Happy Tuesday folks!
Weather here in the Peg is gorgeous as always.... And by always I mean this past few weeks.
Well, the big blue machine was in full steam roll this weekend as we took our gang outside at the Brandon Highland Festival.
The weather didn't exactly cooperate.. It was beautiful, but there was this wind. Makes for a tricky ensemble effect. The wind tends to take sound and run with it.
Still our seasoned pipe corp dealt with it well and I'm proud to say cleaned house in both grade 2 and the un-contested grade 3 contest.
Drumming was a story in itself. We had great adjudication and I have so many great comments from Dave Bowman (SFU) that I have plenty to work on!
We won drumming in the MSR but showed our green in the Medley. Mostly nerves. We practice one way and then hit the line and sometimes the young guys try to hide...it never works :)
We made some adjustments on Sunday at rehearsal and I'm confident we'll keep improving every week.
I don't expect miracles. As my mentor and former lead-drummer Bob Cooper said to me, "this will take time" we played well, the music quality and calibre was confirmed. We just need to harness our nerves as Scotland is a helluva lot more nerve racking than any other.
Anyways I should also mention Ryan Cadotte, long time piper with us, got hitched saturday night... To his beautiful, yet obviously slightly insane new wife... "Welcome to our crazy ass family!!!!!!" :) we're happy to have you officially.
Now I'm off to the pharmacy as I seem to have one kick ass cold...
Cheers,
Sean
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Officially the Luckiest D/s on Earth
Hi folks,
It's a little under 24 hours till I drag my butt out of bed to go judge, and play, at the Brandon highland festival. Always a pleasure working with Richard and his great team.
Brave folks too! Some years we are trapped inside a gymnasium and others we're outside trying out our sound in the great outdoors. Not an easy task for Richard to coordinate surely.
I always get a little jumpy the day before a contest. More excited than anything. I love pipe band contests, they're the best way I can think of spending the day.. second I guess would be fishing, then golfing, then bbqing... that would be okay too!
I suppose everybody wants me to comment on the complete 180 turn around from my previous post regarding the growing drum corp.
I havent really sat down to comment to my own drummers on Buz's decision not to play (for those who didn't know as of wednesday night Buz had decided not to play) but I suppose a half an hour before a marketing exam is as good a time as any.
If you could see my face you'd see how little surprise is on it. As I say to my boys "this is my look of caring, see how it doesn't exist?" It is a shame though simply because we're creating something great and Buz could have been a great part of that.
Citing lack of inspiration to play Buz informed Wes and I, and then the facebook world of his official non-band member status. C'est la vie... or however you spell that.
Of course as usual, I'm more than happy with what we've got, and immediately following this news I received numerous emails and phone calls from many pipe band people around North America saying not to worry that we're on the right track and to keep teaching and growing from the youth of Winnipeg.
So there's my official position. To anybody who has a chance to play with the people I do every week, to pick up sticks a jam with any SASPB drum corp, and turns it down.... your loss.
I've got an exam at 11:30 and a pipe band practice at 7:00.. guess which is on my mind at 10:45 am.
Cheers
Sean
a.k.a the luckiest D/s on earth
It's a little under 24 hours till I drag my butt out of bed to go judge, and play, at the Brandon highland festival. Always a pleasure working with Richard and his great team.
Brave folks too! Some years we are trapped inside a gymnasium and others we're outside trying out our sound in the great outdoors. Not an easy task for Richard to coordinate surely.
I always get a little jumpy the day before a contest. More excited than anything. I love pipe band contests, they're the best way I can think of spending the day.. second I guess would be fishing, then golfing, then bbqing... that would be okay too!
I suppose everybody wants me to comment on the complete 180 turn around from my previous post regarding the growing drum corp.
I havent really sat down to comment to my own drummers on Buz's decision not to play (for those who didn't know as of wednesday night Buz had decided not to play) but I suppose a half an hour before a marketing exam is as good a time as any.
If you could see my face you'd see how little surprise is on it. As I say to my boys "this is my look of caring, see how it doesn't exist?" It is a shame though simply because we're creating something great and Buz could have been a great part of that.
