Pet Peeves About Writing Pipe Music

In general, pipers are enthusiastic musicians, yet some are satisfied while writing their own music by hand, to bring down the tails on the right side of the note. Because this isn’t the way pipe music is presented in books, the suggestion was made to a stalwart elderly piper-teacher that the tails should go on the left of the note. His reply was that his way was preferred because he was “writing” music and not “printing” it.

The lesson I learned was to excuse myself and allow his obstinence to overrule. At least, he was accepting that all the tails in bagpipe music are drawn downwards to accommodate space for embellishments.

There are comparatively few today that write their music by hand, but will use a computer. It is because of the incorrect spacing of notes for which I have a pet peeve. I am peeved because it’s the responsibility of the music writer to see that the notes are properly spaced and assure that some are not squeezed into a space that’s too small for their value. Most pipers who write music should acknowledge that the bar designates a unit of time and it should be divided according to the time signature. For two-four and six-eight marches, as well as six-four marches, bars should be divided in half and for retreats it’s three, just as they are in nine-eight marches. The unit should be divided in four for four-four marches. Significantly, one should be able to see at a glance that dotted notes, quarter notes, and half notes have the space they require. One could be enabled to sight-read much more easily. It is because there are many who use the computer to write out the music for their pipe bands, and do not conform to the need to space the notes to facilitate sight-reading, that I have this pet peeve.

Another method by which sight-reading could be aided considerably, but isn’t, is to have the beams slanting up or down- grade according to the ascending or descending nature of the notes. In most programs, all the beams are horizontal, and this doesn’t suggest either an up or down trend in a melody. It certainly would help.

Lastly, when writing music, one should provide first endings with a closure, while extending the line for second endings. This brings up another pet peeve in that much of pipe music requires first and second endings and yet they are not written as they should be. Proper writing requires an understanding of what is correct and what isn’t. Much of our band music has been written with repeat signs indicating that one is to repeat all that is written between them, including the introduction. The correct method is to put the repeat sign after the introductory notes, which will be included in the first ending. On repeating, the second ending should include the introductory notes for the second part, and so on throughout the tune. My peeves are that those who are writing the band’s music don’t understand that there are definite rules for writing and if they were followed, the music would be much easier to sight-read.

Another peeve is that an error incorporated into the writing of three-four retreats has been carried out from teacher to student ad-infinitum. It causes those tunes to be played out of step, and prevents a pipe major from assigning a three-four as the introductory tune in a medley; but this will be discussed in a subsequent blog.