Day 1.....Wow

Good Morning folks!

It's Friday and we landed safely in Ottawa yesterday morning.

Well...we did. Our bass drum however got destroyed.

Brand new hard plastic and padded case ruined, and the drum inside...shell cracked, hoop cracked, and heads ruined.

Big thanks to Air Canada for trying to completely ruin our trip, and not caring.

However, the pipe band world is charitable and supportive. I immediately got on the phone and within and hour had offers from 3 bands who were competing saturday in maxville too, to lend us their drum!

Then there's Pearl, some of the best customer service people in the business. After speaking with Bob Meade, he selflessly dropped everything and contacted Pearl who began pulling strings to find us a new drums.

Amazing.

Then just moments before we played the concert last night I got a call from non-other than Blair Buzz Brown. Buzz had a contact, Cameron Trotter, who won the drumming for drinks awhile back in bass.

His prize? A free Pearl bass drum.... Baby blue. Cameron was willing to lend us his drum for the remainder of our trip.

Now that's sportsmanship and kindness. I cannot believow generous and selfless everyone I've been in contact with has been.... Except Air Canada.

I want to thank everyone for helping me and the band out, especially Buzz who is bringing the drum to Maxville Saturday morning, and Cameron for lending it to us in the first place.

So that was the first day...

And now I face day 2!

Cheers!

Sean

Help Needed

Hi Everyone,

With only one day left until the trip begins we had our final rehearsal yesterday evening.

While practice was really great, and everyone played great, despite the on-setting nerves, we do have one HUGE problem.

Enroute to band practice last night one of the tenor drums was either stolen out of the back of a truck, or magically jumped out of a truck traveling 60 kms down a major Winnipeg route from a truck with a cap on it.

Please if anyone know anything this is a one of a kind instrument, an orangish colour, with chrome Pearl logos and the drummers first name on it.

Please contact me if you have any information regarding this matter.

sean@saspb.com

204 391 5057

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Sean

...the essentials

How and dy everybody,

It's Sunday, 4 days to go, I'm starting to pack.

I thought I'd be responsible this year and pack early so I don't forget anything, like a jacket, or raincape.....

Of course this is the first large packing mission I've attempted with a 4 year old's help. I'm positive half of our lego is in my suitcase... at least I'll have something to do between practice and the pub.

I guess I have everything I need. My uniform is ready, minus the kilt, vest, and jacket... drycleaners. I have every pair of sticks I own, even though I only use the maxwell ones, and 4 metronomes. I cleaned my drum, twice, and polished my brogues. So what is left?

Not much....

Oh right, civies. I'll get to that.

So here I sit, looking at predictions, fascinated by youtube videos, and completely wrapped up in a place half a world away.

I'll be posting our rehearsal schedule once the chief pooba ok's it.

Until then, tuesday is our last Winnipeg rehearsal, 7 pm Henderson Legion. Come out see the band in action, stay for a pint, wish us luck.

Have a great week!

Sean

When it Rains... it Pours....

Buenos ding dong diddly dias Mi Amigos....

Or something...

It's beautiful here in The Peg, and I'm nursing a sunburn from practice this morning. We had our last weekend practice before the trip this weekend and couldn't have planned two more extreme days.

Saturday was the definition of miserable. For those who were in Maxville 2 years ago... that crazy storm that hit.... yep all day.

I had to work Saturday morning, turns out real jobs require preparation before one departs for 3 weeks, but when I got there there were drum cases floating in the parking lot. Thank God I ordered those Humes and Burg (shameless plug) cases from Meade Custom Drumming (ditto) for our new Pearls... ( :D )

It was so bad we actually called practice around 2:00. However, as Cam was mulling this over with me we both decided to play the medley one more time.

Now, I'm a drummer, not terribly tall, but if I was... say.. Jamie Simpson, 9 foot 7 inches with shiny stuff on my pipes... playing with that lightning coming at us would have worried me a bit. There the band stood, in rain like I've never seen, defiant of nature... and we sounded darn good.

