News from Craig Dawson

Craig and I have been exchanging a few emails recently and Craig asked me to post an update from him as to what he's up to. Craig should be back in about a month's time.


Peter W

From Craig,

"While over here here, I managed to drop in on the local pipe band with my pipes (edited by blog administrator to remove reference to location). I took my camera along too, but I actually forgot about it until after I had left. They play a couple of really nice sets and there are a few tunes that we play in common albeit with a couple of different settings. Liberton Polka was a bit of an eye opener. The Pipe Major has offered to send me their repertoire via email so I'll bring it in to band when I get home and print it up.

Things here have been incredibly busy as you would expect. I have been involved in quite a few ramp ceremonies both for the Canadians and memorials for the recent Australian losses. I have another one tomorrow. The weather, again as expected, has been fantastic. I love the hot weather; except for when I have to play pipes in it! My chanter pitches anywhere from 474 to 480hz depending on the humidity and temperature. Luckily though I have taught one of my colleagues how to use a tuner, so the whole process is sped up considerably. My time here is flying in. It certainly does not feel like I have already been away for two and a half months! Only about a month to go however and I'm sure things will soon feel like they are slowing down as happens when you get closer to going home.

Please pass on my regards to the Tatties and everyone at band as well as to the family.

Take care,

Craig"

Big, Bold and Brassy

As you know we will be playing at the Big, Bold and Brassy event which is part of the Barossa Vintage Festival. The details are:

Venue: Tanunda Show Hall

Date/Time: 14th April, 2009 . Be there for 6:40PM

Play at: 7:40 and 10:40

The band will have it's own table.

I believe food and drink will be available however BYO food and drink is OK.

Should be a good night.

- Peter W

The Blog - New Administrator and New Rule

Hi all,

As of last Thursday night I took over administration of the Blog. At the same time we decided as a band that we would implement a new rule requiring all members who post or add comments to this Blog to take ownership of what they have written by signing their name. From now on, any anonymous posts will be deleted.

For those that have forgotten, or are new to the band, all friends and band members are welcome to post on this Blog. If you don't know the user name and password ask one of the other band members or send me an email at ElizabethPipeBand@gmail.com.

Finally, I encourage you all to contribute any photos you may have taken of our events this year so that we can add them to the website.

Looking forward to seeing all your contributions.

Liz

Playford Multicultural Event

Some pictures from the 2nd. part of yesterdays event.

These pictures are fuzzy because Sherryl's camera settings had accidentally changed. If you have some good photos please post them here or email them to me.

It was a good event and I hope we can do more with the Playford council in the future.

- Peter

Where are you?

Just thought I would drop a note to let everyone know that we are still alive hehehehe. I haven't been too well and the heat hasn't helped, hence our absence.

Tomorrow morning I head off to the Lyell Mac to finally have the hernia fixed. David and the boys pass on their apologies to everyone as they won't be at practice until I am able to sit in the car and come with them. We will all be back in about 3 weeks. I miss playing and being at band and couldn't imagine them going without me. Thank you Willie for the loan of your electric chanter it is definitely getting a work out.

Anyway have to go get organised.....Miss you all

Love Sue Kempster

Some pictures of Mt Barker Games..

A few of the pictures I took at Mt Barker. I think everyone had a great day. I know Nicola and I did.
Thankyou Isabel for fixing my kilt in time for the day.

Aaron.

News from Townsville

G'day all.

Just so you know I can still play the pipes a bit. Some photos from yesterday's "Blessing of the Fleet" ceremony at the Townsville Motor Boat and Yacht Club.

A beautiful (if a wee bit balmy) day out on the marina. Some of the piccies can attest to the 'balmy' bit; it was around 30 degrees with approximately 70% humidity. Given all that, the pipes sounded ok and the folks ensured that I did not dehydrate!! The band I am in is the Townsville RSL Memorial Pipes and Drums.

Incidentally, there is a strong possibility that I will be posted back to SA before the end of the year. We have our fingers crossed.

Anyway, hope today goes well for the band at the contest.

Cheers for now.

Dean

Newcastle

Hi All,

Appologies for not letting all know we finally got here, we only just got our Internet up and going.
Well we've kind've settled in, the house is great, the locals are extremely friendly. We're living in a town called Medowie which is an outer suburb of Newcastle, it's pretty much country and a country community, it's fantastic.
Was a bit of a shock to the system on the first day here, we had no mobile phone coverage, our land line didn't work and I could only pick up abc and channel 7 (prime) on the TV. The TV came good 3 days later, we still had no land line for approx. 5 days, and we had to change to another mobile phone provider. So all is well now.
There is school approx. 5 minute walk from the house with a rep. of being the best in the state, which is great news for Lachie.
Speaking of Lachie, he now has his first girlfriend and had his first kiss on Australia Day (my son is growing up sniff, sniff). Tina's best friend daughter Paige is about 3-6months older than Lachie. He has settled as well as be expected, everything is still new of course.

Tina, she is going well, still suffering morning sickness. She has settled in really well, back with her closest friends.....a little mother's club happening. It's great.

As for me, well it's great to be close to my family again, it has been 9 years since I've been near them. It's nice to know that I can just go down to Sydney and back within a day and catch with my family, especially my 94 yr old Grandfather. As for work, well that's pretty exciting for me, a different Aircraft (F/A 18 Hornet), and a different culture up here.

We haven't joined another band as of yet, we've been pretty busy unpacking, catching up with friends and basically just settling in. But we'll probably join City of Newcastle Pipes RSL & Drums, reckon we'll drop in over the next 2 weeks.

Anyway, we're all here safe and sound, and happy. We wish you all the best and good luck at Mt Barker. Also, please pass on our best wishes to Marshall, we wish him a speedy recovery. Our prayers and thoughts are with him.

Cheers,

Andy, Tina and Lachie (chick magnet)

Which foot ?

Dean's "right foot or left foot" problem with the Retreat (3/4 and 9/8) stems from the fact that this time signature has a unique and interesting feature in terms of marching. In all our other time signatures we are used to the idea that the accented beat in the bar falls invariably on the left foot. For example, in 2/4 and 6/8 we have a Strong first beat in the bar followed by a Weak second beat. The bass drum is therefore loud on the strong (left) foot and muted on the second (right) foot, and this continues for the entire tune.

In the Retreat things are quite different. Here we have a strong first beat followed by two weak beats, so the strong beat from the bass drum (every third beat) alternates throughout the tune between the left and the right foot - a feature unique to the Retreat.

Once this is understood we can cut to the chase regarding which foot should mark the very first note of the tune - and the answer is simply "It doesn't make any difference as long as everybody is together". That said, it should be noted that in a tune like "The Green Hills" there is a source of ambiguity because the first two notes (A and B) are intuitively seen as "outside the bar", although they are often not written that way, and the bass drum emphasis falls naturally on the following C. If the pipe major deems that the first two notes are outside the bar, then the tune will start on the right foot with the A.

As I have remarked previously, if you are not now totally confused then you haven't been paying attention.

Old Angus

Good news on Karina !!

I heard on the grapevine today that Karina now has a second son - named Jacob.

Congratulations and best wishes, Karina and Jeremy, from all your friends in the Band.


Old Angus