Yes you have a good eye for detail! Indeed many of our earliest images of pipers, including the very earliest clear image of a Highland piper, The Piper To The Laird Grant, shows the pipes under the right arm.
It's not uncommon to see pipers play that way even today- we have one in our band.
About the military, no problem with playing both ways in The Black Watch! The Pipe Major himself plays that way, in this vintage photo c1900
Or in The Cameron Highlanders, in the 1950s
Or in The Atholl Highlanders
Or recently, in The Strathclyde Police Pipe Band, in which I've seen as many as four lefties in the circle
A more odd, perhaps, thing is the pipers who play with the bag under the left arm, but have the right hand on top, like this Pipe Major of The Royal Scots Greys
and the famous Pipe Major Donald MacLean of Lewis
Last edited by OC Richard; 17th July 15 at 07:48 PM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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