Band History
An Illustrated Sketch of the Band's History
The band began life as the Army, Navy, Airforce Pipe Band in 1952. The first pipe major was Mary Smith (nee MacPherson), but in 1954, the role of P/M fell to Andrew S. McColl.
In 1958, the band moved to the Legion, still under control of P/M McColl. In the following year, Alastair Gilchrist took over as P/M. It has undergone periodic extinctions, it seems. The band died in 1967 and was restarted.
By 1977, the band had adopted the Hunting Stewart (muted colours) kilt as part of the band uniform, a choice that remains to the present day. It played in parades throughout southern Alberta, an activity that continues in the current incarnation of the band.
The band went through an extended period where it actively competed at various highland games, as far away as Santa Rosa in California. At its peak, the band was playing at a grade 2 level. Then P/M Alastair Gilchrist's philosophy was to play relatively simple tunes, but to play them very well.
In 1958, the band moved to the Legion, still under control of P/M McColl. In the following year, Alastair Gilchrist took over as P/M. It has undergone periodic extinctions, it seems. The band died in 1967 and was restarted.
By 1977, the band had adopted the Hunting Stewart (muted colours) kilt as part of the band uniform, a choice that remains to the present day. It played in parades throughout southern Alberta, an activity that continues in the current incarnation of the band.
The band went through an extended period where it actively competed at various highland games, as far away as Santa Rosa in California. At its peak, the band was playing at a grade 2 level. Then P/M Alastair Gilchrist's philosophy was to play relatively simple tunes, but to play them very well.
Photo Gallery - click on photo for full image and caption
Recollections by a former band member (November 7, 2005)
Hello current Pipe band folks,
In about the fall/winter of 1979-80 the Legion Pipe Band was reconstituted after an absence of some years. My brother Stephen and I decided to join up, after reading an ad in the paper. Alistair Gilchrist was the Pipe Major and Archie Muirhead a wonderfully crusty old Scot with a waxed handlebar mustache was the Drum Major. My brother learned to play the pipes and I the drums. The legion ordered new uniforms with the beautiful Stewart Hunting tartan that the band seems to still be sporting. Our headgear was the beret/tam with the Stewart clan badge affixed rather than the Glengarry as it appears now. We all had the black jackets and blue neckties with the Stewart clan badge on them. We used to practice in the big legion hall and learned to march and do drill there and sometimes up in the attic if the hall was busy with another function. We attended parades in Milk River, Crowsnest Pass, Lethbridge Whoop Up Days and Remembrance Day(That was a very cold day at the Cenotaph!!) and had a road trip to Kevin Montana. It wasn't long before other activities began to creep into our young lives and the commitment to one night a week and every Saturday began to be onerous and so we had to give up something and the band was it. But I certainly have many fond memories of my time in the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band.
Cheers!
Mark
___________________________________________________
Mark Bore
National Call Centre
Quality Assurance/Training Coordinator
Ticketmaster Canada Ltd.
Press Clippings
The Globe and Mail, Thursday, Feb. 13, 1975
Dick Beddoes LETHBRIDGE
The intelligence quotient of Southern Alberta sank below absolute zero yesterday when exactly 39 masochists showed up to watch the general manager of Canada open the Great Western Snowball Fight. Malicious cold has taken over Alberta and the temperature registered a low opinion of the weather, 15 below. The widely-touted Chinook breezes from the West Coast, which are supposed to toast these barren plains, are in a holding pattern 10,000 feet above Lethbridge, jeering at jaspers stuck in the icebox below. Snow devils whirled across streets and highways, the bare bones of trees cracked like Jack Frost's knuckles, and the foolhardy wandered through a gap in an orange snowfence to witness Pierre Trudeau skid around a speed skating oval in a ceremonial lap that would signal the start of Alberta's Long Underwear Olympics. Only the brave Robert Stanfield, whose family manufactures underwear, must have been off somewhere, beside a furnace laughing. They trooped through the foot-stomping cold, huddled in parkas and woollens and mittens and scarves, braying and woofing, resembling nothing so much as the straggling survivors of a polar expedition.
A guy muttered to his neighbor, "Are we nuts or ain't we?" "We are," his shivering neighbor elaborated.
Now two bagpipers came skirling through the snowdrifts, bare knees flashing below their kilts, bare hands grabbing the goatskins. Alistair and John Gilchrist, displaced tootlers from Scotland, represent the ultimate in resolution, or stupidity.
The Gilchrist brothers were playing Scotland The Brave, which, considering the Arctic breezes what whipped playfully under their kilts, they were. Snowbank subsidy of $2.3 milMr. Trudeau's party clumped through this vineyard of the valiant behind the pipers, the Marquis of Lalonde trying to look especially cheerful. Greater love hath no politician than he who will freeze for his votes. Mr. Lalonde, whose federal Department of Sport, Health and Welfare sponsors these frostbite follies, is revered as the Big Daddy of Alberta's 1st Olympics. The feds contributed roughly $2.3-million of the estimated $6-million required for 2,000 athletes to ski and skate, lift and punch and curl through the next 10 days. The Ottawa visitors tramped across a red carpet laid on the ice to a frontier dais: two apple crates nailed together in the snowpacked infield. They tramped to the relentless wail of the pipers who would not shut up, maybe because their lips were frozen to their mouthpieces. A faintly familiar figure, bulky in a massive parka, was noticed in the Ottawa mob. This was Ian MacDonald, who used to be a newspaperman in Toronto himself before rehabilitating himself as Mr. Trudeau's press attache.
Pierre political jock"Hi," Mr. MacDonald greeted through an aperture in his parka hood. "You come to cover a Prime Minister who may break a leg in a sport he's never tried?" "No," said The Globe and Mail's representative at icicle idiocies. "But I wouldn't mind seeing a prime ministerial pratfall." Mr. Trudeau had a pair of long speedskates fitted to his feet by Dr. Jack Sherman, a large Lethbridge dentist who presides over speed skating events.
"You're a dentist?" the Prime Minister asked. "That's right," Sherman said. "Good," Trudeau said. "When I fall flat on my face, you can fix my teeth."
Then Pierre the First moved onto the ice, snug in toque and snowsuit, carefully testing the skates. "I know he can ski and fling folks around at judo," a man said to Mr. MacDonald, the press aide. "But can he skate?" Mr. MacDonald, seeking an answer, reached inside his parka and brought out a brown button. The message on the button read "Why Not?" Suave, not swift Turned out that Mr. Trudeau did not fall on his classic profile. He wheeled toward the finish line, the prime ministerial chest bursting through a red tape obediently held by Mr. Lalonde and Charlie Virtue, the ebullient president of this Snowball Fight.
Then Mr. Trudeau loped off for one turn of the 400-metre course, not precisely shattering any stopwatches. He cooled out, as they are well able to say in Lethbridge, in one minute, 13.07 seconds. Sylvia Burke, recently bounced off Canada's international skating team, is faster. So is Eddie Shack. Then Trudeau climbed toward a microphone to tell the assembled skaters, "I wish you Godspeed -- as much speed as possible."
