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Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on May 7, 2013 at 2:01am

below  Magic  Dragon   is  Lakes  area  Fools (Missouri )

Wake  and  district is a Police  fire  EMS   group  From  North Carolina  (this is  generation  2  Bass style

3) Oswego  Illinois FF P&D   2012

 

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on May 7, 2013 at 1:59am

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on May 7, 2013 at 1:58am

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on May 7, 2013 at 1:57am

oswegobass.jpg

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on February 26, 2013 at 2:35pm

Today  I had  a moment and  wrote and  recieved this  from  Mike , the Pipe Major OF  KV... I was not  too Far off , however  St John's  Firefighters  Band  is still around and while they loaned some equiptment so  happy  about that !!

 

My name is Mike and I'm the pipe major of the KV Pipes and Drums.  Thanks for your question and the info; very interesting!

We started a few years ago and the initial group of people interested to learn to play the pipes or drum were firefighters.  We used their facilities for practice space - first a conference room at one of the stations, then a community hall above another station, and at times in the apparatus hall.  Some of the initial fire fighters have not continued with lessons, but we still have a core of 5-6 firefighters and a few others who express interest but just haven't been able to make the personal time commitment to learn.

So, long story short, we are very appreciative of the support of the KV Fire Department and it's members, and we also have members who are doctors, nurses, and other public servants, so we thought some variation of the maltese or Saint Florian cross in our band crest would be a nice homage to those folks.

Coincidentally, we are having a joint practice with the Saint John Fire Fighters Pipe Band tonight.  Although their numbers have dropped off dramatically over the past several years, there is a still a few folks carrying on, giving lessons, and we've joined them on occasion to help bolster their ranks, and they've returned the favour as well.  They also helped us out early on buy lending drums and we still wear a few kilts we borrowed from them.

Thanks for your interest, Mike

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on February 26, 2013 at 2:05am

back in 1980  St John New  Brunswick  Canada's  Firefighters began ONE  of the  earliest Pipe bands In North America,  certainly Canada...   they  had a "cheesy Yahoo or Lycos Web Page"  and  Being  they are  "that old"  I wondered if  or how long they would maintain...I also became  aware of a New  band IN the same (sorta  general region)   I happened  to  catch the  Facebook page of the new Band,  who recieved  the  Old  St John's  IAFF locat   Bass drum,  st20johnbass.jpg      which was recently  upgraded and   kv%20stjnb.png    The  KV  band  has  Pictures going back a short time , It seems  as if St John  had some  drummers left but no  pipers... KV   does  have a maltese  Cross in its logo, and  while the earlier  pics  many  folks look  the part the newer  pics  have a Civilian  feel  to them...I'll let you know If I find out any more..

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on January 18, 2013 at 11:25pm

Gert, rest assured I was  not trying to come  across, The wrong  way  by stating  that, Only that with the explosional/Growth  of piping  In general, fueled in part thanks  to the internet (on many levels)  One of my  favorite  websites of all time  was an  electronic Bagpipe  Midi site which was one of several that  were Forced down...My point is as much as I understand you'r   wanting something  "new and differant" If  everyone out there  played       Ob-La-Di%2COb-La-Da-1.jpg  on the bagpipes  Imagine how much  richer Paul McCartney would be?

Comment by Gert Krowicki on January 8, 2013 at 4:41am

Thanks Jim,

I am aware of the copyright aspect and in no means dont respect the work that goes into finding/rewriting tunes for the bagpipe.I am just no good at it meself and , trust me, I have tried and tried again (bringing out the tissues here). By the way, I really do enjoy this site......aint the internet wonderful in many ways?

Regards from abroad  :-)

Comment by SMOKEnPipesJim on January 7, 2013 at 7:52pm

Gert, One  aspect that we all need  to consider but  often  do NOt is that  some of  Bergan County's Music   is Copyrighted as they've  recorded  several  Albums.  Obviously In some ways,  I've accounted  for  around about  270-280  Fire service  related bands add with that  a Guessed number of 350-400 Police  bands worldwide,Civilain  and   Military Pipe bands and obviously the potential number to  times  youmight hear  Scotland the Brave or  Amazing Grace is enough to make anyone ill..lol and  realisticly  how many  Musicians  will pen  they're  own music? (small percentage) so the next best thing is to do  is "Look for" tunes that  have  Parts that  are totally recognizable, within the scale ofthe pipes and  how to make it  "work" ... In Bergens' case they choose  a couple  good  tunes, But then so have the red hot chili pipers...  I've grasped  a few  of my own  that  you wouldnt  expect  from Classical to Elvis and  more some  of these   things  require you   just to figure out  something  for yourself..it  goes  along with the  Music  sharing  sites   that  popped up 20 years ago, and  the  Tune  writers  who  had to sue  various  Forums and venuesto protect  they're own  hard work.. In these days  of  everyone want ,but no one  wants to work to get it ..I'll  see If I can  get a response, if I do  I'll  forward if  Via   this site..

Comment by Gert Krowicki on January 3, 2013 at 5:50am

I wonder if any of you guys can help me.

I am  trying to get the scores for the Bergen County Firefighters Pipe Bands repertoire, the more "exotic" tunes, that is.

I havent had any luck trying to contact the band via homesite, Facebook etc. Even mailing the PM didnt do me any good, as my Yahoo mail couldnt deliver the mail (?).

Would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

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