Citing lack of inspiration to play Buz informed Wes and I, and then the facebook world of his official non-band member status. C'est la vie... or however you spell that.
Of course as usual, I'm more than happy with what we've got, and immediately following this news I received numerous emails and phone calls from many pipe band people around North America saying not to worry that we're on the right track and to keep teaching and growing from the youth of Winnipeg.
So there's my official position. To anybody who has a chance to play with the people I do every week, to pick up sticks a jam with any SASPB drum corp, and turns it down.... your loss.
I've got an exam at 11:30 and a pipe band practice at 7:00.. guess which is on my mind at 10:45 am.
Cheers
Sean
a.k.a the luckiest D/s on earth
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Holy Shmolly It's Warm Outside!!!!
Look out Mama it's sandal weather!!!
Well maybe just for Ian Walker, but it's plus 10 degrees Celsius at 10:32 am and there's practice tonight. So, Wes sent the email out saying get to practice early and dress warm, we're playing outside!
My guesstimate, drummers play, pipers tune, it gets cold, we go inside, but it's a start!
I love playing outside. I was house sitting casa del Sheppard this weekend while he and John Fisher were out galavanting with the Saskatoon Police, so I had the drummers over Sunday morning for a workout. It was so nice, we headed out onto the deck and took our first crack at the Pearls outside. They didn't disappoint. Something about drumming outside just gets the blood boiling.
Of course, one look at the calendar does the same thing. I think we're 12 weeks from the plane ride to Ottawa....
Yikes!
Good thing I have a Doctors appointment today, better get my blood pressure read.
It was, however, a very relaxing rehearsal for me. The boys have had their nose to the grindstone and things are going smoother than ever. I'm nit picking but that's about it. Every week we improve exponentially.
We also had a guest at practice which kinda loosened things up. My girlfriend's son made his first appearance at a drum corp practice. Jacob is 3, soon to be 4, and it's always very entertaining to see young kids as they get their first taste of pipe bands.
To say the least he was amazed. The boys were great with him, supportive to a tee! We practiced on the deck while Jacob jammed on a drum pad in the sun room (safe volume distance) and during our breaks he even worked up the courage to ask to tap on a drum.
I love watching kids explore music. It reminds me why I do all of this in the first place. It takes me back to when Bob Cooper gave me my first drum (a remo made lagato... I know.....) and how I played it all night at home until my mother threatened my life.
I strongly recommend introducing a child to our world. You never know, they could be the next Jim Kilpatrick, or Bruce Gandy!
Plus, your blood pressure will drop.
Cheers everyone, enjoy the weather!
Sean
Well maybe just for Ian Walker, but it's plus 10 degrees Celsius at 10:32 am and there's practice tonight. So, Wes sent the email out saying get to practice early and dress warm, we're playing outside!
My guesstimate, drummers play, pipers tune, it gets cold, we go inside, but it's a start!
I love playing outside. I was house sitting casa del Sheppard this weekend while he and John Fisher were out galavanting with the Saskatoon Police, so I had the drummers over Sunday morning for a workout. It was so nice, we headed out onto the deck and took our first crack at the Pearls outside. They didn't disappoint. Something about drumming outside just gets the blood boiling.
Of course, one look at the calendar does the same thing. I think we're 12 weeks from the plane ride to Ottawa....
Yikes!
Good thing I have a Doctors appointment today, better get my blood pressure read.
It was, however, a very relaxing rehearsal for me. The boys have had their nose to the grindstone and things are going smoother than ever. I'm nit picking but that's about it. Every week we improve exponentially.
We also had a guest at practice which kinda loosened things up. My girlfriend's son made his first appearance at a drum corp practice. Jacob is 3, soon to be 4, and it's always very entertaining to see young kids as they get their first taste of pipe bands.
To say the least he was amazed. The boys were great with him, supportive to a tee! We practiced on the deck while Jacob jammed on a drum pad in the sun room (safe volume distance) and during our breaks he even worked up the courage to ask to tap on a drum.
