Archive
Until about 1940, solo piping and even some pipe band competitions were judged not only by know-it-all aristocrats with little or even no ability to play the pipes, but by literally any warm-blooded thing with a capacity to nod or shake their head. In addition to local lairds and farmers, […]
pipes|drums recently discussed the rise of solo and band competitions using unaccredited judges, and now there’s a move by some events to eliminate prize money for successful contestants in favour of more traditional things like tins of shortbread, boxes of washing powder, and a fistful of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes. The […]
Even though the UK has relatively few unified rules governing how solo piping competitions are run, the common regulation that teachers should not judge their pupils and pupils should not play for their teachers is the strictest conflict-of-interest policy in the world of piping and drumming. The Competing Pipers Association […]
The 2026 Victorian Pipe Band Championships were held in conjunction with the Melbourne Highland Games & Celtic Festival in the eastern suburb of Croydon. City of Melbourne Highland prevailed in Grade 2, the day’s top contested event.
For the second consecutive year, Cameron Bonar of Surrey, British Columbia, won the annual Boney Music Memorial Invitational Competition & Recital held at the Seaforth Armoury.
The National Piping Centre’s McPhater Street premises were the venue for the latest in-person CLASP (Competition League for Adult Solo Pipers) contest, and it was Heinrich Herzog, Andrew Robertson and Cameron Davison who were the aggregate winners in the Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3 categories, respectively.
Vancouver – March 28, 2026 – With two firsts, Alex Pavlovic from Houston, Texas, made history by becoming the first overall winner of the Jack Lee Amateur Invitational Solo Piping Competition, where a large audience filled the Anderson Room in the Seaforth Armoury of the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. There […]
Jake Jörgensen of ScottishPower won the 2026 Scottish Solo Snare Drumming Championship after a points tie with Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia’s Kerr McQuillan.
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has officially accepted Melbourne, Australia’s Hawthorn Grade 1 entry to the World Pipe Band Championships. The band was advised by the RSPBA that its Grade 1 status in Australia would be honoured, thus also confirming pipes|drums’ estimate of 13 in the top grade at […]
Over the years, pipes|drums has amassed a lot of merchandise sent to us by record companies, artists, associations, competitions, filmmakers, and all manner of folks who have made commercial recordings. They take up a lot of space, which we’re trying to economize. We’ve digitized everything we want, so we thought […]
When Grade 2 Glasgow Skye Association revealed that it was going on the proverbial and all-too-familiar “hiatus” in 2026, it was only the latest unwelcome news of another top-grade band struggling to survive. Pipe-Major Donald Stewart resigned, and Leading-Drummer Les Galbraith followed, prompting the band’s management to make the difficult decision to use the year […]
If you’re a piper not yet 21 and ready to shred on the world’s biggest stage, the time is now to audition for Pipe Idol 2026, the popular annual event at Glasgow’s Piping Live! festival. Since 2004, numerous Pipe Idol winners have gone on to piping glory, including Highland Society […]
Despite decades of stringent vetting, testing and management by associations, there has been a noticeable increase in piping, drumming, and pipe band competitions that employ unaccredited people to adjudicate their events, and competitors don’t seem to mind. And that’s disconcerting.
James “Jimmy” McColl, the Highland Society of London Gold Medallist and piobaireachd thought-leader and reformer, died at his home in California on March 19, 2026, at the age of 97. He was predeceased by his wife, Betty, only 21 days earlier. Born in the mining village of Shotts, Scotland, in […]
St. Mary’s Church in Broughty Ferry, Scotland, will be the venue for an exclusive recital on April 17, 2026, by Double Gold Medallist Douglas Murray, the latest in the series of performances put on by the Mackenzie Caledonian Pipe Band organization of Dundee. Remarkably, the church is allowing BYOB, so […]
With firsts from all eight judges, Canterbury Caledonian Society enjoyed a convincing win at the 2026 New Zealand Championships, held in perfect conditions at the TET Stadium & Events Centre in the small town near New Plymouth on the country’s North Island. It was the band’s first big prize under recently appointed pipe-major, Piers Dover.