TRY IT OPPORTUNITIES

Try It means just that, band members will offer opportunities for those interested in a hands-on simple introduction to the bagpipe and/or drums. Try It opportunities hosted by the band will be offered at all events where the Pipes & Drums of NHSCOT is competing, whenever possible.

Learn about the iconic Scottish bagpipe and test your pipes with a practice chanter.The bagpipe belongs to the woodwind family. Bagpipes consists of a bag, a chanter which carries the melody, and usually one or more drones which play a chord. Then either a blowpipe or bellow which allows air into the bag.

The best way to learn to play a bagpipe is to start out on the practice chanter, which looks very much like a recorder. This way you learn the fingerings and embellishments without having to keep the bag going steadily, which is often a distraction.

Hands on drumming lessons for those that want to beat to a different drum.There are 3 types of drums that are normally played in a pipe band. The Side Drum, which is related to the Snare Drum (a “snare” is a band of wires & beads that make the sound of the drum sharper) the Tenor Drum, which is a drum about the size of the side drum but without snares and played with mallets rather than sticks; and the Bass Drum, which is the large drum that makes the “heartbeat” of the band.

The drumming technique for side drums and snares is built up from a set of standard fundamentals like a flam, a drum roll, and so on.There are 2 styles of playing the tenor drum; Flourishing Tenor, which puts more emphasis on twirling the mallets and only occasionally hitting the drum head and Rhythm Tenor, which puts more emphasis on using the mallets to complement the rhythm of the bass drum.The bass drum are too large to be hand held and are always mounted or carried with a shoulder harness and struck with heavy mallets.

Try It Schedule

Look for our “Try It” tents at the following venues:

Try It Classes are on currently on hold due to Covid-19.