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Bruce Gandy shares a couple of fine tunes

•Picture by Ryan MacDonald

Bruce Gandy is being saved busy with weekly college students for piping tuition and likewise along with his Clubhouse Classes mission the place he has a bunch of as much as 15 pipers go to his home to spend three hours going via two piobaireachds. Bruce instructed bagpipe.information: “We normally undergo an entry degree piobaireachd after which an even bigger piece. I put out plenty of promoting for the Clubhouse Classes and it’s been nice to have 40 or extra folks attending on-line as effectively.

“I’ve additionally recorded greater than 70 of my very own compositions right into a studying mission the place you get an mp3 of me enjoying, a pdf of tune, a written web page speaking concerning the tune and the actions in it, and eventually a 5-10 minute video on the best way to play it. I begun to do that with piobaireachds over the previous 4 years additionally, giving a full video bundle of three to 5 movies on a tune.

“I revealed a guide in August 2020 known as Efficiency: Delivering Your Personal Superior which is doing effectively in its second print and now I’ve it in e-book and audiobook.” All of Bruce’s present tasks and publications will be discovered on his website at brucegandymusic.com.”

Again in 2011 Bruce was interviewed by Stuart Robertson for Piping At this time journal all about his composing course of for the 9 Notes and Extra collection of articles.

NINE NOTES AND MORE…
by Stuart Robertson.
Piping At this time
#53 2011.

On this function we discuss to one of the prolific composers within the final twenty years, who, as a piper has gained a World Championship with the 78th Fraser Highlanders, Gold Medals at Inverness and Oban and has put collectively no fewer than 4 books of his music. He’s after all, Bruce Gandy. 

Bruce started to play the pipes greater than 40 years in the past in Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. His first trainer was Hal Senyk, who took Bruce via the primary workout routines and tunes. When Hal moved to Scotland to play with the well-known Muirhead and Sons Pipe Band and examine below Robert G. Hardie, Bruce turned to James Troy for tuition and over greater than a decade, he was given a basis of enjoying that may profit a whole solo and band piping profession. Additionally throughout this time, Bruce spent many summers down in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, on the piping college learning below Bob Hardie and Andrew Wright. These summers, mixed with common instruction, helped to instil a lifelong love and understanding of piobaireachd.

In 1982, Bruce moved to Ontario to hitch the 78th Fraser Highlanders, the place he spent 15 years, and this was the place he started to mature as a participant. The progressive band had a rising want for brand new music and Bruce was impressed to compose very specific parts so as to add to their repertoire. Invoice Livingstone recalled: “He has a present for writing what we would have liked, at any specific time for the band. Whether or not or not it’s a medley tune or a jig or a bit in a sure rhythm, he at all times got here again subsequent Sunday with our reply.”

In 1997, Bruce moved to Summerside, Prince Edward Island, to take over as piping teacher on the the Faculty of Piping, Canada. He labored there for 3 years, organising particular person examine programmes, and a part of the job was being pipe main of the Faculty of Piping Pipe Band, which meant educating all the fundamentals of pipe band enjoying in addition to selecting and arranging all the music for the band. This led to extra composing to attempt to give a decrease grade band a recent edge, which ultimately led to his third guide of music being revealed.

In 1998, after an eight-year absence from the Northern Assembly at Inverness, Bruce returned to the world’s high competitors and gained the Competing Pipers’ Silver Medal, together with second within the jig and hornpipe and third within the strathspey and reel. He returned for the Gold Medal in 1999 and was lucky sufficient to win each the March and Strathspey and Reel however no prize within the medal. The medals did come, nevertheless. He gained the Inverness Gold Medal in 2003 and was in a position to seize the Oban medal the next yr. Following that, he additionally captured the Bratach Gorm [Blue Banner] on the London Contest. the Silver Star for Former Winners March, Strathspey and Reel and was 2nd prize winner on the Glenfiddich Championships in 2016. As effectively, Bruce has revealed 4 books of music, produced on-line educating and workshops that attain around the globe, developed his personal pipe chanter with McCallum Bagpipes and he’s in common demand as a tutor and performer.

Right here is Bruce’s perception into the composing course of.

When did you begin composing?

