Modern Pipe Band Drums

[OC Richard]

(quotes from TheOfficialBren in italics)

Probably only in a pipe band (okay, or an orchestra) will you see an instrument on the other side of a century still being played vigourously and regularly! That is a testament to masterful craftsmanship!

Yes indeed! My c1900 pipes simply work better and sound better than any pipes I've ever owned. The mystery is that a modern craftsman can precisely copy the specs of an old set, yet not get the same sound. The wood? Probably. And who knows what else!

How have the tuning scale and volume changed and why did they change?

The overall pitch of the chanters has been steadily increasing from "low A" being around 466 cycles in the early 1970s to 480-484 cycles today. In other words, "low A" has gone from being Concert B Flat to being around halfway between B Flat and B.

The changes in bore and reed design that pushed up the pitch also increased the volume and changed the timbre. A new 480 chanter is far louder than an old 466 chanter, and also has a brighter, clearer timbre. Old chanters sound fat, woody, dark, and tubby in comparison. Interesting that the old drones, designed to play at the old low pitch, sound great when reeded to play at the new high pitch.

Why did the pitch rise steadily beginning in the late 1970s? Conventional wisdom is that, at a large competition where the judges have to listen to 14-20 bands in a row, a band playing a hair sharper than the rest will catch the ear of the judges, and sound brighter and clearer than the rest. Don't know if it's true.

About the tuning of the scale, the traditional tuning (which can be heard on early recordings) is a strange mix of Just Intonation and Equal Temperament with a Neutral interval (high G) and an inexplicable interval (D) thrown in for good measure. These still persisted when I started playing in the mid-1970s but one by one all the intervals were brought into line with Just Intonation.

Do these changes affect how you approach different playing applications (solo gigs in various venue types, recording studio, ceilidh bands, funerals, etc)?

Serious competition pipers usually maintain two chanters, their band chanter and their solo chanter. The band chanter is 'set up' by the band's 'tonemeister' and is extremely loud, bright, and sharp (perhaps around 482-484) and can have a stiff reed. The solo chanter is set up by the player and is usually at a slightly lower pitch, lower volume, and warmer darker timbre (perhaps around 478-480).

Most pipers will play either one of these chanters for their usual sort of gigs (weddings funerals etc) at which they're playing solo.

Obviously these chanters can't be played with 'normal' instruments and pipers who play gigs with pipe organs, brass ensembles, orchestras, folk-rock bands, etc will have to maintain a chanter that plays at Concert Pitch (466). Pipers usually keep their 466 chanters tuned to the same "Just" intervals as their other chanters.

Scottish military pipe bands often maintain two entire sets of matched chanters, one at modern pipe band pitch for competition, one at Concert Pitch for playing along with brass bands.

Do you see these changes as the natural ebb and flow of musical evolution or does it feel like it is forced into being?

The rise in pitch is usually thought of as being forced upon the piping world by the tastes of the judges. The whole thing is winning.

Do any pipe bands (not just marching ensembles) ever incorporate electronics in their rigs?

I've never seen that.

Back to drumming, here's the 2013 Edinburgh Military Tattoo, and at 3:36 you can hear the drum corps, interesting to compare to the 1968 Tattoo I linked to above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBYVmnMFMtA

[TheOfficialBren]

Thank you for the information, Richard.

Re: the Edinburgh Tattoo Video--WOW! Lots of talent! Gorgeous lighting and superb cinematography, too! Well posted. Pretty much every bit of drumming kit that I saw in the video was identical, nearly identical, or darned close enough that none of it would be out of place on the field at a DCI (Drum Corp International) competition at any grade level.
Interestingly (and for obvious reasons) none of the drummers were wearing sporrans but many were kilted. Some pipers were trousered. Lots of variety in dress and instruments, too. Lots of Remo Fiberskin heads and Remo Falam (kevlar) heads. A few were playing the Remo Ebony Pinstripes. Great for marching drums. Utter garbage for most other settings.

As an aside, I figured that it was a longbshot to see a pipe band incorporating some V-Drums or the like but you never know...(doubtful, though).

Thank you, Richard. I've learned a lot from this thread.

[OC Richard]

Thanks!

About pushing the envelope in competition, well there's the Toronto Police thing where they started out with pads on top of the snare heads for a muted sound. The judges didn't seem to go for it (but we would have to see the actual competition score sheets to know what the Drumming Judge and Ensemble Judge really said about it).

The oddest thing I've seen was, around 20 years ago, when a pipe band showed up with a tri-tom. It sounded very strange and foreign to the pipe band idiom, and everyone seemed to hate it. Once again I don't know what the judges actually said on the score sheets. The tri-tom seemed to not fit in EXCEPT on the Slow Air in the Medley, where it had a lovely musical part. It would have been far more effective to have had that drum be tacit in the rest of the Medley, though perhaps a violation of the rules.

[The Barry]

I've had this discussion many times. Here in the Pac NW, we have a competitive pipe and drums scene here.

