Ken Eller, Johnny Rowe & Ryan Robertson: Grade 5 Band Clinic

Last Saturday,  Ken Eller, Johnny Rowe (78th Frasers) and Ryan Roberston (78th Frasers) put on a clinic for our Grade 5 band.  Going off of our score sheets from our first competition of the year (Toronto Indoor), we worked on our overall sound and how we could better our ensemble score. 

Ken, Johnny and Ryan had us thinking outside of the box and gave us some helpful tips/tricks to make our instruments sound even better.  Looking forward to our next clinic with Bob Worrall which is in just under a month.

* click on the pictures below to see the next one.

1st Place - Grade 5 Band - Toronto Indoors

On Saturday, April 4th, our band hit the road to compete in 2015's first competition of the season.  We have been working very hard since October to have this set down for the Toronto Indoors.  Confidently, our band stepped off the line and laid down a strong performance.  We still have a few things to work on however it was nice to get our very first - 1st PLACE in a band competition.  We plan to work out a few kinks and come back even stronger. 

Congrats to our solo competitors too who represented the band and generating some amazing results:

Aprille Holmes 1st - Side Drum
Rose Rugman 2nd - Side Drum
Andy McPherson 3rd in piobaireachd
Andy McPherson 4th in March
Mark Rugman Jr. 5th - Side Drum
Bregitte Rugman - 2nd - Tenor
Quartet - Kiegelmann, Johnstone-Schulz, Ferguson, Egan - 5th in Grade 3/4.

Great job band, very happy PM!

P/M Matt

Clink on the pictures below to see our band in action!

Meet Our Instructors!

It is very important that new students are taught things the right way while on their journey to becoming a piper or drummer.  The teaching process for a piper will take a student roughly 1 year until they are ready to be playing in the circle on the bagpipes.  The drumming learning curve is slightly shorter however this always relies heavily on how often students are practicing and if they have had any musical experience in the past.

We are very fortunate to have 2 very dedicated instructors who's mission is to get you from dreaming about being in a pipe band to actually playing in one.  Currently we have a father/son duo who take care of this very time consuming task.  Both Peter and Kavan come to practice early and usually stay late, making sure each of our students get the attention they need.

Peter Johnstone-Shulz has been a member of our band and executive for the last 7yrs.  Peter wears many hats in our band as he is our Pipe Sergeant, Equipment Manager and Piping Instructor.  Pete spends at least 15-30mins individually with each student and makes sure no bad habits are ever picked up.  He is easily one of the most dedicated members of our band and he is my right hand man when it comes to running our band.

Kavan Johnstone-Shulz is our side drumming instructor.  Kavan was a member of the band for 4yrs until he took over the Drum Sergeant role for the Ryan Russell Memorial Pipe Band (Toronto Police).  Kavan is an accomplished solo player and will be competing in the Grade 3 category this coming season.  He takes lessons from the best (Dan Bist/Doug Stronach) and shares his knowledge with our up and coming drumming students. 

Teaching takes a lot of patience and dedication.  I would like to thank both Peter and Kavan for their ongoing hard work and let them know that their duties in our band do not go unnoticed.  The level of playing in our band is on the rise as our students are better prepared for the big band experience due to our instructors hard work and diligence.

P/M Matt