The kids clapped and hollered as they had the night before when, capping the opening ceremonies, the PM made a short rousing speech about physical fitness and national unity. He made it in two languages, one of which escaped an earlier speaker, Archibald Anderson, the mayor of Lethbridge. Mr. Anderson, going for a Berlitz honor scroll, kicked so many holes in the French part of his speech that he made Bob Stanfield, say, sound like a polished linguist. Bilingualism cowered under the stage, licking its wounds. The pipers were still gamely blaring away when the Trudeau party fled for hot toddies. "We must," Ian MacDonald observed, "nominate those valorous chaps for the Canada Medal." If Alistair and John Gilchrist persist in piping in blizzards, they're in danger of getting the medal posthumously.
The same event was written about by a different scribe.
The Calgary Herald, Thursday, Feb. 13, 1975
HalWALKER... Herald Sports EditorLETHBRIDGE - Just watching Prime Minister Trudeau can be a chilling experience I learned on Wednesday morning, and I won four frozen fingers on my left hand to prove it as I stood around a speed skating oval with about 300 other frozen human beings for half an hour in 20-degree below zero weather.
However, my discomforture was also a zero compared to the first real heroes I've found here at the 1975 Canada Winter Games . . . a pair of brawny Scots from this city, who once called a small town on the outskirts of Glasgow home. Gad, what heroes the brothers Gilchrist, Alistair and John, proved to those of us who marvelled at their skill with the bagpipes and their bare-kneed hardiness as they defied the elements as well as all the attributes of sanity by piping the prime minister of Canada aboard the only outdoor artificial speed skating complex in Canada, and one of the few in the world.
No Tory in his right mind should have been found stomping around in the snow and extreme arctic temperatures of early morning to applaud a Liberal prime minister. But there I was with my frost-bitten nose peeking out from a parka as Mr. Trudeau officially dedicated this new skating complex and skated around it in a pair of borrowed Bauer skates with a touque covering his balding pate.
Trudeau isn't a bad skater, really, and he's won points in this Conservative stronghold for his apparent warmth to the Canada Winter Games, but certainly no more than his pretty wife, Margaret, who stood unnoticed in the small turnout in the teeth-chattering cold, only a few feet away from the bagpipe-playing Gilchrist brothers. Ah, the Gilchrists, true heroes of a Scot tradition that has given birth to many glamorous episodes down the halls of time.
The brawny Gilchrist brothers, who looked remarkably like twins, but aren't, stood alongside a piece of red carpet which was to assure the dignitaries safe passage afoot to the small centre stage where official dedication ceremonies were to be held. The only people who used it were bearded press photographers and reporters, it developed. The PM hid in the warmth of the nearby Sportsplex until it was time to emerge on cue. The brothers Gilchrist, meanwhile, were standing in the snow and cold blowing into their bagpipes, probably fearful that the drones, or wooden reeds, might splinter in the cold at any time.
I found myself with friend Dick Beddoes, a native Albertan who has been writing abrasive and sometimes doting sports columns for the Toronto Globe and Mail for lo, these many years. Mr. Beddoes is familiar with the chilling factors and sunny blue skies of his native Alberta but he stood in abrupt amazement as he gazed at the hardy Gilchrist brothers, resplendent in their regimental Dress Gordon kilts and shawls.
"Migawd," marvelled Beddoes, as he pointed towards the bare knees of the Gilchrists. "How do they stand it?" I said I didn't know, but confessed I was glad I had my long johns as part of me, rather than short skirts (and may my ancestors in Kincardine, Ont., County of Bruce, forgive me). Beddoes was intrigued at this stark heroism by the Gilchrists as were the rest of the company but neither of us had the courage to ask if they wore anything beneath their skir . . . pardon, kilts.
Margaret Trudeau kept stealing unbelieving glances at the sturdy Scots from under the parka of a luxuriant fur coat as she awaited the entrance of hubby Pierre. Mr. Trudeau made such an unobtrusive entrance by skating up the ice lanes alone that few people recognized him, as only his blue nose extended from the cover of his touque and his skin tight leather trousers.
The Gilchrist brothers had been rapidly turning blue with cold as they piped their message into the air and when they took five, as they say in the music world, I offered John, or was it Alistair, my heavy gloves, which were quickly accepted. Alistair, or John, rapidly accepted them but no sooner had Alistair, or John, put them on his numb hands (did you ever see anybody play the bagpipes wearing gloves?) than some out-of-sight sentry sounded a warning whistle heralding the arrival of the prime minister. Time to pump the water wings again (and may my ancestors in Kincardine, Ont., County of Bruce, forgive me once more).
When the prime minister climbed the stairs to the small stage in the infield and the speech-making was about to begin, the Glichrists muted their instruments.
"How cold are your knees," Beddoes asked. "What knees?" answered Alistair -- or was it John -- glancing at the purple knobs where his knees normally were appended. An aide to Prime Minister Trudeau happened to come by and glancing at Beddoes and your agent, whispered, "These guys should be awarded a Canada medal." "Wrong," shot back Beddoes, "the Victoria Cross."
It was at this time, with mothers rushing their kids to warmed up motor vehicles that some official on stage urged the frozen onlookers to join in singing our national anthem. Without too much enthusiasm, it seemed, the spectators joined in sounding Oh Canada. The Ohhhhhh came out easily in that cold. Trudeau didn't sing the words, I noticed. Probably his lips were sealed with the cold.
At the conclusion the chairman, with mock enthusiasm, I'm sure, told his microphone: "Now, that's better. I'm sure you're much warmer now, eh, ha, ha, ha." It was at this point I walked toward my very warm motor car, wincing in pain from my frozen fingers, and full of admiration for, and wonderment about, a couple of Scot brothers named Gilchrist.
Dick Beddoes LETHBRIDGE
The intelligence quotient of Southern Alberta sank below absolute zero yesterday when exactly 39 masochists showed up to watch the general manager of Canada open the Great Western Snowball Fight. Malicious cold has taken over Alberta and the temperature registered a low opinion of the weather, 15 below. The widely-touted Chinook breezes from the West Coast, which are supposed to toast these barren plains, are in a holding pattern 10,000 feet above Lethbridge, jeering at jaspers stuck in the icebox below. Snow devils whirled across streets and highways, the bare bones of trees cracked like Jack Frost's knuckles, and the foolhardy wandered through a gap in an orange snowfence to witness Pierre Trudeau skid around a speed skating oval in a ceremonial lap that would signal the start of Alberta's Long Underwear Olympics. Only the brave Robert Stanfield, whose family manufactures underwear, must have been off somewhere, beside a furnace laughing. They trooped through the foot-stomping cold, huddled in parkas and woollens and mittens and scarves, braying and woofing, resembling nothing so much as the straggling survivors of a polar expedition.
A guy muttered to his neighbor, "Are we nuts or ain't we?" "We are," his shivering neighbor elaborated.
Now two bagpipers came skirling through the snowdrifts, bare knees flashing below their kilts, bare hands grabbing the goatskins. Alistair and John Gilchrist, displaced tootlers from Scotland, represent the ultimate in resolution, or stupidity.
