Oran Mor at George Square, Glasgow—Video by Vince Janoski

Excellent video of Oran Mor’s Tuesday performance at Piping Live! at George Square courtesy of STV. Follow the link. Oran Mor at George Square

Pipehacker Travelogue: George Square and the National PIping Centre, Glasgow by Vince Janoski

Sometimes the pressure of just performing in front of a knowledgeable audience packs a bigger punch in the gut than the pressure of the pipe band competition circle. The Piping Live! festival has been inviting pipe bands to perform free concerts in George Square since its inception. Many of the overseas bands in town for [...]

Pipehacker Travelogue: Oran Mor at Bridge of Allan by Vince Janoski

Video of the Grade 1 MSR at Bridge of Allan. Piss poor conditions with constant rain all day, but a good run to place second to Inverary. If the announcer stopped commentating the bike race, he might have heard some good stuff there…

Pipehacker Travelogue: Glengarry Highland Gathering at Maxville, Ontario by Vince Janoski

The pipe band competitions at Maxville and the Glengarry Highland Gathering are the biggest scene you will find this side of the Atlantic for piper, drummer, and bagpipe junkie alike. For even the most jaded pipeband-er, the final massed bands are pretty spectacular. Multiple waves of bands enter the field and it is quite the [...]

Pipehacker Abroad: International Travelogue by Vince Janoski

This weekend begins a series of straight international bagpiping travel for this pipehacker and many other American bagpipers and drummers starting with this Saturday’s North American Championships at Maxville, Ontario and continuing on with various games in Scotland leading up to the World Pipe Band Championships on Glasgow Green. Posts on Pipehacker will be sporadic [...]

Proud to be an American (Bagpiper) by Vince Janoski

There was a time when a trip to Glasgow to play at the World Pipe Band Championships was a “pie-in-the-sky” kind of dream. Multiple reasons keeping any band from that contest were bandied about. Chalk it up to our collective inferiority complex when it comes to matters of bagpiping, maybe. It was not that long [...]

From the Archive: Basics of Chanter Reed Manipulation Part 1—The Lick by Andrew Douglas

Ed. Note: Now is the time when many pipe bands are outfitting their pipe corps with new chanter reeds for the big contests to come. Here is a post from last year that will help. —————- Ok, Reed Manipulation. A HUGE topic for pipers. First off, I would like to say that this is a [...]

Pareto Piping: The Three Things at the Core of Pipe Band Success by Vince Janoski

Pareto Principle: Roughly 80% of the effects of many events come from 20% of the causes. We all want to crack the secret of good bagpiping and drumming and achieve success on the competition field, don’t we? Pipe bands here in the USA work very hard to be musically and competitively successful, but I’ll bet [...]