The primary tune I composed was once I was 9, I imagine. It was my mother and father’ twenty fifth anniversary and I feel my trainer, Jamie Troy, had instructed that I write a tune for them. The tune had some base to it and I’ve typically considered remodeling it however then my “smarter” aspect determined the correct factor to do was depart or not it’s and attempt to develop from there. The tune was a (70s fashion, dot and reduce) hornpipe that I merely named The Anniversary Hornpipe and I nonetheless have an unique copy someplace in the home. This tune adopted a easy phrase sample and was as a lot a music writing/idea train as something.

What evokes you to put in writing?

I write tunes for a large number of causes as of late. I’ll hear one thing within the band set or medley that has a musical gap in it and I can hear or see in my thoughts’s eye (for lack of higher phrases) what I’m considering when it comes to key, rhythm and really feel. Different instances, I simply get a really feel for a brand new tune from buzzing one thing and away I am going. When the children had been younger, not being an actual singer, I used to kind of hum tunes and I wrote plenty of sluggish airs, and compound kind tunes, singing them in sluggish air time that ended up being 6/8 marches.

Through the years, I’ve written many little tunes for fee from folks. These are at all times enjoyable tasks as these folks provide you with an concept of the individual they’re celebrating and also you attempt to construct a tune round their story or the temper of the individual. These are very rewarding compositions to make.

Modern-day composers…who do you price?

That’s a tricky one, there are such a lot of nice composers on the market and it is determined by should you’re taking a look at complete portfolio or tunes. Plus, I like to think about myself nonetheless as a modern-day composer although I get up there a bit and wrote my first tune 40 years in the past. I take pleasure in listening to tunes by soloists in recital as a result of they’re the pure model of a tune, with out all of the ensemble options in them. However, having mentioned that, there are numerous good composers writing stuff for bands which might be various kinds of tunes. These could not all rise up on their very own however put along with the opposite “band” parts, they’re nice. One among my private band checks is to pay attention and say to myself, “It is a nice sounding tune being performed by, say Area Marshal Montgomery or St Laurence O Toole or any of the good Grade 1 bands. However, if it was not too troublesome for a decrease grade band to play, would it not rise up musically?”

Regionally, I nonetheless really feel that Michael Gray is a type of on the forefront of actual innovation. His mass of labor, all various kinds of tunes, in several feels and varieties has to rank him amongst one of many greats. On this final decade, tons of nice folks have come alive for me. I really like plenty of Kyle Warren’s tunes for his or her key construction and their originality. Fred Morrison’s pure music that comes from his compositions is actually inspiring. Don Bradford has a fantastic assortment of tunes that’s ever increasing and he’s written some nice tunes that at the moment are displaying time behind them and nonetheless holding up as nice tunes.

That’s the true check — many tunes are excellent sounding however after a yr or two appear to lose their “sizzle” and simply develop into one other tune on the market. Personally, that’s my fear. It’s all advantageous for folks to listen to a tune and say, “Hey, that’s nice”, however what I discover rewarding is listening to a tune I wrote 10, 15 or 20 years in the past displaying up in a medley or in somebody’s recital. 

I do know I’m forgetting another crucial folks right here however this checklist may go on for a very long time with a paragraph on every of these composer’s strengths and uniqueness. 

How do you mould a tune from conception to completion?

First off, I’ve heard a number of folks say, “I simply had an concept and wrote the tune proper then.”  Wow, I want I may simply blast them out. I spend plenty of time to guarantee that I’ve what I feel is an effective base and good theme and it’s unique and so on. 

As I mentioned earlier than, generally I feel, for example, {that a} good upbeat main key strathspey can be actually good right here. So I’ve some kind of key in my head and even some scales or arpeggios working via. I might say I work extra with the rhythm and straight “pure” be aware progressions than attempting to design one thing with some array of notes that’s designed purely to verify it doesn’t sound like one thing else.

As soon as the bottom is about, and that may be the important thing, or the pure rhythmic construction, and even one phrase, I normally design the tune round that. When it’s completed and on paper, I normally play it for a few days to verify I’m nonetheless pleased with it and I don’t have a foul be aware, or I’ve achieved all that I can to have the timing and using the dots and cuts to the place I’m completely satisfied. EVERY tune I make goes to a really effectively educated piping buddy with an incredible repertoire, greater than 40 years of enjoying expertise and a severe angle concerning the job I’ve requested them to do, and so they look over the tune and relay feedback again to me. Firstly, is it unique? Secondly, is it any good? Thirdly, is it completed or are there elements that simply don’t appear to suit fairly proper?