The Gilchrist brothers were playing Scotland The Brave, which, considering the Arctic breezes what whipped playfully under their kilts, they were. Snowbank subsidy of $2.3 milMr. Trudeau's party clumped through this vineyard of the valiant behind the pipers, the Marquis of Lalonde trying to look especially cheerful. Greater love hath no politician than he who will freeze for his votes. Mr. Lalonde, whose federal Department of Sport, Health and Welfare sponsors these frostbite follies, is revered as the Big Daddy of Alberta's 1st Olympics. The feds contributed roughly $2.3-million of the estimated $6-million required for 2,000 athletes to ski and skate, lift and punch and curl through the next 10 days. The Ottawa visitors tramped across a red carpet laid on the ice to a frontier dais: two apple crates nailed together in the snowpacked infield. They tramped to the relentless wail of the pipers who would not shut up, maybe because their lips were frozen to their mouthpieces. A faintly familiar figure, bulky in a massive parka, was noticed in the Ottawa mob. This was Ian MacDonald, who used to be a newspaperman in Toronto himself before rehabilitating himself as Mr. Trudeau's press attache.
Pierre political jock"Hi," Mr. MacDonald greeted through an aperture in his parka hood. "You come to cover a Prime Minister who may break a leg in a sport he's never tried?" "No," said The Globe and Mail's representative at icicle idiocies. "But I wouldn't mind seeing a prime ministerial pratfall." Mr. Trudeau had a pair of long speedskates fitted to his feet by Dr. Jack Sherman, a large Lethbridge dentist who presides over speed skating events.
"You're a dentist?" the Prime Minister asked. "That's right," Sherman said. "Good," Trudeau said. "When I fall flat on my face, you can fix my teeth."
Then Pierre the First moved onto the ice, snug in toque and snowsuit, carefully testing the skates. "I know he can ski and fling folks around at judo," a man said to Mr. MacDonald, the press aide. "But can he skate?" Mr. MacDonald, seeking an answer, reached inside his parka and brought out a brown button. The message on the button read "Why Not?" Suave, not swift Turned out that Mr. Trudeau did not fall on his classic profile. He wheeled toward the finish line, the prime ministerial chest bursting through a red tape obediently held by Mr. Lalonde and Charlie Virtue, the ebullient president of this Snowball Fight.
Then Mr. Trudeau loped off for one turn of the 400-metre course, not precisely shattering any stopwatches. He cooled out, as they are well able to say in Lethbridge, in one minute, 13.07 seconds. Sylvia Burke, recently bounced off Canada's international skating team, is faster. So is Eddie Shack. Then Trudeau climbed toward a microphone to tell the assembled skaters, "I wish you Godspeed -- as much speed as possible."
The kids clapped and hollered as they had the night before when, capping the opening ceremonies, the PM made a short rousing speech about physical fitness and national unity. He made it in two languages, one of which escaped an earlier speaker, Archibald Anderson, the mayor of Lethbridge. Mr. Anderson, going for a Berlitz honor scroll, kicked so many holes in the French part of his speech that he made Bob Stanfield, say, sound like a polished linguist. Bilingualism cowered under the stage, licking its wounds. The pipers were still gamely blaring away when the Trudeau party fled for hot toddies. "We must," Ian MacDonald observed, "nominate those valorous chaps for the Canada Medal." If Alistair and John Gilchrist persist in piping in blizzards, they're in danger of getting the medal posthumously.
The same event was written about by a different scribe.
The Calgary Herald, Thursday, Feb. 13, 1975
HalWALKER... Herald Sports EditorLETHBRIDGE - Just watching Prime Minister Trudeau can be a chilling experience I learned on Wednesday morning, and I won four frozen fingers on my left hand to prove it as I stood around a speed skating oval with about 300 other frozen human beings for half an hour in 20-degree below zero weather.
However, my discomforture was also a zero compared to the first real heroes I've found here at the 1975 Canada Winter Games . . . a pair of brawny Scots from this city, who once called a small town on the outskirts of Glasgow home. Gad, what heroes the brothers Gilchrist, Alistair and John, proved to those of us who marvelled at their skill with the bagpipes and their bare-kneed hardiness as they defied the elements as well as all the attributes of sanity by piping the prime minister of Canada aboard the only outdoor artificial speed skating complex in Canada, and one of the few in the world.
No Tory in his right mind should have been found stomping around in the snow and extreme arctic temperatures of early morning to applaud a Liberal prime minister. But there I was with my frost-bitten nose peeking out from a parka as Mr. Trudeau officially dedicated this new skating complex and skated around it in a pair of borrowed Bauer skates with a touque covering his balding pate.
Trudeau isn't a bad skater, really, and he's won points in this Conservative stronghold for his apparent warmth to the Canada Winter Games, but certainly no more than his pretty wife, Margaret, who stood unnoticed in the small turnout in the teeth-chattering cold, only a few feet away from the bagpipe-playing Gilchrist brothers. Ah, the Gilchrists, true heroes of a Scot tradition that has given birth to many glamorous episodes down the halls of time.
The brawny Gilchrist brothers, who looked remarkably like twins, but aren't, stood alongside a piece of red carpet which was to assure the dignitaries safe passage afoot to the small centre stage where official dedication ceremonies were to be held. The only people who used it were bearded press photographers and reporters, it developed. The PM hid in the warmth of the nearby Sportsplex until it was time to emerge on cue. The brothers Gilchrist, meanwhile, were standing in the snow and cold blowing into their bagpipes, probably fearful that the drones, or wooden reeds, might splinter in the cold at any time.
I found myself with friend Dick Beddoes, a native Albertan who has been writing abrasive and sometimes doting sports columns for the Toronto Globe and Mail for lo, these many years. Mr. Beddoes is familiar with the chilling factors and sunny blue skies of his native Alberta but he stood in abrupt amazement as he gazed at the hardy Gilchrist brothers, resplendent in their regimental Dress Gordon kilts and shawls.
"Migawd," marvelled Beddoes, as he pointed towards the bare knees of the Gilchrists. "How do they stand it?" I said I didn't know, but confessed I was glad I had my long johns as part of me, rather than short skirts (and may my ancestors in Kincardine, Ont., County of Bruce, forgive me). Beddoes was intrigued at this stark heroism by the Gilchrists as were the rest of the company but neither of us had the courage to ask if they wore anything beneath their skir . . . pardon, kilts.
Margaret Trudeau kept stealing unbelieving glances at the sturdy Scots from under the parka of a luxuriant fur coat as she awaited the entrance of hubby Pierre. Mr. Trudeau made such an unobtrusive entrance by skating up the ice lanes alone that few people recognized him, as only his blue nose extended from the cover of his touque and his skin tight leather trousers.
The Gilchrist brothers had been rapidly turning blue with cold as they piped their message into the air and when they took five, as they say in the music world, I offered John, or was it Alistair, my heavy gloves, which were quickly accepted. Alistair, or John, rapidly accepted them but no sooner had Alistair, or John, put them on his numb hands (did you ever see anybody play the bagpipes wearing gloves?) than some out-of-sight sentry sounded a warning whistle heralding the arrival of the prime minister. Time to pump the water wings again (and may my ancestors in Kincardine, Ont., County of Bruce, forgive me once more).
When the prime minister climbed the stairs to the small stage in the infield and the speech-making was about to begin, the Glichrists muted their instruments.
