I may be out of my league here...

[OC Richard]

I was kind of surprised that most of pipers on that forum only saw the kilt as an odd costume, or part of their band 'uniform'...
Many made statements about how they would never wear a kilt unless they were playing, and could not wait to get out of it after. And some were very critical and dismissive of the notion of wearing Highland dress as casual, everyday or even dressy/formal wear.


My questions are, and maybe I'm oversimplifying the issues, but where are the disconnects in the Bagpiper/Kilt equation? While I know there are pipers (and kilt wearers) with little or no Celtic heritage, I would think that most pipers got into playing because of their links to heritage?

Well in the band I'm currently playing with, at least, very few of the members got involved in the Pipe Band scene due to heritage. We have members of African, Tai, Philipino, Scandinavian, German, English, Chinese, and Mexican heritage and these easily outnumber the few of Scots or Irish heritage. These people were drawn to the MUSIC and the music alone. Most of the band's members are musicians in a more general sense: most came from a background of playing brass instruments or a vocal background etc and to them the pipes are simply musical instruments and Highland dress is simply the uniform which must be worn to play in. If they were playing their trumpet they would wear a tux but they wouldn't go to the mall in their tux, neither would they go to the mall in their kilt.

An analogy is our local British Brass Band which people of many ethnic backgrounds are drawn to because they like playing that style of music.

Here are some of us at a local Games: