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------Est. 1980 Glasgow
city centre's oldest bagpipe shop------
click on the banner for our home page
Newsletter - September 2011
Dear Piping Enthusiast,
Well, we are all piped out - Piping Live! and The Worlds have been and gone and they were both a
great success. It
was hard work from everyone involved but well worth it since it was all
in the best interests of piping and pipe bands. Fully refreshed after a short break to
Royal Deeside, I was feeling on good form at the street cafe outside the
Piping Centre and subsequently at our workshops later in the week. I
played a couple of tunes on the Tuesday at the street cafe and asked
Edward Seaman and Colin Greaves to appear for me - this they duly did
with great music and comical banter. This was just the type of atmosphere
I like - serious and light-hearted at the same time. Our workshops, where
Gordon Cameron and I demonstrated our skills in bag making and wood turning, were well attended and everyone seemed to
enjoy them - the wine and nibbles no doubt helped. Stjepan Veckovic, a
Croatian piper, performed an impromptu tune on his Croatian pipes and
this was also well received.
Yours aye,
James C. Begg
www.beggbagpipes.com
Testimonial
We have a section on our website which contains some
of the nice comments we have received from our customers and normally we
wouldn't talk about them in our newsletter - it would sound too much like
blowing our own trumpet or pipe! However, we can't let this one go
quietly due to the stature of the person who recently made it:
"This is the best sheepskin bag I have ever had.
It is comfortable and a bespoke fit. My pipes are going so much better
and the high A is superb - I am now far more confident with my pipes and
tone."
Capt (rtd) Stuart D. Samson
MBE
Former Director of Army Piping; Champion Solo Piper;
Instructor at the National Piping Centre teaching on the Royal Scottish
Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) BA Scottish Music - Piping
Degree
News
 Just
before Piping Live! I managed to fit in a mini-break to the lovely
tranquil village
of Ballater on
Royal Deeside in the Highlands of Scotland. Although I was too early for
the famous Braemar Gathering, I did hear the Ballater Pipe Band perform
admirably - see pic. The Queen was also in residence at Balmoral Castle,
ably guarded by The Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders, 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland -
it's a much better gig than Afghanistan!
Congratulations to Field Marshall Montgomery on
winning the coveted Grade 1 World Championship 2011. They are a firm
believer in Begg Bags and have just completed a Grand Slam of the major
championships with a win at Cowal - what a performance all season long!
A-Z of Piping - a Personal View by James C. Begg
N is for NEUROTIC!
Piping can be tricky and frustrating at times and we
can often get neurotic over the smallest, minute detail - it can take
over your whole psyche if you are not careful and ruin the enjoyment of
playing. It can even get so bad that you think you can hardly play at
all. It can be a throw on the d or a birl that gets to you most of all or
perhaps a crunluath that isn't quite as good as the way Donald Macpherson
would execute it. Sooner or later, we all get caught up in it. It could
be a bagpipe issue too - bag not comfortable or the
chanter isn't quite right or maybe even both together. I'm trying
to make this light-hearted and even funny but it happens all the time and
when you are heading for the neurotic stage, it is far from amusing. The
answer perhaps is to try and not get too stressed out. Look objectively
and study what's wrong - playing too fast is often a cause for concern so
slow it down for a decent length of time. One week is not enough. Get
some advice - a listener can hear things that you may be oblivious to
you. Ask your teacher or someone with great experience - Begg Bagpipes,
with 31 years behind us, can usually analyse and sort issue(s) out pretty
quickly. One small change can often make all the difference. So start
with some self analysis and copy the playing of someone you admire, but
don't overdo the copying and become a robotic clone. We all can't be
eminent Glenfiddich pipers or even want to aspire to that level but it is
important to be content with your playing and performance. We need to
please ourselves first and others thereafter. Avoid the N word at all
costs!
Special Offer -
Stuart Samson's new book  Stuart Samson has a new book out and it is a
real cracker. There clearly has been a significant effort put in, with
some great compositions and tunes of varying degrees of difficulty to
suit all standards of players. It also includes some great pictures from
his time in the military and from his involvement in the Edinburgh
Tattoo. Don't miss out on this one and click on the photo - we have a
special price of £15 plus free postage world-wide.
YouReport
If you would like to report on any aspect of the
Piping World from wherever you live, we'd be pleased to hear from you. mailto:bill@beggbagpipes.com
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