One of many main downfalls I see of many tunes is that the composer simply doesn’t get their music screened by a trusted adviser earlier than they go public. There could also be a good suggestion there however the tune can fail as a result of there are poor rhythm designs or they’ve written one thing that perhaps solely 10 folks can play with all the additional technical “methods” they’ve thrown in. The opposite factor I discover with my very own writing is that, should you’re within the second half, for example, attempting to put in writing, say, bar three and 4, should you play it sufficient instances, it’s going to sound correct. That’s the place you want a screener with expertise and an open thoughts who will likely be sincere with you. 

The tunes you’ve given us, how did they arrive about and what was the inspiration?

Coppermill Studio is a 9/8 jig, typically known as a slip jig, which was written to commemorate a studio recording that we created an album in again within the 80s. The studio had an eight-track mixing board, two or three mics to seize the pipe, and a pleasant chair and desk for the operator. The studio additionally doubled as the lounge within the house of Michael Gray’s household, Coppermill Drive, in Toronto. We couldn’t afford to hire all that studio time so we introduced the studio to his home and had an exquisite day recording all of the music. 

The jig itself isn’t that troublesome, so far as jigs go, however will take you a little bit of time to grasp the sturdy, medium, medium pulse which provides that great lopsided really feel to tunes with an odd variety of beats within the bar. I wrote the fourth half with the gracenote on the B strike however you need to be at liberty to decide on whether or not or not you play it. I really feel it provides some energy to the bar however isn’t mandatory if it upsets the musical movement of the tune.

I used to be commissioned to put in writing the second tune by the RisePEI Citadel Regimental Affiliation in 2009 to commemorate the inaugural voyage of the Queen Mary II and its arrival in RisePEI that summer season. Realizing that it may very well be any degree of participant which may be performing this tune on the ship when it arrived, I selected to compose a 3/4 retreat march, each for its technical ease to play and for the ability of the sturdy melody line of one of these tune. 

My father left me a few years in the past and, rummaging round my house sooner or later, I discovered a bunch of his manuscripts with a number of “damaged” items of tunes. I felt this could be an exquisite alternative to take a few of his unique concepts and collaborate some 40 or 50 years after his concepts had been scribbled down.  The tune would most likely be described as being in one of many “main” keys of the pipes with using D throws and D strikes within the first half. 

•An instance of the schooling video that Bruce gives for his tunes on https://www.brucegandymusic.com/

You shouldn’t have an excessive amount of hassle with this tune when you get the opening bar with the D throw and D strike collectively clearly and precisely. Watch out to not “rush over” melody notes anticipating the subsequent technical embellishment. 


Different articles on this collection revealed to date:
Chris Djuritschek with The Pingat Jasa Malaysia
• Lorne MacDougall with Scalasaig
• Murray Blair with Ross’s Farewell to Pangnirtung, New Yr in Noosa and PTE Joe McConnell
• Bob Worrall with Final Practice to Malaga and Bob Cooper of Winnipeg
• Jim McGillivray with Skye Rovers


Stuart Robertson is initially from Ardrossan in Ayrshire and was beforehand Pipe Sergeant with Torphichen & Bathgate Pipe Band in Grade 2, and performed below Robert Mathieson at Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band in Grade 1. He moved to Australia in 2010 to work for WAPOL as a piper within the band and was Pipe Sergeant below PM Jim Murray and Pipe Main for seven months till a full time alternative for Jim may very well be discovered. He’s at present on the police mounted part.

Stuart launched a solo album known as North to South final yr which will be downloaded in any respect the standard streaming platforms (Apple Music, Spotify and so on) and likewise out there from Bandcamp. He’s additionally a member of the excessive octane conventional music band, Spirit of Alba, who’re at present recording a number of tracks for launch someday in 2022. You’ll be able to observe them on Fb and Instagram @spiritofalbaband. He’s nonetheless having fun with life down below and composing every so often.



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