COMPETITION TECHNIQUE

It is said that Piping Competitions are a "necessary evil"! That is because without them most people would not bother to practice!

So, imagine you have a piping contest coming up in the next couple of months.... - you will most likely practice very hard in an effort to win a prize or at least to put on a good performance.

I have been a solo piping adjudicator since 1993 so am well-placed to identify deficiencies in a piping performance.

In the 1980's I played in Grade 1 British Caledonian Airways Pipe Band along with P/M Angus McDonald who was acknowledged to be one of the top pipers in the World at that time. Angus offered to teach me as I was getting very few first places in contests. He corrected a few small things in my playing and I climbed up the ladder consistently after that until I stopped competing due to business commitments.

A good Piping Performance [contest or no contest] consists of :