SPB plays Skidmore Commencement and Wiffle Ball

An ominous forecast led band members to pack rain capes before heading to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center this past Saturday to perform at Skidmore College commencement. As it turned out, capes were unnecessary. Blue skies and warm weather prevailed, setting the stage for fine day. Skidmore commencement is one of my favorite gigs. SPAC is a picturesque venue and the Skidmore students are among the most appreciative of our audiences. It's quite a rush marching down the lawn toward the amphitheater, flanked on both sides by walls of cheering students and their families. Surely it is for events like this that the pipes were made.

With 636 members, I'm told the Class of 2008 was the largest in Skidmore's history. Nevertheless, the students filed into the amphitheater with effortless efficiency. Our opening performance seemed to last only about 10 minutes. The class took their seats and the opening speaker stepped to the podium. We marched out of the orchestra pit and headed back to our base in the parking lot.

For sure, a well-organized academic procession can keep our opening performance brief, but there's no way around the wait we endure while the commencement ceremony transpires. If you've been reading the blog, you know that the typical format for a commencement performance is to play the bookends of the show. For Skidmore, we usually have a good two hour hiatus between the opening and closing performances. Never at a loss for a good time, the band has devised a variety of creative diversions to occupy the break. I confess that, for this gig, I look forward to the break as much as the performance.

Chief among the SPAC break time activities is Wiffle Ball Home Run Derby. This is a game of precision and skill. Aside from the usual challenges of all Wiffle sports, which derive from the absurd expectation that a plastic game ball weighing about as much as a Dixie cup will somehow approximate the behavior of the real thing, our game incorporates the added challenge of the parking lot playing field. The object becomes not so much to hit a home run as to prevent a line drive from careening off the hood somebody's Lexus or to stop a grounder from becoming irrecoverably lodged under some collosal SUV.

I shudder to think what could've happened if we'd decided to toss a caber instead of play wiffle ball. Of course, Wiffle Caber Toss might not be so bad.

- JSS

Here's to Hell Week

This coming Saturday marks the start of "Hell Week" for the SPB. Stay tuned for all the stories!!

GERMAINE ATTENDS PRACTICE, ROSTERS

Stunned band members gathered Tuesday night to catch a glimpse as Pat Germiane entered the practice hall at 1748 State Street precisely at 7:00 PM and proceeded to participate in both chanter and pipe and drum practice. Experts suggest Germaine may have been on his way to a private gig when he became disoriented and inadvertently stumbled upon band practice. Germaine, once a frequent sight at band events throughout the northeast, was believed to have become extinct. Some new members, who had never before seen Germaine, observed with quiet fascination. Veteran members considered the return of Germaine a harbinger of good things to come.

In a magnificent display, unlikely to be repeated, Pat Germaine concluded his practice appearance by rostering for upcoming band gigs. "HOLY S#%T!" commented band manager Iain Munro, reaching for his camera, while Germaine stood calmly before the roster pages, pen in hand.

Historically speaking, warmer temperatures and a shift of prevailing winds have resulted in the return of some long absent band members in an El Nino-like phenomenon of membership oscillation. "You just never know," explained Jeff Schenck, the band's Pipe Major, "We've had members return after being gone for five, even ten years. The important thing is not to give up hope. And to not change the location of practice so they can find their way back to us."

Some speculate that the recent Germiane sighting could mark the return of numerous band truants, including the rarely seen John Scally and possibly even Billy Munro.

- JSS

Pipes, Drums & Doo Wop for Albany College of Pharmacy

Dedicated band members sacrificed a Sunday afternoon that might have been spent relaxing beneath glorious spring skies to don the kilt and enter the cavernous, windowless, marble-lined halls of the Empire State Plaza. The band performed for the 128th commencement ceremony of the Albany College of Pharmacy, held at the Plaza convention center. This is one of our band's long-standing gigs. You can set your watch by fixtures of the band's yearly performance schedule such as this one. For the past few years, the College of Pharmacy graduation has coincided with Mother's Day. Undeniably, the band places great demands on our members' time. Juggling band and family commitments is a constant struggle indeed. On this day, we may have missed the sun's rays, but the new graduates certainly radiate an energy of their own. From the minute you step off the elevator to the concourse, you hear the din of lively students and their families echoing through the halls, like the sound of the sea in a conch shell.

