Go back and read Part I: Bagpipe Competitions are Dead
The merry-go-round goes round and round… The sheer monotony of bagpipe competition here in the US can wear you down after a while. As I mentioned in Part I of this piece, Bill Livingstone once likened competition to a “millstone,” and he’s right. Lots of great, interesting stuff goes in, only to be crushed into a homogeneous powder.
But bagpipe competitions are not dead in the sense of obsolescence, they are dead in the sense that what they produce is lifeless and boring. And it is mainly due to the restrictions we face in preparation as bagpipers in order to compete successfully. We currently play for ourselves, not an audience, in a way that churns out a pre-planned product. If it continues like that, eventually these restrictions will bring about the true death of the form. If bagpipe competitions are to flourish, they must grow. And to do that they must grow beyond the restrictions rooted in our tired format and break the millstone that grinds out the same thing over and over. Read More
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