| Subject: Competitions |
Author:
Pat
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Date Posted: 08:33:37 06/03/02 Mon
Now that I've had a couple of days to relax from the results of Saturday’s contest, I would like to touch on a few things.
One: I am obviously VERY new at this Pipe Major thing, so I will take all of the responsibility for Saturday's results. It is my job to have the band ready at a competing level, and quite frankly, the mistakes that were made Saturday were those of a Grade V band, and that's my fault. Jim and Frank are correct - we have a lot of new members, and these mistakes can be understood. But that really has to be the end of it. The grace period is now over. No early E's. No unsteady blowing. No pushing the tempos. I don't want to cut anybody - that's not fun, but traveling 110 miles to come in last is even less fun (I hope you all agree). If I cut you, please understand it is not personal. Just play well enough where I can't cut you.
Two: Please come down to practice Wednesday with a clean chanter. Remove all of the tape from all of the holes. We are starting new. Also, make sure every single stock you own is tight. Borrow hemp. Steal Teflon. I don't care what you have to do, but ALL of our instruments need to be in competition shape. What happened Saturday was unfortunate, but the fact that it happened to only one of our players is simply luck. There were many more instruments whose tuning pins were not tight, and whose base or tenor drone could have slid. You need to know your instruments. Simple as that.
Three: Learn the music. I didn't say "learn the notes," I said learn the music. There are very distinct points in both sets where our expression is poor. EVERYONE has some part in these sets where they can improve, and we have six weeks before Rockland.
Four: Don't get discouraged. I've heard a "lipstick on a pig" comment regarding Jim and Frank's statements. Unfortunately, neither of them were there, so they can't really tell what happened to us. Those of you who were there know what happened. And you ALL know we are a much better pipe band that what we showed on Saturday. We just didn't play like it. Every single one of our pipers can play this march set, so do everything you can possibly do to improve on how you play it.
Trust me. No one is more embarrassed by what happened on Saturday than me. We have never finished last before. This was out first contest EVER without Jim. I heard late Saturday: "poor American Celtic. Jim left and his brother just can't run that band." Quite frankly, I don't want to hear that again. Ever. Like I said, I am taking responsibility for Saturday. The rest of you need to FORGET WHAT HAPPENED. But be ready to play at the Grade IV level starting Wednesday.
Finally - some comments from the judges:
John Wassman - Piping:
1. "Chanter Pitch too high (too much playing in the sun)" - standing around for ten minutes waiting for the judges to get their acts together didn't help either.
2. "Drones very distracting. Didn’t help performance. Bring tempos down" - We can never guess where he would have put us if not for the drone issue.
Joe Brady - Piping:
1. "Drones unsteady from the start"
2. "Top hand needs to be better set" - the sun and my fault (tuning)
June Hanley - Ensemble:
1. "Someone’s drone is not struck in correctly"
2. "No variation in bass beat" - again, that's my fault. Something we'll have corrected for Rockland.
3. "Nice snare part here" referring to the last tune... I have nothing to do with that comment, unfortunately.
4. "Sound hurt you today."
Just some high(lo)lights. Thankfully, nobody wrote "nice try." Basically, we'll never know what we could have done with better tuning/instruments. These mistakes won't be made at Rockland, so that should be encouraging.
I have a lot of faith in this band and our players. I know we are much better than what we've shown. We need to be ready to stomp people at Rockland.
Sorry if this is harsh. I want to have fun doing this.
See you Wednesday.
Pat.
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