"How cold are your knees," Beddoes asked. "What knees?" answered Alistair -- or was it John -- glancing at the purple knobs where his knees normally were appended. An aide to Prime Minister Trudeau happened to come by and glancing at Beddoes and your agent, whispered, "These guys should be awarded a Canada medal." "Wrong," shot back Beddoes, "the Victoria Cross."
It was at this time, with mothers rushing their kids to warmed up motor vehicles that some official on stage urged the frozen onlookers to join in singing our national anthem. Without too much enthusiasm, it seemed, the spectators joined in sounding Oh Canada. The Ohhhhhh came out easily in that cold. Trudeau didn't sing the words, I noticed. Probably his lips were sealed with the cold.
At the conclusion the chairman, with mock enthusiasm, I'm sure, told his microphone: "Now, that's better. I'm sure you're much warmer now, eh, ha, ha, ha." It was at this point I walked toward my very warm motor car, wincing in pain from my frozen fingers, and full of admiration for, and wonderment about, a couple of Scot brothers named Gilchrist.
The Legion band has periodically made it into the Lethbridge Herald over the years. Typically, this is just a passing reference: a couple of examples of this are found in the LH article "Rain fails to dampen parade fun for youngsters" from Wed., Aug. 9, 1995, where mention is made of the fact that the Legion Pipe Band was not going to appear in the Whoop-Up Days Parade that year [lest you think the band was just a bunch of spoilsports, that year neither the Navy League/Sea Cadet band nor the Spirit of Alberta band from Magrath high school appeared, too], and in a very indirect manner, as in the Fri., Nov. 10, 1995, article "Canada Remembers Saturday", where Alastair Gilchrist is mentioned as pipe major. [Also, for what it's worth, Canada also remembers other days of the week.]
Occasionally, the Lethbridge Herald did accord members of the band substantial space in its pages. Two examples of this follow.
Lethbridge Herald, Saturday, Feb. 1, 1997
p. A3 ("Southern people" article)
A photo accompanies the article, showing Alastair bedecked in his kilt, prince charlie and bowtie, standing with one foot up on the seat of a chair
Piper Alastair Gilchrist shows Amazing Grace by Gary Allison
Around Alastair Gilchrist's neck hangs a medal, a symbol of a Scotland bagpiping championship won by his aunt Mary Smith. His aunt Helen was a world champion piper, and his mother Sadie was the champion lady piper in Scotland from 1927 through 1931. Sadie taugh[t] Gilchrist the art of playing the bagpipes back in Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he was born in 1936.
"I was taught by my mother at age six," says Gilchrist, who frequently plays piper's laments at southern Alberta funerals. "The only thing my father could play was the radio."
Since those early days Gilchrist, who retired from AGT in 1992 after 36 years, has mastered hundreds of tunes which he can play from memory. The head of the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band says the tune he plays most is Amazing Grace.
"God help me, if I play that song again... it's been popular with everyone ever since that woman sang the thing," he says with a Scot's brogue and a big smile. "I like to play Dark Island most of all. It's a nice slow one. I don't know its exact origin, but I've been told it was written for a BBC-TV show."
The Flowers of the Forest is another lament often heard at funerals or played by Gilchrist at cenotaph services.
Gilchrist arrived in Lethbridge from Scotland in 1955 and became involved with the Legion Pipe Band around 1962.
"It was actually the Army, Navy and Airforce Pipe Band at the start and made it over to the Legion around 1959 or 1960," says Gilchrist. "It was run by my aunt Mary Smith and later Andy McColl took over, and I took over after Andy. "I remember there were three girls with the pipe band when I arrived, Bev Allison, Gail Adamson and Bev Plomp."
Gilchrist says the movies Braveheart and Rob Roy have made the pipes even more popular, and he gets more and more requests to play at funerals, weddings and for other occasions. Through his years with the Legion Pipe Band he's played throughout southern Alberta in parades and at official events, toured to places like the Havre Montana Band Festival and Shelby's Maria Fair and played yearly at the Fort Macleod Santa Claus Parade. They've played in competitions and always brought home awards from across Alberta, eastern Canada and the U.S. northwest.
"The band is at a low point now, not because we can't get pipers, but because we need drummers," he says. "Anyone who wants to drum, just give us a call." Gilchrist is sharing his love and knowledge of the pipes with a new generation. He teaches each Saturday at the Legion to people as young as age six. His son Alastair Jr. is now one of the key pipers with the Legion, as is his brother John. "We've had a lot of fun with the pipes," says Gilchrist. "If I didn't have them when I first came to the city, I don't know what I would have done way out here in Canada."
Lethbridge Herald, Friday, Jan. 23, 1998 p. A2
A photo accompanies the article, showing Shawn in band kit, playing his pipes
Bagpiper Shawn feels kinship with Scotland's Robbie Burns by Janine Ecklund
Despite his Scottish ancestry, Shawn Pinder isn't all that familiar with famed poet Robbie Burns.But the 23-year-old University of Lethbridge student has at least one thing in common with Burns -- music. It is said that Burns, in addition to writing songs and poetry, was a musician. Pinder, since the age of nine, has [been] playing bagpipes with the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band. Pinder's interest was sparked by a casual remark his father made following a parade in their hometown of Fort Macleod.
"My dad was always disappointed at the Remembrance Day parade because they just had a van with music piped through loudspeakers," says Pinder. "He thought it would be nice to have a real live [piper] lead the parade."
About two weeks later, a young Pinder started taking lessons from pipe major Alistair [sic] Gilchrist. The rest is history. Pinder has risen in the ranks of the band and performs at many functions throughout the year. He, sister Shelly, also a piper, and their brother Michael, a drummer, will perform tonight at the Lethbridge Legion during Robbie Burns Night. Pinder will also don his kilt and hoist his bagpipes to perform at the Robbie Burns event at the Sir Alexander Galt Museum Sunday at 2 p.m.
"It's a lot of fun. I don't get as much time as before with school and swimming taking up a lot of time."
Pinder recently completed a bachelor degree in geography and immediately embarked on his masters, also at the U of L. He's a member of the university's swim team and coaches the Excalibur Swim Team five times a week. "With my own swimming, I train every morning. We also train Tuesday and Thursday nights and twice on weekends, plus weight lifting."
Pinder recently returned from a Canada West meet in Victoria where he did fairly well. He's hoping to do even better at a CIAU meet in February. But while his personal and educational pursuits are open for discussion, Pinder is keeping one age-old secret under wraps. What does he wear beneath his kilt? "That will have to stay a mystery," he says with a smile.
Occasionally, the Lethbridge Herald did accord members of the band substantial space in its pages. Two examples of this follow.
Lethbridge Herald, Saturday, Feb. 1, 1997
p. A3 ("Southern people" article)
A photo accompanies the article, showing Alastair bedecked in his kilt, prince charlie and bowtie, standing with one foot up on the seat of a chair
Piper Alastair Gilchrist shows Amazing Grace by Gary Allison
Around Alastair Gilchrist's neck hangs a medal, a symbol of a Scotland bagpiping championship won by his aunt Mary Smith. His aunt Helen was a world champion piper, and his mother Sadie was the champion lady piper in Scotland from 1927 through 1931. Sadie taugh[t] Gilchrist the art of playing the bagpipes back in Holytown, Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he was born in 1936.