Speaking of the halls, pipers and drummers must step carefully when walking the concourse at the Empire State Plaza. We wear these shoes called ghillie brogues. Sure footing seems not to have been a priority for the practical joker who invented this footwear. Considering that the Highlands of Scotland abound with wet, grassy hillsides, it boggles the mind why you would design a shoe with a smooth leather sole that causes one to careen down such slopes with the velocity of a ski jumper. My guess is that, along with golf and deep-fried Mars bars, ghillie brogues belong to the pantheon of Scottish inventions conceived under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol. In any case, as if poor traction weren't enough to seal our fate, these brogues have a small metal plate embedded in the heel of the sole, which is intended to cause a sharp clicking noise with each footfall. A full pipe band on the march, clicking away with military precision, can produce an impressive effect. Slightly less impressive is a piper or drummer, footing hopelessly undermined by heel clickers, on polished marble floors, flailing about like some new-born giraffe trying to stand for the first time. So if you were at commencement Sunday, you may have seen the band tiptoeing cautiously down the concourse halls toward the warm-up room. This was a factor of our shoes-of-death. Nothing would be more embarrassing than a fall that would leave one broken and immobile, lying there on cold marble, until a Plaza maintenance crew could be dispatched to drag you off to some infirmary with one of those little golf carts they use.

Everyone arrived unscathed and off we went to open the ceremony. When we play a graduation, the typical format is for the pipe band to play the graduating class into the ceremony and then exit after they are seated. At the end of the commencement, we return to lead the class out and then we perform a few sets as people disperse. Timing is essential with these events, as the band needs time to re-tune and get back in position to lead the class out just as the commencement comes to a close. "Let us know when you get to the S's," we usually say to our liaison, referring to the conferral of degrees by last name, "that'll give us enough time to get ready."

Typically, the first performance of a graduation is the shorter of the two, especially with a relatively small graduating class like that of Albany College of Pharmacy. But on this day we were not to escape so easily. We were instructed to play until the graduates were seated and then stand at attention for the opening remarks and the singing of the national anthem. The opening remarks were quite extensive. A professor stepped to the podium to offer a truly epic Invocation. In hindsight, we should have been concerned immediately when the professor opened by observing that he presumed he had been chosen to speak because they were unable to find a better choice. This was a man with nothing to lose. The ensuing address consisted of a lengthy philosophical exposition. I can only assume that accompanying footnotes and a bibliography were printed in the program. As far as I can tell, this is the Shock and Awe approach to commencement ceremonies. After such an opening rhetorical barrage, the audience will gladly accept just about anything that follows as a welcome respite.

With the Invocation-To-End-All-Invocations behind us, the Albany College of Pharmacy A Capella ensemble, One Man Short, came to the stage to sing the national anthem. These guys were great. They sang The Star Spangled Banner with four part harmony, in rounds. Pretty cool. This national anthem concluded the opening cermonay and the band was dismissed. As we marched out of the convention center, One Man Short launched in a medley of Doo Wop songs starting with Get A Job. We were all duly amused by their song choice for the graduates. Many of us stayed in the wings of the convention center to hear One Man Short finish their set.

We are officially fans of One Man Short now. The Band sometimes takes bus trips to competitions and, on the way home, especially if we've proven victorious on the day, we often sing a few songs ourselves. Doo Wop songs always figure prominently in our bus song repertoire and it was decided on Sunday that One Man Short should come along on the next trip. I'm sure they'll be happy to hear we've lined them up a gig. I wonder if they can manage a Doo Wop version of Mairi's Wedding?

