Pipers playing limited 'tunes'?

[Southern Breeze]

I think that Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave are simply the ones people not only remember but may have been the only ones they've heard.

On a side note, I was asked to play Taps at a friends funeral earlier this year. They had a piper play Amazing Grace as the funeral procession enterd the cemetery. Here's the humorous part- I was kilted and the piper was wearing a suit.

[Riverkilt]

I love them both...classics to be enjoyed. Would rather hear them than wonder what it was being played....

Ron

[David Dalglish]

At the world pipe band competition in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago, there were 200 bands & I did not hear Amazing grace or Scotland the Brave once

[auld argonian]

At the world pipe band competition in Glasgow a couple of weeks ago, there were 200 bands & I did not hear Amazing grace or Scotland the Brave once

I'd expect that serious competing pipers would avoid the easy stuff.

Sort of like when you hold auditions for an amateur theatre group and everybody show up singing "Tomorrow" from Annie as their audition tune...after hearing "Tomorrow" twenty five odd times, you're SO much more inclined to give the person who gets up and sings "Memory" from Cats a listen...any change is an improvement.

Sort of like listening to several thirteen year old guitar players doing "Stairway to Heaven" and then having one kid play....anything else!

Best

AA

[Iolaus]

When I took a six week summer class at the community college, the teacher had us working on a half dozen different tunes. There seems to be a standard canon of tunes that are expected to be mastered before you are considered a competent player.

[auld argonian]

When I took a six week summer class at the community college, the teacher had us working on a half dozen different tunes. There seems to be a standard canon of tunes that are expected to be mastered before you are considered a competent player.

I'll tel you...that's what blows my mind when I get to some of the seshuins that happen around here...these are those weekday evening "jam sessions" for the Irish musicians that happen in bars...the older guys who play the button accordian knock me out because they seem to know literally thousands of tunes and can recall them at will. There is a core of "standards" but these musicians take perverse glee in digging up some real obscure-o's and tossing them in to confound the assembled multitudes. My buddy has spent years with the Chief O'Neil book and his mandolin...just going through the book and playing every tune.

I guess you start at eh beginning and work your way up.

Best

AA

[Iolaus]

Yeah, let me amend that; there seems to be a large standard canon of tunes..."