Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday Parade

Well done to everyone for participating in the Remembrance events this past weekend. On the 11th Eddie played the lament after the two minute silence at 11.00am. Derek laid the wreath at the war memorial on behalf of the pipe band.

On the 13th we were honoured to lead the parade to the Abbey Church, and then to the memorial where Eddie again played the lament.

The weather was kind, the warmest parade I can remember, and everyone played well.

 North Berwick Pipe Band are proud to have been able to play for Queen Elizabeth II, most recently at her visit to the Scottish Seabird Centre in 2009. May she rest in peace, a most remarkable person.

Well done to all

 It's been a while since we posted. It has been a great summer season. A big thank you has to go to all the kids, for  most of whom this has bean the first season playing galas and performances. Such confidence and commitment is really impressive.Well done to all.

And we are now looking forward to starting the work towards next season 😊

Falklands 40

Playing at the North Berwick War Memorial to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Falklands conflict

Galas 2022

 Our first Gala of the season today at Aberlady and what a great turn out from the Band. Well done to everyone who took part.

Chatting to a couple of the players I suddenly realised that although they had supposedly been playing with the Band for a while, due to Covid, this was actually the first Gala they had played at. Well done to you all and hopefully you will enjoy all the others just as much.

Platinum Jubilee

 Well done to Lyle and Eddie playing at the Beacon Ceremony at the harbour as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

3:4 Retreats - Are we playing them correctly

 I have just read a couple of articles on how 3:4 Retreats should be played. They suggest that the prominent accent is actually on the 2nd beat of each bar and in a way I can see where they are coming from. If you relate this back to the drumming then note that the middle unison is most often played from the roll leading in to the 2nd beat of bar 2 for the middle phrase. When you look at how the Bass cut off (the double taps) are played the correct placing is on the 2nd beat of bars 5 and 6.

The Bagpipe Place

Piping Press

How does this affect the playing. Well if played correctly the 1st beat should really be a lead in (anacrusis) played on the 1st Right foot after the introductory rolls. This means that the 2nd beat is actually on the Left foot. When this comes to the drumming it doesn't actually change what you are playing, it just changes what foot the beats fall on.

Will we change? This is unlikely in the near future as it would require every band to agree with this. Can you imagine the confusion in a massed band.

In the meantime we will continue as precedent has now set the format, but out of interest I have scored the snare drum for Balmoral in our medley to illustrate this (correct?) way of playing the 3:4's.

Peter Aitchison

Peter Aitchison, a former piper who played with the band and who went to USA with us in 1984 has just passed away. Peter was a lovely man and a loyal attender from West Barns, Dunbar. His daughter was also a piper with us.

New Blog & News Page

 New Blog Page added to the Website as you will know if you are reading this post. Let the Webmaster know if you think of any improvements of have items you want added.

We're Back

 It’s good to be back. Our first performing engagement for quite some time was a mini band playing for the wedding party and guests at Archerfield House. The feedback has been great and the playing members certainly seemed to have enjoyed it.

Omicron variant

 Continued restrictions due to the Omicron variant delay the restart of band practises. Hopefully individual tuition will restart mid-January but band restart mat be delayed until the end of the month.