My Pipe Tunes

The pipe tunes - that I have heard or played during my 50-year bagpiping journey - is what this section is all about.

I have learned (or in some cases, tried to learn) many tunes during this period.  Some have been forgotten (at least in terms of being able to play them.  Others were just too difficult to get my fingers round.  I have tried to list them all with an indication of how I came to them.  Some of those which I still play are illustrated in the section called Recordings (audio or video) using the practice chanter, the Deger electronic bagpipe or the pipes.

In the section Commercial Recordings I describe the tunes on LPs, CDs, broadcasts and on-line which have inspired me to learn them. 

So what kind of tunes have I learned?  The answer is Simple Ones!

Tunes Timeline

This section contains a list of tunes that I have learned to play over the years, regardless of whether I can still play them.

It is organised by acquisition date and tune type.  Those highlighted indicate that you can hear me playing them.

Recordings - LPs, CDs and Broadcasts

Although I have tragically lost (or perhaps mislaid) the first two pipe band discs which I bought in the early 1960s (45 rpm EPs of the Edinburgh City Police) I still have the first Pipe Band LP which I bought in 1963: "World Champions - Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia", including as its first track, the famous Drummers' Salute composed by Shotts' hugely talented and innovative lead drummer, Alex Duthart.  This LP is still a favourite (even if I never actually play it now).  At that time, the band was led by Pipe Major JK MacAllister, who led Shotts to four successive world championships in 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960.  As stated without exaggeration  on the front cover of the LP (in the form of a mock newspaper report) Shotts was "the most consistent prize-winning band and the finest combination of pipes and drums that the world has ever known."  It was certainly the one that my chums and I in the 167th Glasgow Boys Brigade wanted to see and hear on our occasional participation in pipe band competitions.

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