"I was taught by my mother at age six," says Gilchrist, who frequently plays piper's laments at southern Alberta funerals. "The only thing my father could play was the radio."
Since those early days Gilchrist, who retired from AGT in 1992 after 36 years, has mastered hundreds of tunes which he can play from memory. The head of the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band says the tune he plays most is Amazing Grace.
"God help me, if I play that song again... it's been popular with everyone ever since that woman sang the thing," he says with a Scot's brogue and a big smile. "I like to play Dark Island most of all. It's a nice slow one. I don't know its exact origin, but I've been told it was written for a BBC-TV show."
The Flowers of the Forest is another lament often heard at funerals or played by Gilchrist at cenotaph services.
Gilchrist arrived in Lethbridge from Scotland in 1955 and became involved with the Legion Pipe Band around 1962.
"It was actually the Army, Navy and Airforce Pipe Band at the start and made it over to the Legion around 1959 or 1960," says Gilchrist. "It was run by my aunt Mary Smith and later Andy McColl took over, and I took over after Andy. "I remember there were three girls with the pipe band when I arrived, Bev Allison, Gail Adamson and Bev Plomp."
Gilchrist says the movies Braveheart and Rob Roy have made the pipes even more popular, and he gets more and more requests to play at funerals, weddings and for other occasions. Through his years with the Legion Pipe Band he's played throughout southern Alberta in parades and at official events, toured to places like the Havre Montana Band Festival and Shelby's Maria Fair and played yearly at the Fort Macleod Santa Claus Parade. They've played in competitions and always brought home awards from across Alberta, eastern Canada and the U.S. northwest.
"The band is at a low point now, not because we can't get pipers, but because we need drummers," he says. "Anyone who wants to drum, just give us a call." Gilchrist is sharing his love and knowledge of the pipes with a new generation. He teaches each Saturday at the Legion to people as young as age six. His son Alastair Jr. is now one of the key pipers with the Legion, as is his brother John. "We've had a lot of fun with the pipes," says Gilchrist. "If I didn't have them when I first came to the city, I don't know what I would have done way out here in Canada."
Lethbridge Herald, Friday, Jan. 23, 1998 p. A2
A photo accompanies the article, showing Shawn in band kit, playing his pipes
Bagpiper Shawn feels kinship with Scotland's Robbie Burns by Janine Ecklund
Despite his Scottish ancestry, Shawn Pinder isn't all that familiar with famed poet Robbie Burns.But the 23-year-old University of Lethbridge student has at least one thing in common with Burns -- music. It is said that Burns, in addition to writing songs and poetry, was a musician. Pinder, since the age of nine, has [been] playing bagpipes with the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band. Pinder's interest was sparked by a casual remark his father made following a parade in their hometown of Fort Macleod.
"My dad was always disappointed at the Remembrance Day parade because they just had a van with music piped through loudspeakers," says Pinder. "He thought it would be nice to have a real live [piper] lead the parade."
About two weeks later, a young Pinder started taking lessons from pipe major Alistair [sic] Gilchrist. The rest is history. Pinder has risen in the ranks of the band and performs at many functions throughout the year. He, sister Shelly, also a piper, and their brother Michael, a drummer, will perform tonight at the Lethbridge Legion during Robbie Burns Night. Pinder will also don his kilt and hoist his bagpipes to perform at the Robbie Burns event at the Sir Alexander Galt Museum Sunday at 2 p.m.
"It's a lot of fun. I don't get as much time as before with school and swimming taking up a lot of time."
Pinder recently completed a bachelor degree in geography and immediately embarked on his masters, also at the U of L. He's a member of the university's swim team and coaches the Excalibur Swim Team five times a week. "With my own swimming, I train every morning. We also train Tuesday and Thursday nights and twice on weekends, plus weight lifting."
Pinder recently returned from a Canada West meet in Victoria where he did fairly well. He's hoping to do even better at a CIAU meet in February. But while his personal and educational pursuits are open for discussion, Pinder is keeping one age-old secret under wraps. What does he wear beneath his kilt? "That will have to stay a mystery," he says with a smile.

Lethbridge Herald, Monday, July 24, 2006
p. A3
Band makes for a piping hot summer in the park
Legion pipe band practises weekly at Nicholas Sheran Parkby Caroline Boschman
Their cheeks puffed out like pillows, members of the Lethbridge Legion pipe band intoned The Maple Leaf Forever on their practice chanters while drummers loosened up on their practice pads.
Officially known as The Pipes and Drums of the General Stewart Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 4, the band held its weekly practice session at Nicholas Sheran Park Wednesday evening.
"Get those sticks high," said Rob Tomkinson, the band's drum sergeant who also instructs. Ten band members, ranging in age from 13 to 50-plus, show up for the practice and people strolling around the park stop to listen. "We decided a month ago that one of the ways we could get more visibility was playing outside the Legion," Tomkinson said.
The band has been together for about a year and has about a dozen members. New members, male or female, of any age are always welcome. "Almost half the band are teens. The other other half of the band is aged and the rest are in between."
Band members are also at various stages of accomplishment, some have played for years and others are just learning. Tomkinson, for example, is an old hand with the sticks but new to highland drumming. "I've only been doing this kind of drumming for two and a half years. I've been in pipe bands for 13 years but I played bass drum."
Jan Heetebrij of Taber always wanted to play the drums and the pipe band provided her with the opportunity to learn. "It's difficult but I really enjoy it. I'm determined to play," she said.
The band uses highland bagpipes, which are Scottish in origin. But whether bagpipes originated in Scotland, or France, or Greece or Arabia is still in question. "It's a rolling debate and nobody knows the answer," Tomkinson said.
The highland drum provides a tight staccato sound, which complements the pipes, which have no way of controlling their volume. "The drums allow for volume control and embellish the pipe sound."
Other band members travel a considerable distance for the practice. For example, Duncan MacNeill comes in from Vulcan and Art Cogdale travels from Carmangay. Cogdale played the bagpipes when he lived in Ontario but later stopped playing the instrument. "I hadn't played for 25 years. I just decided I should start playing again."
Pipe major David Kaminski, a math professor at the University of Lethbidge, started playing the pipes a half-dozen years ago.
Beginners use practice chanters, played like a recorder, to learn the fingering, he said. The sounds are muted, but when they pick up their bagpipes, sounds fill the air. "They have to blow them to get the instrument to settle in. They're sensitive to temperature and humidity," Kaminski said.
Three pipes, called drones, stand upward and are tuned to a fixed pitch to provide the characteristic background tone. The blowpiece and bag complete the instrument. Playing the instrument is not so much a matter of physical power as it is technique. Players have to do the fingering, keep the bag filled with air and blow. "For the beginner it's quite a challenge to power it all."
Kaminski, who has "not a drop" of Scottish blood running through his veins, didn't start playing the pipes until he was in his late 30s but he recalls marching behind a pipe band when he was cadet. The pipes must have been calling him at that time since he says nothing compares to a pipe band playing. "It's magical when the sound comes out. There's no other instrument like it." Playing the bagpipes requires memorizing the music and learning some fast fingering combinations but interested people are encouraged to try it out.
