as the tricky bits!  You have to make sure they are played correctly and at the same speed.  Again, depending on the time signature, double beating out a tune is probably the best way to open up a lot of that tight execution you may have, and to put things in the right spot.  There is just no use in playing a new tune way too fast where you make the same mistake every time through the same part. All this does is make a muscle memory error that you are certainly not going to want!  Especially in front of the PM!  See my comments regarding the fourth part of “Doctor Ross’s”!  

2.  The parts that you are not able to play well?  I think that they should be slowed down even more.  Take that one bar of the tune, and break it down.  Break it down to just notes if need be.  Make an exercise out of it.  Then add the grace notes, and once you’ve got that, put the doublings back in.  I think it’s very important that all this stuff is done very slowly, and to a beat you can trust.  If your foot isn’t steadiest, and moving with your errors, then maybe it’s time for a metronome!  Doing this will hopefully eliminate the whole “Doctor Ross phenomenon”!  

3.  Now that you’re sight readying through the tune without making a whole whack of errors and playing the tune correctly, it’s time to memorize the thing.  For me, I think that if you can sing the tune, you can play it!  Some bands play a part over for hundreds of times to get it down, but this is more than likely a punishment at band practice for not getting it down at home!  Or is it the PM, he or herself using band time to ALSO learn a new tune – a topic for a latter date!  If possible, have your PM or instructor make a recording of the tune for you, or if that cannot be done, record yourself playing the tune correctly while sight reading.  The sole purpose for this is to get that tune, that melody in your head.  This is the fastest way to remember the tune.  A good idea is to burn a copy and play it while on the computer at home, or on the way to work, school, or working out, or whenever you can give some time to learn a tune that you probably should have had off a wee while ago!  

So that’s it, that’s my method.  Probably pretty similar to most players out there – or possibly not?  Let me know, as I want to hear what works for you!  And since I’m running out of time myself, I can use all the help I can get!

On behalf of the whole group here at the TPPB, I hope you all welcome in 2009 safely, with a positive spirit, and with a set of pipes playing “Auld Lang Syne” in the background! 

Enjoy your Hogmanay celebrations and have a very Happy New Year to you all!

Cheers, Brian

Brian Urkosky