I love watching kids explore music. It reminds me why I do all of this in the first place. It takes me back to when Bob Cooper gave me my first drum (a remo made lagato... I know.....) and how I played it all night at home until my mother threatened my life.
I strongly recommend introducing a child to our world. You never know, they could be the next Jim Kilpatrick, or Bruce Gandy!
Plus, your blood pressure will drop.
Cheers everyone, enjoy the weather!
Sean
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
What's the Buzzing noise????
How and Deee everybody!
Been a busy couple weeks so I thought I'd get right at her.
Me and the grade 2 corp have been busy working the kinks out of the new drums. Aside from the bass everything is ready to rock, the bass just needs some more dampening and we're there.
New heads, cybermax, are great but not quite my style. We'll be switching back to the coretec's after the Brandon highland festival for sure. Plus I have a large box of them in the basement and if you know my mother.... they need to go!
I've been really busy with work and school and so have semi restricted my attendance at grade 3 and juvenile practice for a few weeks. I'm happy to say I poked into grade 3 on thursday and Graham is doing a fabulous job keeping things on task. Great job to the whole corp!
There's always news in pipe band world. Rarely about us. But today is one of those days and since I don't know Andrew Bertoff well enough to call him i'll blog and watch the chain of info circle the web.
My corp has grown as of this morning.
We've got a lovely 8 sides in the grade 2 corp now, and several World Championships! Years of experience, and one killer moustache! All this comes from the addition of Winnipeg's most decorated snare drummer Mr. Blair "Buz" Brown.
Buz is one of those guys that knows everybody, and has played everywhere. His experience and knowledge will greatly benefit the young drummers in the corp as we travel to Scotland for the first time.
I have to honestly say I was very surprised Buz showed any interest in playing for me, but more importantly at first I was a little bit intimidated. I think the key is though I have one rule in my corp, put the band first. If everyone does that we all get along.
I'm looking forward to having a larger drum corp period but adding a seasoned veteran to the mix of young bucks is the great advantage we were looking for.
Having Buz play at home for the first time in God knows how long shows we're doing something right. We've built a family pipe band, that focuses on positive energy and hard, smart work. Obviously this is an attractive idea to some players.
I hope having someone of Buz's calibre and resume take me and the boys seriously enough to don a blue kilt will encourage the rest of the pipe band world to not shrug us off as to young, and to inexperienced. We are all students of our craft, first and foremost, and we deserve a good shake for our efforts.
Now I have to go email Buz all music and then prepare for the upcoming ppbam contest.
Cheers everyone
Sean
Been a busy couple weeks so I thought I'd get right at her.
Me and the grade 2 corp have been busy working the kinks out of the new drums. Aside from the bass everything is ready to rock, the bass just needs some more dampening and we're there.
New heads, cybermax, are great but not quite my style. We'll be switching back to the coretec's after the Brandon highland festival for sure. Plus I have a large box of them in the basement and if you know my mother.... they need to go!
I've been really busy with work and school and so have semi restricted my attendance at grade 3 and juvenile practice for a few weeks. I'm happy to say I poked into grade 3 on thursday and Graham is doing a fabulous job keeping things on task. Great job to the whole corp!
There's always news in pipe band world. Rarely about us. But today is one of those days and since I don't know Andrew Bertoff well enough to call him i'll blog and watch the chain of info circle the web.
My corp has grown as of this morning.
We've got a lovely 8 sides in the grade 2 corp now, and several World Championships! Years of experience, and one killer moustache! All this comes from the addition of Winnipeg's most decorated snare drummer Mr. Blair "Buz" Brown.
Buz is one of those guys that knows everybody, and has played everywhere. His experience and knowledge will greatly benefit the young drummers in the corp as we travel to Scotland for the first time.
I have to honestly say I was very surprised Buz showed any interest in playing for me, but more importantly at first I was a little bit intimidated. I think the key is though I have one rule in my corp, put the band first. If everyone does that we all get along.
I'm looking forward to having a larger drum corp period but adding a seasoned veteran to the mix of young bucks is the great advantage we were looking for.