Flash to Saturday night, Wes' house, big party... of course, he's not there. It was the big guy (a.k.a the old guy now)'s birthday! He got off the plane from Saskatoon and walked into a house full of band-mates who cracked their first beers some 4 hours before he took off... nice.

Well Sunday came, and we were greeted with incredible weather. We had a good discussion about how fortunate we are with our draws at both Maxville and the World's, and how we need to take advantage of our brilliant positions. It's never easy, not even close, but if you have to play a qualifier at the World's... second to last is a great spot!

It's going to be a busy week. Tuesday, practice, Wednesday exec meeting, Thursday, practice.. etc. But it's sooo close.

If you're kicking around Winnipeg and are interested in seeing the band before we head out, both Tuesday and Thursday's practices will be held at the 215 Legion a.k.a "Henderson Legion". C'mon down and check the band out, maybe even have a pint with us afterwards.

Oh, and if you're in Ottawa July 29th track down the "B" in the Park concert, ourselves, Rock Mountain, and the City of Chicago pipe band are all playing with Sons of Scotland at their annual concert.

Happy practicing!

Sean

Coming Distractions

Well it's 13 days to the plane ride and 2 and a half weeks of bliss.

Those who know me, know I'm prone to nervousness and general stress around band contests.

So, why not now? Am I older and wiser? No... A rumour says a certain big league pipe major is late for the bus every world's due to nervous stomach.

But today it hit. My mind can't stop thinking about it. I try positive imaging. I viualize perfect plays and hearing the world's announcer calling our name, but it doesn't cap the nerves.

I wish it was tomorrow...

Normally this wave of anxiousness sets in two weeks ago, but I've been distracted with work. This is awesome. I get paid to think about something else.

It's been a good distraction but perhaps I should apologize to the president of Cabela's Canada now. I'll be useless for the next week sir.

It's pipe band season!

:)

Cheers,

Sean

P.s I wrote this with my Blackberry... Took an hour!!!

Ensemble: The Next Generation

Good morning,

Just spending Monday morning catching up on the videos from this weekend. Loving the music I'm hearing all over the world.

For those who read regularly a few weeks back during an update I mentioned I was having a lesson. This was thanks to the wonders of technology.

I had my first Skype lesson with Mr. Graham Brown of Ontario. It was a real treat. For an hour we worked through my band scores, some exercises to take to the corp and discussed musical philosophy.

Graham is a true musician at heart. He hears and sees the big picture and views his composition work as more of a producer's role in the pipe band. This is exactly how I feel about my role.

In the studios of New York, L.A., and Nashville, producers sit listening to bands and coming up with arrangements to get the modern audience to buy into the music, or just to make the very best version they can.

Flash over to the pipe band world.

Pipers create beautiful melodies, gorgeous harmonies, and complicated music. However, it is tremendously one dimensional when it comes to emotional expression to the average listener. Enter the drum corp. In today's modern pipe band, snare corp, tenors, and bass, are all utilized to create what I refer to as motion.

Some in the pipe band world call it tension and release. It creates the illusion that the music is always going somewhere, never a dull moment.

The combination of beautiful piping, motion based drumming, and good rhythmic consistency, is what we call good ensemble.

Rightly so.. it makes people wanna tap their foot to the beat!

How many times have we all heard "I hate bagpipes, sounds like a cat being hit with a baby"? Answer, alot. I always challenge these people to listen to the Fraser's Medley from 2007, or SFU's medley from 2009, how about some 1987 Strathclyde MSRs.

Never fails, there's that foot tapping.

Throw on Master Blasters and dare them not to enjoy Top Deck in Perth or Up an Adam.

Talking with Graham about the concept of Ensemble makes me think of all the times I've wanted to throw some ridiculous drum lick into a score and didn't....