For more information, phone Tomkinson at 381-7328 or visit www.geocities.com/lethbridgepipeband/.
Lethbridge Herald, Sunday, August 27, 2006 p. A4
In the wake of the 2006 Whoop-Up Days, the Lethbridge Herald ran a full page "In Focus" photo portrait of the week's events. The bottom of the page featured the following photo (and caption).
p. A3
Band makes for a piping hot summer in the park
Legion pipe band practises weekly at Nicholas Sheran Parkby Caroline Boschman
Their cheeks puffed out like pillows, members of the Lethbridge Legion pipe band intoned The Maple Leaf Forever on their practice chanters while drummers loosened up on their practice pads.
Officially known as The Pipes and Drums of the General Stewart Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 4, the band held its weekly practice session at Nicholas Sheran Park Wednesday evening.
"Get those sticks high," said Rob Tomkinson, the band's drum sergeant who also instructs. Ten band members, ranging in age from 13 to 50-plus, show up for the practice and people strolling around the park stop to listen. "We decided a month ago that one of the ways we could get more visibility was playing outside the Legion," Tomkinson said.
The band has been together for about a year and has about a dozen members. New members, male or female, of any age are always welcome. "Almost half the band are teens. The other other half of the band is aged and the rest are in between."
Band members are also at various stages of accomplishment, some have played for years and others are just learning. Tomkinson, for example, is an old hand with the sticks but new to highland drumming. "I've only been doing this kind of drumming for two and a half years. I've been in pipe bands for 13 years but I played bass drum."
Jan Heetebrij of Taber always wanted to play the drums and the pipe band provided her with the opportunity to learn. "It's difficult but I really enjoy it. I'm determined to play," she said.
The band uses highland bagpipes, which are Scottish in origin. But whether bagpipes originated in Scotland, or France, or Greece or Arabia is still in question. "It's a rolling debate and nobody knows the answer," Tomkinson said.
The highland drum provides a tight staccato sound, which complements the pipes, which have no way of controlling their volume. "The drums allow for volume control and embellish the pipe sound."
Other band members travel a considerable distance for the practice. For example, Duncan MacNeill comes in from Vulcan and Art Cogdale travels from Carmangay. Cogdale played the bagpipes when he lived in Ontario but later stopped playing the instrument. "I hadn't played for 25 years. I just decided I should start playing again."
Pipe major David Kaminski, a math professor at the University of Lethbidge, started playing the pipes a half-dozen years ago.
Beginners use practice chanters, played like a recorder, to learn the fingering, he said. The sounds are muted, but when they pick up their bagpipes, sounds fill the air. "They have to blow them to get the instrument to settle in. They're sensitive to temperature and humidity," Kaminski said.
Three pipes, called drones, stand upward and are tuned to a fixed pitch to provide the characteristic background tone. The blowpiece and bag complete the instrument. Playing the instrument is not so much a matter of physical power as it is technique. Players have to do the fingering, keep the bag filled with air and blow. "For the beginner it's quite a challenge to power it all."
Kaminski, who has "not a drop" of Scottish blood running through his veins, didn't start playing the pipes until he was in his late 30s but he recalls marching behind a pipe band when he was cadet. The pipes must have been calling him at that time since he says nothing compares to a pipe band playing. "It's magical when the sound comes out. There's no other instrument like it." Playing the bagpipes requires memorizing the music and learning some fast fingering combinations but interested people are encouraged to try it out.
For more information, phone Tomkinson at 381-7328 or visit www.geocities.com/lethbridgepipeband/.
Lethbridge Herald, Sunday, August 27, 2006 p. A4
In the wake of the 2006 Whoop-Up Days, the Lethbridge Herald ran a full page "In Focus" photo portrait of the week's events. The bottom of the page featured the following photo (and caption).

The text in the photo reads: "MUSIC SOOTHES THE SOUL - Over the weekend High River hosted a variety of Scottish events and bands, including the Highland Games and The Royal Canadian Legion Lethbridge Pipe and Drum Band, shown here marching out of George Lane Park after opening for the Celtic folk band Get Reel, Aug. 27. For more on the High River Highland Games, see page 11."
End of an Era
The Lethbridge Herald, Monday, April 9, 2007
Obituary, p. B6
MR. ALEXANDER "ALASTAIR" GILCHRIST, beloved husband of Mrs. Mary Gilchrist, passed away peacefully on Friday, April 6, 2007 at the age of 71 years. Besides his loving wife Mary, he is survived by a daughter Victoria (David) Limpert of Chestermere, a granddaughter Sarah Gilchrist of Coaldale, one sister Catherine Wallace of Lethbridge and one brother John Gilchrist of Lethbridge as well as several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents John and Sarah, a son Alastair and a sister Sarah.
A celebration of Alastair's Life will be held at ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1818-5th Avenue South, Lethbridge on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM with Reverend Larry Hankinson officiating. A Private Family Interment will follow in the Mountain View Cemetery.
No flowers by request of the family. In memory of Alastair donations may be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, 207, 542-7th Street South, Lethbridge, AB T1J 2H1.
Obituary, p. B6
MR. ALEXANDER "ALASTAIR" GILCHRIST, beloved husband of Mrs. Mary Gilchrist, passed away peacefully on Friday, April 6, 2007 at the age of 71 years. Besides his loving wife Mary, he is survived by a daughter Victoria (David) Limpert of Chestermere, a granddaughter Sarah Gilchrist of Coaldale, one sister Catherine Wallace of Lethbridge and one brother John Gilchrist of Lethbridge as well as several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents John and Sarah, a son Alastair and a sister Sarah.
A celebration of Alastair's Life will be held at ST. ANDREW'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1818-5th Avenue South, Lethbridge on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM with Reverend Larry Hankinson officiating. A Private Family Interment will follow in the Mountain View Cemetery.
No flowers by request of the family. In memory of Alastair donations may be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, 207, 542-7th Street South, Lethbridge, AB T1J 2H1.
The Lethbridge Herald, Tuesday, April 10, 2007 p. A3
Gilchrist helped keep Scottish tradition alive
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne!
-Robert Burns
by STACY O'BRIEN
There weren't many things that ruffled Alastair Gilchrist's feathers. Not children practising their first scales on their bagpipes, not working for the telephone company for more than 30 years. But there was one thing he was emphatic about, said his friend Bill Halley. Gilchrist insisted on auld lang syne being pronounced properly, with the syne being pronounced like the English word sign. It's not surprising from a man who was the chairman of the Burns Supper Committee in Lethbridge, and responsible for organizing the annual Robbie Burns Day celebration in Lethbridge for the past 40 years. "Alastair was very much a Scotsman at heart, but he always loved Canada, too," Halley said.
Gilchrist passed away Friday at age 71, leaving his wife Mary and other family. Gilchrist moved to Canada from Scotland in 1955, working with the telephone company AGT for 36 years work and retiring in 1992. But Gilchrist will be most remembered for his contributions to spreading Scottish culture and entrenching Scottish traditions in Lethbridge. "He made sure that nobody forgot the Scottish heritage and he wouldn't let the memory of Robbie Burns fade away," said Dennis Coburn, the president of the General Stewart Branch No. 4 of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Coburn met Gilchrist after starting with the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band in 1961. Gilchrist, who is from a family of pipers in Scotland and played since he was six, was the pipe major. "He honed us into a really hot band and we'd go to different competitions," Coburn said, explaining the group travelled to Montreal for the Canadian championships and to Santa Rosa, Calif., for the North American championships. They didn't win, but Coburn said, "We sure made them know we were there."