Having Buz play at home for the first time in God knows how long shows we're doing something right. We've built a family pipe band, that focuses on positive energy and hard, smart work. Obviously this is an attractive idea to some players.
I hope having someone of Buz's calibre and resume take me and the boys seriously enough to don a blue kilt will encourage the rest of the pipe band world to not shrug us off as to young, and to inexperienced. We are all students of our craft, first and foremost, and we deserve a good shake for our efforts.
Now I have to go email Buz all music and then prepare for the upcoming ppbam contest.
Cheers everyone
Sean
Monday, March 29, 2010
A Darn Good Point
Sup everybody!?!?!?
Back again from another Pop the Trunk road trip. This time to Morden.
It's been quite a stressful week or so. Pipe band's are all super busy, new drums etc., and among other things politics has reared up and taken a bite out of our smaller (wouldn't hurt a fly) group the grade 3 band. It's always disappointing when you watch people work so very very hard for something and somebody burns them.
Among everything else there's barely a month left of school this year, I got a new job, and Pop the Trunk is busier than ever.
I have noticed my blood pressure steadily rising everyday.
However, Friday me and the rock band piled into vans P.A. in tow and headed to the bible belt of Manitoba to spread the good word... or at least a word....
Joey and I met a man I can't quite explain... His name was Bryan, a self described "old fart" but at 61 he didn't look much past 50. While every town has one or two "characters" it's always very interesting to meet as many people as you can on the road.
So Joey and I stood outside and chatted with Bryan while he puffed on his smoke.
Turns out Bryan is one resilient fella. At 61 he has been in a coma (as a kid, parents even took him off life support at one point), he has had I think he said 4 brain surgeries and has only recently been give the majority of his skull back, recently divorced his wife whom he met in 71 I believe..., and to top it all off has Muscular Dystrophy and is losing approx. 8% of his muscle mass every year.
Yet here he was, in the bigger of Morden's two liquor licensed establishments, drinking coffee, dancing, checking out the band, loving life.
Saturday he came down and had dinner at the bar with Joey and I before we had to prepare for our second show. We sat and chatted about the B.C. music scene in the 70's and he even gave us a record (like a legitimate 33 record) of a friend of his.
Never once did he ever take a negative tone... about anything. He flirted with the waitress, kept a keen eye on the crowd, gave us advice on our show, recommended books, and finally gave me some of the best advice I have ever heard.
Don't sweat it
Remarkable, and simple, much like Bryan.
What does this have to do with pipe bands?
I think there are a tremendous amount of chances for us to take Bryan's words to heart in what we do. There are so many little things that we stress about sometimes just saying "don't sweat it, you can't change it" isn't the worst approach.
Obviously we can't completely shirk our responsibilities to our band and friends, but at the same time, perhaps there are more important things we are missing because we're so busy sweating the small stuff.
I'm gonna try it, every now and then, I'll let you know how it goes!
From Bryan, to me, to you...
Don't sweat it.
Cheers,
Sean
Back again from another Pop the Trunk road trip. This time to Morden.
It's been quite a stressful week or so. Pipe band's are all super busy, new drums etc., and among other things politics has reared up and taken a bite out of our smaller (wouldn't hurt a fly) group the grade 3 band. It's always disappointing when you watch people work so very very hard for something and somebody burns them.
Among everything else there's barely a month left of school this year, I got a new job, and Pop the Trunk is busier than ever.
I have noticed my blood pressure steadily rising everyday.
However, Friday me and the rock band piled into vans P.A. in tow and headed to the bible belt of Manitoba to spread the good word... or at least a word....
Joey and I met a man I can't quite explain... His name was Bryan, a self described "old fart" but at 61 he didn't look much past 50. While every town has one or two "characters" it's always very interesting to meet as many people as you can on the road.
So Joey and I stood outside and chatted with Bryan while he puffed on his smoke.
Turns out Bryan is one resilient fella. At 61 he has been in a coma (as a kid, parents even took him off life support at one point), he has had I think he said 4 brain surgeries and has only recently been give the majority of his skull back, recently divorced his wife whom he met in 71 I believe..., and to top it all off has Muscular Dystrophy and is losing approx. 8% of his muscle mass every year.