- JSS

Celebration of Celts

This past Saturday, May 3, marked the launch of the summer season for the Schenectady Pipe Band. Every year the band experiences a bit of a false start, as we perform at various St. Patrick's Day events in mid-March, and then we slip back into a brief lull for the month of April. But these April weekends are the last that we will spend unkilted for many months. From here on in, it'll be an unbroken flood of band gigs, like some sort of Celtic monsoon season, lasting until mid-October. It's great fun. I wouldn't have it any other way, but it makes for a fast-paced summer. By the time you get a chance to catch your breath, it's Labor Day, the band is hosting the Capital District Scottish Games, and you're hearing commercials for Back to School sales on the radio. In the words of Ferris Bueller (he was Scottish, right?), "Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."


The two primary facets of the band's summer activities are public performance and pipe band competition. Our performance season begins now and runs through the end of June. We'll pound the pavement for Memorial Day parades and furnish the pomp and circumstance for college commencements. In July, we switch gears, traveling 'round the scottish games circuit, competing against our peers in pipe band competitions. In September, we do a bit of both, performing at events such as the Capital District Scottish Games and Irish 2000, and we travel to a couple more pipe band contests as well. By the end of the summer your kilt can stand up by itself from all the sweat soaked into it.

This past weekend there wasn't much sweating going on though. The temperature never rose above the mid-fifties. Skies were grey and drizzle fell periodically. Good Scottish weather, I suppose. Many of our pipers tried to master the art of playing while wearing gloves. The band performed at The Celebration of Celts at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Chatham. The event is a somewhat random amalgamation of highland games, horse show and medieval fair. I didn't envy those poor souls who were trudging about on damp grass and mud in full suits of armor. I thought our uniforms were a challenge! The assorted Knights and Ladies in Waiting had built small camp fires to huddle around at least. And I suppose once the metal from your armor heats up, it probably radiates for a while. In any case, any frustrations they may have accumulated from weather woes were certainly vented during the various jousts and other forms of mock mortal combat that ensued.

I've never really understood the perceived connection between pipe bands and medieval reenactors, but it may have something to do with our common love of setting up camp. Our band has a yellow-and-white-striped tent, maybe 15' by 15' square, that serves as our base of operations whenever we take a day trip to a gig. We've had the tent as long as I can remember, at least since the 80's. It's our home, the equivalent of a rock band's venerated tour bus. Once erected, I think you can see our bivouac from space. Certainly, you can spot it from across a large field, which is pretty helpful when you're searching for our band amongst 30 other bands at a scottish games. I consider our method of setting up and organizing the tent to be something of an art form at this point. It displays a degree of team coordination comparable to that of a space shuttle launch. As the tent is raised and secured with stakes, a collapsible camp table is set-up in the center. The table is then surrounded by the band coolers. Coolers are color-coded; blue for beer and red for soda and water. Snacks are set up on the table (oh, the snacks!) and the day's schedule is posted on the center tent pole. Finally camp chairs are placed around the perimeter, like circled wagons preparing for an attack. Garment bags, spilling forth uniform parts, are hung from the other tent poles. The whole process, when we're on our game, can take less than five minutes. It's a thing of beauty.

On Saturday, at A Celebration of Celts, we competed in 'Piping Outside the Box.' Events like this are increasingly popular at scottish games, the concept being pioneered, to my knowledge, by our own Beers and Cheers contest at the Capital District Scottish Games. The idea is to allow pipe bands to present an unconventional program of music, free from the constraints of the usual pipe band competition format. The use of additional instruments, beyond the scope of the traditional pipe band arsenal, is encouraged. More importantly, from the spectators' point of view, these events are often held under big tents, as opposed to out on the field. The audience is in a better position to see and hear the performance. Of course, one can perhaps get a little too up close and personal with a pipe band! I had one woman tell me that she enjoyed the show very much but that she thought she'd be hearing the echo of pipes in her ears for the next week and half. (I wonder which tune?)