He said over the past 40 years Gilchrist put innumerable hours into teaching a whole new generation of bagpipers the ins and outs of the instrument, with him dedicating every Saturday morning to teaching students at the local legion. "Any pipers around this area probably had him as a teacher," Coburn said.
While there was a lot of practising there was also a lot of fun, too. Coburn remembers one trip in the 1960s when the band was called upon short notice to perform at the air force base in Great Falls, Mont. It was last minute so the base sent a plane to pick them up, with Gilchrist telling those in the group to wear their kilts, bring their pipeboxes and toothbrushes with them.
"This DC-3 landed at the airport and we threw our pipeboxes on and, when we climbed on the plane, they put a parachute on us," Coburn said. "So you can imagine what we all looked like in kilts, with parachute straps between our legs." The performance went off without a hitch and on the way back the band members were so comfortable with their new travelling arrangements many pulled out their bagpipes and played them at 10,000 feet. When the pilot radioed in to land, the guy on the other end wondered what the heck was going on in the cabin, Coburn said.
Halley said Gilchrist always took his bag pipe playing very seriously and wanted to make sure things were done right but he was outgoing, had a great sense of humour and would always tell a person the way it was. "He is one of those people who made some of the traditions in Lethbridge the way they are today." Halley said Gilchrist always made sure the Burns Supper followed very clear traditions and his attention to detail was recognized in a book about Burns suppers, describing the Lethbridge event as one of the best in Canada. Robbie Burns Day celebrates the life of the Scottish poet each January 25 around the world, with poetry readings, jokes and plenty of haggis. Halley, who moved from Scotland to Canada in 1977, said "(Alastair Gilchrist) actually taught me more about Scotland than I knew myself."
A celebration of Gilchrist's life will take place today at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church at 1818 5 Avenue South.
Gilchrist helped keep Scottish tradition alive
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne!
-Robert Burns
by STACY O'BRIEN
There weren't many things that ruffled Alastair Gilchrist's feathers. Not children practising their first scales on their bagpipes, not working for the telephone company for more than 30 years. But there was one thing he was emphatic about, said his friend Bill Halley. Gilchrist insisted on auld lang syne being pronounced properly, with the syne being pronounced like the English word sign. It's not surprising from a man who was the chairman of the Burns Supper Committee in Lethbridge, and responsible for organizing the annual Robbie Burns Day celebration in Lethbridge for the past 40 years. "Alastair was very much a Scotsman at heart, but he always loved Canada, too," Halley said.
Gilchrist passed away Friday at age 71, leaving his wife Mary and other family. Gilchrist moved to Canada from Scotland in 1955, working with the telephone company AGT for 36 years work and retiring in 1992. But Gilchrist will be most remembered for his contributions to spreading Scottish culture and entrenching Scottish traditions in Lethbridge. "He made sure that nobody forgot the Scottish heritage and he wouldn't let the memory of Robbie Burns fade away," said Dennis Coburn, the president of the General Stewart Branch No. 4 of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Coburn met Gilchrist after starting with the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band in 1961. Gilchrist, who is from a family of pipers in Scotland and played since he was six, was the pipe major. "He honed us into a really hot band and we'd go to different competitions," Coburn said, explaining the group travelled to Montreal for the Canadian championships and to Santa Rosa, Calif., for the North American championships. They didn't win, but Coburn said, "We sure made them know we were there."
He said over the past 40 years Gilchrist put innumerable hours into teaching a whole new generation of bagpipers the ins and outs of the instrument, with him dedicating every Saturday morning to teaching students at the local legion. "Any pipers around this area probably had him as a teacher," Coburn said.
While there was a lot of practising there was also a lot of fun, too. Coburn remembers one trip in the 1960s when the band was called upon short notice to perform at the air force base in Great Falls, Mont. It was last minute so the base sent a plane to pick them up, with Gilchrist telling those in the group to wear their kilts, bring their pipeboxes and toothbrushes with them.
"This DC-3 landed at the airport and we threw our pipeboxes on and, when we climbed on the plane, they put a parachute on us," Coburn said. "So you can imagine what we all looked like in kilts, with parachute straps between our legs." The performance went off without a hitch and on the way back the band members were so comfortable with their new travelling arrangements many pulled out their bagpipes and played them at 10,000 feet. When the pilot radioed in to land, the guy on the other end wondered what the heck was going on in the cabin, Coburn said.
Halley said Gilchrist always took his bag pipe playing very seriously and wanted to make sure things were done right but he was outgoing, had a great sense of humour and would always tell a person the way it was. "He is one of those people who made some of the traditions in Lethbridge the way they are today." Halley said Gilchrist always made sure the Burns Supper followed very clear traditions and his attention to detail was recognized in a book about Burns suppers, describing the Lethbridge event as one of the best in Canada. Robbie Burns Day celebrates the life of the Scottish poet each January 25 around the world, with poetry readings, jokes and plenty of haggis. Halley, who moved from Scotland to Canada in 1977, said "(Alastair Gilchrist) actually taught me more about Scotland than I knew myself."
A celebration of Gilchrist's life will take place today at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church at 1818 5 Avenue South.

Pipes for a piper
Pipers Shawn Pinder, left, and Russel Robertson with drummer Mike Pinder, centre, lead the family into St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Tuesday for the funeral of Alexander (Alastair) Gilchrist. The well-known life member of the legion and piper died Friday at the age of 71 years. [HERALD PHOTO BY DAVID ROSSITER]
Lethbridge Herald, Wednesday, July 18, 2007 p. A2

The pipers are piping
The Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band uses near perfect conditions to practise at Henderson Lake recently. The band practises Wednesday evenings, beginning 7 p.m., often at various outdoor locations throughout the area. The group welcomes new pipers and drummers with more information available at 381-7328.
High River Times, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 p. 8
Lethbridge Herald, Tuesday, July 15, 2008 p. A3
Playing the bagpipes is more difficult than it looks
By JEFF WIEBE
Lethbridge Herald
Imagine patting your head, rubbing your stomach, singing a song, and going for a walk all at the same time. That's kind of what playing a set of bagpipes is like, as I learned at last week's Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band practice near Fort Whoop-Up.
Under the instruction of band member David Kaminski, I received a crash course in playing the pipes. But before jumping into the real thing, a bit of practice was necessary. I started out playing a practice chanter, a small, recorder-like device designed to help new players learn the fingering positions of the actual instrument, without having to worry about managing their air. Kaminski said it usually takes would-be pipers anywhere from six months to a year to graduate from the practice chanter to the bagpipes.
But we didn't have time for that. So I picked up a set of pipes, resting the drones -- the long, cylindrical tubes -- on my shoulder and the bag under my arm, between my elbow and ribs. It's a bit like holding a stiff, unwieldy octopus. Channelling part of my Celtic heritage, I grabbed the chanter -- a real one, this time -- below the bag, readied my fingers, took a deep breath, filled the bag with air and squeezed with all my might. Nothing happened.
