The Week in Review

Good morning everyone,

Well it's been a fantastic week for the big blue machine. Lots of great successes.

Monday saw the first meeting of the Juvenile band taking place. I'm quite proud of the turnout, and even more proud of the interest the kids showed. Tuesday was our first kick at the cat for grade 2 and things were clipping right along already. A great effort by everyone prior to practice really paid off.

Last night was grade 3 practice and we had almost everyone out again. The pipers cut through their new MSR quite nicely and started to take a shot at the medley before retiring from brain burn. The drummers had an excellent rehearsal working on the March from the MSR, and some parade stuff to get everyone adjusted to my style of writing.

It has been a very busy week in the pipe band world. I know this is supposed to be down time but bands are just starting up and rosters are being shot around the globe.

The most recent news I personally found distressing. It comes from Chicago via piper drummer. In an article posted today P&D (Piper, Drummer) reported that "Melvin resigns as Mid-Lothian Pipe Major"(pipesdrums.com). Wes and I had heard some rumblings of this way up here in Canada but decided not to spread it around until confirmed.

According to the article the band's future is uncertain. What a quick turn around from taking 1st in the MSR at Maxville last season and edging us out in the medley for 2nd.

On the flip side Mr. Melvin (Adrian Melvin) will be moving to Peel Regional Police along with a plethora of other highly qualified players.

So much so that they're creating a feeder system! This bodes well for us as they have made Penatangor their feeder band and will create a grade 2 band out of the system. At least this way if we lose one great band we should gain a new great band to compete against.

Jake Watson, long-time friend and clinician of the band, is the director of Penatangor and will also be joining Peel this season. Looks like there's a new grade 1 contest in Ontario and should be very interesting to watch.

So that's the news this week. Some interesting shuffling in the east and I look forward to seeing it all play out.

As for us, shuffling is over, doors are open, and we're back to business.

See ya'll next week!

Sean