Cracking the Millstone, Part I: Bagpipe Competitions Are Dead by Vince Janoski

It’s spring approaching summer here in the eastern US. And you know what that means? That means the Highland games and bagpipe competition circuit has begun in earnest. Many pipers are eagerly pressing their kilts, spending hours of practice time, and preparing their instruments for…well, another year of the same merry-go-round of MSRs, piobaireachds, and [...]

Hacking Your Inner Bagpiping Judge by Vince Janoski

There are those who would claim Highland piping is difficult. It may be, but perfecting a crunluath a-mach is nothing compared to the art of perfecting your own self-critiquing skills. It is the hardest thing of all to become your own judge and lend an objective ear to your own playing. After running through your [...]

Bagpipes: You’re Doing It Wrong by Vince Janoski

Most people who are not exposed to matters of Highland bagpiping have an image of bagpipers that includes a dandily dressed man in a skirt, making sounds akin to a tortured goat. Yes, there are a few who claim that the bagpipes will bring a tear to their eye, but it is likely a tear [...]

Hacking Bagpipe Competitions: Idea 3—The Adjudicator Fee Cap by Vince Janoski

Highland games and cultural festivals in general sit on a financial precipice. They serve an extremely narrow subset of the public in spite of every effort to make them more generally appealing. And as hard as they try, these games have an annual challenge to draw the crowds needed to sustain themselves. One or two [...]

Transcript of Donald Lindsay’s Thoughts on the Status of the EUSPBA Judges Panel by Andrew Douglas

Last week on Bagpipe Nation, we had a great conversation with special guest Donald Lindsay on canntaireachd and its connection to piobaireachd. We had a brief discussion near the end of the webcast on EUSPBA judging and Donald weighed in with some poignant commentary. Here is a transcript of that discussion from January 27, 2011 [...]

Hacking the Bagpiping Judge Part IV: How To Be a Bagpiping Judge—The System Applied by Publius Piper

A new system of selecting bagpipe and drumming adjudicators would take into account a candidate’s résumé of real world experience and give it the relevance it deserves. The question “How to be a piping judge?” is answered by deriving a sum of scores from a list of an individual’s top five achievements using the following [...]

Hacking the Bagpiping Judge Part III: How You Can Be a Bagpiping Judge—The System Explained by Publius Piper

Anyone can be a piping or drumming judge. Think about that idea for a moment and take note of your conditioned, reflexive reaction to it. If you’re like most bagpipers and drummers who were born and bred here in the eastern US, the idea might come across as almost laughable. But in all seriousness, why [...]

Hacking the Bagpiping Judge Part II: Anyone Can Be a Bagpiping Judge by Publius Piper

Imagine, if you will, this scenario: Jack Lee suddenly has a change of life and must relocate from British Columbia, Canada to Boston, Massachusetts. What a boon for eastern U.S. piping! Unfortunately, that boon turns to a curse when we realize that Jack Lee is not able to judge EUSBPA sanctioned contests since he is [...]