According to Kaminski, if the piper squeezes too hard, the reeds inside the drones will close up, blocking any sound from coming out. If the piper doesn't squeeze hard enough, they'll only be able to tease one goose-like note from the instrument. With this in mind, I tried a few more times, each time filling the bag with as much air as I could muster. But even blowing the proper amount of air into the bag is trickier than it sounds -- blow too little and you'll have nothing to work with to produce sound; blow too much and you'll start getting dizzy and light-headed, as I quickly learned.
"It's not a case of having a lip-lock of steel, it's a matter of technique," Kaminski told me.
Eventually, I was able to fill the bag with the right amount of air and squeeze it with the right pressure. But there was still the matter of using my fingers to actually play something people would want to hear. This would be difficult, as I didn't know any songs. So I just played a few random notes to help myself get the hang of it. Kaminski said the high learning curve associated with playing the pipes causes a lot of turnover in the pipe band.
"I guess it's true with any instrument. People start off inspired, then they realize it's going to be awhile before they're able to play anything fancy or posh."
The band has been busy performing at festivals this summer, earning the money they need to operate throughout the year. They typically practise in city parks during the summer, allowing the public to observe. On this Wednesday, the band even had a crowd of authentic Scots watching the practice. George Walls and his family -- most of whom actually play the pipes or drums -- from Kirkintilloch, Scotland, were in Lethbridge visiting other family and decided to stop in the valley to take in a performance. They also offered a few tips on playing the pipes.
It's all about the combination of proper breathing and applying proper pressure to the bag. And remembering which notes you're supposed to be playing and having your fingers in the right places at the right times. And in the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band's case, marching in time to music, all the while breathing to a different rhythm to power the instrument. It's not easy, and Kaminski -- who has been playing for more than a decade -- said it takes years of practice. But when it's done right, it's unlike any other music.
"When it's going, it's like having a great squalling beast under your arm," explained Kaminski. "There's no other instrument that has the wall of sound that a well-tuned set of pipes has."
Playing the bagpipes is more difficult than it looks
By JEFF WIEBE
Lethbridge Herald
Imagine patting your head, rubbing your stomach, singing a song, and going for a walk all at the same time. That's kind of what playing a set of bagpipes is like, as I learned at last week's Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band practice near Fort Whoop-Up.
Under the instruction of band member David Kaminski, I received a crash course in playing the pipes. But before jumping into the real thing, a bit of practice was necessary. I started out playing a practice chanter, a small, recorder-like device designed to help new players learn the fingering positions of the actual instrument, without having to worry about managing their air. Kaminski said it usually takes would-be pipers anywhere from six months to a year to graduate from the practice chanter to the bagpipes.
But we didn't have time for that. So I picked up a set of pipes, resting the drones -- the long, cylindrical tubes -- on my shoulder and the bag under my arm, between my elbow and ribs. It's a bit like holding a stiff, unwieldy octopus. Channelling part of my Celtic heritage, I grabbed the chanter -- a real one, this time -- below the bag, readied my fingers, took a deep breath, filled the bag with air and squeezed with all my might. Nothing happened.
According to Kaminski, if the piper squeezes too hard, the reeds inside the drones will close up, blocking any sound from coming out. If the piper doesn't squeeze hard enough, they'll only be able to tease one goose-like note from the instrument. With this in mind, I tried a few more times, each time filling the bag with as much air as I could muster. But even blowing the proper amount of air into the bag is trickier than it sounds -- blow too little and you'll have nothing to work with to produce sound; blow too much and you'll start getting dizzy and light-headed, as I quickly learned.
"It's not a case of having a lip-lock of steel, it's a matter of technique," Kaminski told me.
Eventually, I was able to fill the bag with the right amount of air and squeeze it with the right pressure. But there was still the matter of using my fingers to actually play something people would want to hear. This would be difficult, as I didn't know any songs. So I just played a few random notes to help myself get the hang of it. Kaminski said the high learning curve associated with playing the pipes causes a lot of turnover in the pipe band.
"I guess it's true with any instrument. People start off inspired, then they realize it's going to be awhile before they're able to play anything fancy or posh."
The band has been busy performing at festivals this summer, earning the money they need to operate throughout the year. They typically practise in city parks during the summer, allowing the public to observe. On this Wednesday, the band even had a crowd of authentic Scots watching the practice. George Walls and his family -- most of whom actually play the pipes or drums -- from Kirkintilloch, Scotland, were in Lethbridge visiting other family and decided to stop in the valley to take in a performance. They also offered a few tips on playing the pipes.
It's all about the combination of proper breathing and applying proper pressure to the bag. And remembering which notes you're supposed to be playing and having your fingers in the right places at the right times. And in the Lethbridge Legion Pipe Band's case, marching in time to music, all the while breathing to a different rhythm to power the instrument. It's not easy, and Kaminski -- who has been playing for more than a decade -- said it takes years of practice. But when it's done right, it's unlike any other music.
"When it's going, it's like having a great squalling beast under your arm," explained Kaminski. "There's no other instrument that has the wall of sound that a well-tuned set of pipes has."
Lethbridge Sun Times, Wednesday, August 27, 2008 p. 9
Lethbridge Herald, Friday, October 28, 2011 p. A1

From the front page of the Lethbridge Herald, Friday, Oct. 28. The caption accompanying the photo reads: "Pipers aplenty. Drummer T.J. Hanson plays along as members of the Legion Pipe Band take part in a practice earlier this week in an upstairs room at the General Stewart Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. The pipe band meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Legion and welcomes pipers and drummers of all skill levels to take part." [Herald photo by Ian Martens]

Mr. Brian Douglas MacDonald passed away at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at the age of 61 years. He is survived by his parents, Malcolm and Jane MacDonald; two sons, Andrew and Devon; grandson Matyx; the mother of his children, Edna Loewen; brother, Bruce MacDonald; sisters, Susan (Tom) McIntosh and their children, Mark & Keith; Sandra MacDonald (Filip Krotki) as well as many extended family. Brian was an avid drummer in the Scottish Pipe and Drum Band with the Royal Canadian Legion in Lethbridge. He enjoyed researching and working on the MacDonald family history (Genealogy), map making (Cartography), watching endless football and was a curling enthusiast for many years. A Celebration of Brian's life will take place at the Royal Canadian Legion Br. #4, Memorial Hall, North Entrance, 324 Mayor Magrath Drive South, Lethbridge, Alberta next week, Saturday, June 30, 2012 from 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Condolences may be expressed by visiting www.cooksouthland.com) Honoured to serve the family is Cook Southland [From the Obituaries section]
Lethbridge Herald, Friday, July 27, 2012 p. B3
Lethbridge Herald, Monday, March 18, 2013 p. A3

From the online edition of the Lethbridge Herald, Monday, March 18, 2013. The print edition ran this on page A3, but in black and white, and larger. The caption read: 'Philosophy student Steve Firth watches in the background as pipers David Kaminski and Jana Archibald play to help kick-off his "Year-in-a-Kilt" fundraising and awareness campaign for male-specific cancers Friday at the University of Lethbridge.' [Herald photo by Ian Martens]