Yet here he was, in the bigger of Morden's two liquor licensed establishments, drinking coffee, dancing, checking out the band, loving life.
Saturday he came down and had dinner at the bar with Joey and I before we had to prepare for our second show. We sat and chatted about the B.C. music scene in the 70's and he even gave us a record (like a legitimate 33 record) of a friend of his.
Never once did he ever take a negative tone... about anything. He flirted with the waitress, kept a keen eye on the crowd, gave us advice on our show, recommended books, and finally gave me some of the best advice I have ever heard.
Don't sweat it
Remarkable, and simple, much like Bryan.
What does this have to do with pipe bands?
I think there are a tremendous amount of chances for us to take Bryan's words to heart in what we do. There are so many little things that we stress about sometimes just saying "don't sweat it, you can't change it" isn't the worst approach.
Obviously we can't completely shirk our responsibilities to our band and friends, but at the same time, perhaps there are more important things we are missing because we're so busy sweating the small stuff.
I'm gonna try it, every now and then, I'll let you know how it goes!
From Bryan, to me, to you...
Don't sweat it.
Cheers,
Sean
Monday, March 22, 2010
Pearl's of Wisdom
(Sound trumpets)!!!!!
Today's the big day I get to say "THEY'RE HERE!!!"
Wes and I picked up the new drums last wednesday and we handed them out saturday.
Personally I couldn't be happier with the look, and sound, these new instruments bring to the band.
It's a big change, the colour choice was purely meant to make these drums stand out, and that they shall.
It's also nice to work with an instrument that is in top condition. You want the snares to go up, turn the height adjustment the right way and they go up, no guess work.
I started tuning my drum as early as Wednesday night. I had a gig and though I took both drums I spent most of the night with my Pearl tuning and cranking. Just seeing how far it would go for me.
It reacted beautifully.
By saturday it almost sounded decent. I'm quite pleased.
The other side to this is getting to see how proud it made the corp. They work very very hard on their music and it was nice to reward them with instruments of the same calibre.
We topped it all off with a bass drum christening saturday night.
Check the pictures from our first few days. Obviously there will be an actual in uniforms nice picture taken eventually, but until them i'm a proud papa showing off my new babies.....
All 17 of them.. take that John and Kate plus 8.
Anyways stop by practice tuesday any time if you wanna see the new gear.
Cheers,
Sean
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Grass On the Other Side of the Fence
Happy Monday!
Guess what this crazy drummer did this weekend...
After not sleeping two days in a row, due to gigging and some necessary drum maintenance, I took in my very first piping recital!!!
I've been sick too so toss some cold medicine into that and you've got a serious challenge on your hands.
It was really impressive. Matt MacIsaac opened for Allisdair Gillies, and I caught the whole show.
It really showed me how impressive piping can be. I often take a minute at practice to just listen to our wonderful pipe corp during their tuning. It amazes me every time, but yesterday's show really threw it down.
Of course, I would have loved a little drumming tossed in, but Matt played two whistles at once.... c'mon.
I'm b-lining for the end of the day and can't wait to hit my bed. But I just wanted to pop on and thank the Winnipeg Police Pipe Band for sponsoring such a great event in our city.
Cheers,
Sean
Guess what this crazy drummer did this weekend...
After not sleeping two days in a row, due to gigging and some necessary drum maintenance, I took in my very first piping recital!!!
I've been sick too so toss some cold medicine into that and you've got a serious challenge on your hands.
It was really impressive. Matt MacIsaac opened for Allisdair Gillies, and I caught the whole show.
It really showed me how impressive piping can be. I often take a minute at practice to just listen to our wonderful pipe corp during their tuning. It amazes me every time, but yesterday's show really threw it down.
Of course, I would have loved a little drumming tossed in, but Matt played two whistles at once.... c'mon.
I'm b-lining for the end of the day and can't wait to hit my bed. But I just wanted to pop on and thank the Winnipeg Police Pipe Band for sponsoring such a great event in our city.
Cheers,
Sean
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