Composing drum music is about sacrifice. A balance between the Can, and the Should. But restraint can be rewarded. Graham writes his music for ensemble. Look at this year's Ontario results and you'll see Peel right across the board. He told me he wasn't concerned with the drumming prize, Drew Duthart is a machine, but he was confident his pipers would take at least one first in piping. Of course then it becomes a battle for ensemble. There's where Graham shines.

Listen to the way his music moves the piping.

But there is a pay day for the drumming ego. This weekend Peel not only took the contest but won the drumming prize as well.

I've personally been told my music isn't difficult enough. This took its toll on my confidence for a long time. People you look up to as a kid tell you you just don't cut it and you question yourself.

Then you sit down with a Reid Maxwell, John Fisher, or Graham Brown, and they tell you "don't worry I did that too when I was your age" and they help you grow and improve as a composer.

Consistent message from all of the greats.. don't worry about the drumming prize those will come, get ensemble as good as you can, that wins competitions.

So, practice tomorrow, busy as ever. Wes is away teaching in Saskatchewan at Diefenbaker so I'm sure rehearsal will be a blood bath of hard work, our pipe sergeant Cam Ballantyne is a great drill sergeant.

Then this weekend is a busy weekend rehearsal, last one before the plane ride.

Can't believe how close it's getting.

Ok, I'm off to write some drum scores. For fun.

Cheers,

Sean

Brothers in Arms

"Never make a companion equal to a brother." Hesiod.


... I like pipe bands.

I really love drum corps.

I think it's because I have this idea in my head that pipe bands are like families. At least ours are. All of them, one big family. We share big moments, we celebrate together, we mourn together, it's a beautiful thing pipe band.

I love drum corps probably because I never had a brother. I always wanted a younger brother named Mike, and I'm sure if I had known about pipe bands back when I was three I would have insisted he was a drummer like me. However, my dear mother bless her heart gifted me a sister... and a piper.....

According to my Grandmother I referred to Kyla Dawn as Mike for quite some time. Periodically I still do.

I take great satisfaction in watching Kyla tune her pipes, and warm up with the pipe corp in the grade 2 band. It always seems surreal having her there. So don't get me wrong I'm a very, very proud brother, but she's a piper... and a girl.

So, I'm very attached to my guys in the drum corp. All of them. There's an old saying you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. I feel the same about drum corps, when it's right it's right and you don't have much say in it. So you learn to love each other and put up with each others little quirks and presto, you're family.

In my case I have 6 brothers that stand beside me in the closest thing to battle I hope any of them ever comes up against. I always say when we hit the line "just trust me and I'll get us through to the other side" then I look them all in the eye and they seem to buy in. We're brothers and we trust each other when push comes to shove.

So in this little dream of mine it's pretty easy to spot the obvious familial differences..... Dave and Dylan don't exactly look like Graham and Cam... So it's not like I can run around Maxville claiming my entire corp is the Johnston family drum line.

However, three weeks before the biggest pipe band trip of our lives to date one of my brothers gave me one hell of an early birthday gift.

Looks like when I hit the field for the World's I'll be standing with 4 brothers.. and one brother in law to be.

That's right, my little baby sister in the pipe corp actually said yes to one of the goofballs in the drum corp and we're gonna have us a good ole fashioned SASPB Wedding.

Apparently Ian Walker decided it was good security to make sure I didn't cut him at the World's... jokes on him.. now he's really family :)

Naw... after years of dating, and incredible patience on both their parts I'm proud to say the little couple that could has and they're getting hitched. I could not be more proud of both of them and how far they've come.

Ian has played with me for 4 years now, from the grade 4 band, to the World's, and now the grade 2 band and back across the pond. I'm very proud to have him join our family.

I suppose it's only right that the only type of man I would trust with my little sister would be one of the drummers in my drum corp. One of my brothers.

Hesiod didn't know what he was talking about....



Congratulations you guys.

Love Always,

Sean