'Piping Outside the Box' is great fun for us. The opportunities for our band to perform in a concert setting are comparatively few, so it's pretty exciting. At the same time, however, this gig is quite challenge for us and affords not a little anxiety. The two aforementioned roles of street and competition pipe band monopolize most of our time. Our repertoire is designed largely to meet the demands of these contexts. To assemble a concert program for an event like Piping Outside the Box, we usually call heavily upon the latent talents of our band members. I'm always impressed by our band's resourcefulness in developing a solid program with little time to prepare.

Among the highlights of the performance, to my mind, were the following. One of our pipers, Barry Smith, and his wife, Fran, opened the program with a duet of Amazing Grace. Barry played acoustic guitar and sang harmony and Fran sang the lead. We added some small pipes, too, for flavor. The entire band then joined in for a final verse. This was cool, not only because it sounded so good, but because we didn't know Barry's solo had become a duo until the morning of the show. Serendipity.

I enjoyed playing a set of jigs on small pipes, with two of our snare drummers, Iain and Matt, accompanying with two types of hand drums that have names I cannot pronounce. For those who aren't familiar with the assorted species of bagpipes that exist, the small pipes to which I refer are, well, a smaller version of the great highland bagpipe that you encounter in pipe bands. This particular type of small pipe has three drones, a bass, alto and tenor, and a chanter that plays in the key of A. It is, of course, a much quieter instrument than its larger cousin, but you use the same fingering technique for both instruments. The small pipes are well-suited for a concert setting and they enable us to add a little variety to our program. The drum Matt played is noteworthy too. It's shaped like a box and you sit on top of it while playing. The drum has guitar strings running beneath the drum head. It generates a very unique sound. Anyway, one spectator told me that she liked this jig set because it clearly mixed celtic music with drumming from other cultural backgrounds. If you happen to know any drummers, you'll appreciate that they have a tendency to start banging out rhythms on anything that will produce a a decent tone and this set was a good chance to let them really let loose.

I thought our closing set pretty was cool as well. The band played 'Scotland the Brave' and 'Wings', incorporating Matt's electronic drum kit for added panache. Nothing beats a drum kit for getting the crowd's interest. Last Thursday, at practice, when we were rehearsing this set, we had the electronic drum kit set-up so that when you hit one of the drum heads a James Brown-esque computer generated voice shouted "Funky!!!!" And you could belt out a barrage of rapid-fire "Funkies" as fast as you could shake a drum stick. There can be no doubt that the perfect embellishment to a stirring rendition of 'Scotland the Brave' is the liberal application of a soulful "Funky!!!!" at crucial points along the melody line. The one danger to this approach is that you may inadvertantly choke from laughter while trying to blow your pipes, but this comes with the territory. Alas, on the day, we forgot to add the "funkies" to Scotland the Brave, but in our hearts we all knew they were there anyway.

Our fellow competitors for Piping Outside the Box were our compadres in the Oran Mor Pipe Band. Oran Mor put on a great show and then continued to entertain everyone with some top flight solo performances for a grand finale. When the results were tallied, Oran Mor won one event and Schenectady won another, although neither of us were exactly clear about the method by which the performances were evaluated. In any case, all went home as winners. Not a bad kick off to the season.

- JSS

*Added Info*

The hand drum Jeff is talking about is called a Cajón. It has a great range. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajon

The other hand drum is called a Djembe</FONT>. More info Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djembe

~M.J.K~

Off and Running!!

As the pipe band sets it's eyes on the up coming jobs and competition season, we wanted to start a blog to let people know what happens with a pipe band through out the summer. We'll have blogs from members of The Schenectady Pipe Band as we work our way through the busy season. We start it all off with The Celebration of Celts this Saturday May 3, in Chatham NY. Check back for posts about that job and all our competitions this summer.

~M.J.K~