As a drummer, I am appalled at how tight and high our side drums are tuned these days. I LOVE the sound of a nice, fat, rope tensioned drum.

The problem is definitely pitch drift. And the reason is simple: judging at competitive pipe and drum events. If you take two identical drum corps that are playing the exact same piece in the exact same way, judges tent to like the sound of the higher-tensioned drums better. The lower-pitched drums will sound flat, and many judges mistakenly interpret this as the players playing with lazy strokes (too legato) or slightly behind the beat.

If you're in the stands, you might actually like the sound of the lower-pitched drums better (I do), but on/near the ground, the judges tend to give higher scores to the higher-pitched drums, thinking that they sound sharper and more well-defined. Do that for 30 years, and you have kevlar heads and obnoxiously tuned drums.

Some large competitive bands will actually use rope-tensioned drums for concerts, but never for competition. I know that SFU up in B.C. has/had a set of rope-tensioned side drums for concerts, and they sounded AMAZING.

Just my $0.02.

[TheOfficialBren]

Barry, good to know! Thank you for the valuable input. I agree that sometime the tuning does get 'obnoxious.' I learned on higher tuned drums but they can be very fatiguing to the ear. Those kevlar heads are utterly devoid of decent tone. It almost doesn't even matter of those things are tuned! One of our guys had a broken lug (one of our 'helpers' was 'helping') and no time to fix it before step-off. He just removed the tension rod. Those poor drums took so much abuse.
:-/

Richard, that is very interesting regarding the tri-toms. Our tenor drummers in our marching outfit played....wait for it...quintuplets! They always has a cookey melody of some sort going on. Sometimes it's really neat, other times it's a bit distracting. It's very much a marching band (contemporary) thing and I can see why is left more than a few eyebrows raised. I've noticed that tenor drummers in pipe bands are marvellously visual!

[sailortats]

Coming from someone that doesn't know a B flat from a Z minor let me say I have found this thread extremely interesting. Of course, I have no idea what you were all talking about but it was interesting none the less.
MODERATORS: I suggest that this thread be made a sticky. I think it will be of great interest to professional pipers and drummers for many years to come.

[imrichmond]

The oddest thing I've seen was, around 20 years ago, when a pipe band showed up with a tri-tom. It sounded very strange and foreign to the pipe band idiom, and everyone seemed to hate it. Once again I don't know what the judges actually said on the score sheets. The tri-tom seemed to not fit in EXCEPT on the Slow Air in the Medley, where it had a lovely musical part. It would have been far more effective to have had that drum be tacit in the rest of the Medley, though perhaps a violation of the rules.

Actually that was Gord Tuck's MacNish Distillery Pipe Band back around 1981. I was part of that band. The tri-tom was the brainchild of our then leading drummer, John Kerr. It was a bit of an experiment and, as I recall, was not repeated. John recruited the tri-tom player from a drum and bugle corps.

An even stranger drumming innovation that I remember was the City of Guelph Pipe Band (PM Ed Neigh) having a cymbal on a stand carried into the competition circle, also around 1980. The cymbal was struck at various points in the medley. City of Guelph tried this only once.

[OC Richard]

The tri-tom... an experiment... not repeated.

An even stranger drumming innovation... having a cymbal on a stand... tried this only once.

Hmmm there's a pattern there!

Innovation happens in the pipe band competition scene but it's matter of gradual evolution. Sudden radical innovations don't appear to go over well with the judges!

I saw the tri-tom thing at the Santa Rosa Games. Would that be MacNish Distillery? Fun times at the El Rancho!

[imrichmond]

Hmmm there's a pattern there!

Innovation happens in the pipe band competition scene but it's matter of gradual evolution. Sudden radical innovations don't appear to go over well with the judges!

I saw the tri-tom thing at the Santa Rosa Games. Would that be MacNish Distillery? Fun times at the El Rancho!

There is a definite pattern. In the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s, pipe bands were clearly looking to break out of the, by then, standard MSR and medley formats -- medleys were introduced into pipe band competition in Ontario around 1970. This was also the period in which Bill Livingstone's 78th Fraser Highlanders shook things up a bit with their long slide from low G to low A in My Laggan Love. This latter was another innovation, like the tri-tom and the cymbal, that failed to impress some judges. The crowds loved it, though. There was quite a lot of innovation going on in Ontario pipe bands back then, but the only one of those innovative bands still around today is the 78th Frasers.

Yes, MacNish Distillery did play at the Santa Rosa games around 1986-87. I had left the band by then, as had Gord Tuck. I guess John Kerr must have persisted with the tri-tom beyond the initial experiment. I don't recall that he used it again while I was with the band. On the other hand, it could have been a different band that you heard. MacNish certainly didn't have an exclusive right to the use of the tri-tom.

[OC Richard]

Seems like the most edgy band as far as innovation goes nowadays is Toronto Police.

They did the drum pads in Grade One at the Worlds.

They were playing a medley a couple years ago that, rather than being a medley of traditional tunes, sounded like a through-composed piece. Most of the pipe band world didn't like it.