Links

The Ontario School of Piping and Drumming at St. Andrew's College
This is our summer piping and drumming school, generally held on the last week in June and the first week in July on campus. It is open to all ages and all levels, features a team of the best pipers and teachers in the world, and hosts pipers and drummers from across North America and as far away as Scotland and Hawaii.

Piping World On-line
This is a daily piping news magazine with articles, interviews, technical and topical features produced by Piping World, the worlds oldest independent piping publisher, with more that 20 years of publishing and archival material at hand.

The Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario
This organization administers solo and band piping and drumming competitions at 10-15 summer Highland Games in the piping and drumming hotbed that is southern Ontario. They run some winter competitions too at various branches across the province. If you want to compete as a soloist in Ontario, this is the organization to join.

The Captain's Corner
Produced by Ken Eller, one of Canada's great piping ambassadors and most knowledgeable pipe bandsmen and teachers, this site is packed with information, audio files and fascinating facts and photos. Ken also uses this as a teaching medium and you can subscribe to Ken's teaching services.

Bob Dunsire's Discussion Forums
Founded by a Seattle piper and piping enthusiast who sadly passed away in November 2006 this amazing site is now administered by his daughter and moderated by knowledgeable piping and drumming people. It provides the best discussion groups on the Internet for bagpipers of all types, pipe band snare drummers, bass and tenor drummers, drum majors and Highland dancers. It's a great place to ask questions, learn new things, and hobnob with top pipers and drummers.

Andrew Lenz's Bagpipe Journey
For both beginning and advanced pipers, this site features articles that cover a wide range of topics, including a piper's dictionary, how to identify drone reeds, tips for competitors, a 'Who's Who' in piping, maintenance, Andrew's competition journal and more.

The Pipe Band Forum
This is another discussion site for pipers and drummers. It is well organized and moderated. You can meet people, ask questions, share news and learn a great deal.

The Bagpipe Web Directory
Also founded by the late Bob Dunsire, this site is THE resource to check in order to find virtually anything piping-related on the Internet. It is extensive, well organized and updated regularly.

The Piping Centre, Glasgow
This is a central hub of piping in Glasgow, and many pipers from North America visit the centre for first-class pipe teaching in Scotland. They offer accommodations, lessons, meals, recitals and more.

BBC Pipeline Radio Broadcast
The BBC has broadcast a piping program in Scotland for eons, and the North American piping community cheered when it finally became available over the Internet. It features recitals and interviews with top pipers and bands as well as news and opinions from the piping scene.

The Competing Pipers' Association
Any piper wishing to compete in Scotland will want to join this organization, which distributes an annual list of all Scottish Highland Games and also assigns gradings to pipers for use by the major solo competitions in Scotland.

The Piobaireachd Society
'Piobaireachd' (pronounced 'pee-brock') is referred to as the classical music of the bagpipe. Many tunes are hundreds of years old and can last for 20 minutes or more. The best piobaireachd players are considered to be at the top of the piping tree. The Piobaireachd Society has been the caretaker of the Big Music for almost 100 years.

Pipes/Drums
Published in Ontario since 1981, this is a leading piping magazine that in 2006 went completely online. It contains interviews, articles and reviews by premier pipers and drummers, advertising for all the leading products, lots of news and a little gossip.  This website is a great source of news and information, and its 'Classifieds' are a great way to sell or buy equipment.

Willie McCallum Piping
This is a fairly new site (2007-08) from a good friend of mine, and one of the greatest competitive pipers in the last 10 years.

Ceol Sean
Run by piper Steve Scaife out of Illinois, this small publishing company offers rare or out-of-print music collections on CD-ROM. Here you can find things like David Glen's entire 19th century light music collection, Donald MacDonald's piobaireachd collection of 1820 and many more pipe music books you probably never knew exisited! And the prices are remarkable.

The Argyllshire Gathering
Held in Oban, Scotland in August each year, this is one of the oldest and most important solo piping competitions in the world. It is one of only two places -- along with The Northern Meeting in Inverness -- to award The Highland Society of London's Gold Medal for Piobaireachd playing. Any ambitious solo piper will aim to compete here regularly one day.

The Glengarry Highland Games
Held in Maxville in eastern Ontario, this large and established Highland games is the site of the North American Pipe Band and Solo Championships. The piping and drumming is run under the auspices of the Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario (see their site for entry information).

The Northumbrian Smallpipes Encyclopedia
The Northumbrian smallpipes are a beautiful little bagpipe played primarily in the Northumberland district of northwest England. It has one of the loveliest voices in western music and with its keyed chanter is able to play a range of nearly two chromatic octaves. This is its primary website.

The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society
This is the primary website for players of bellows-blown bagpipes that are based on Highland bagpipe fingering -- Scottish smallpipes and Border pipes. It is based in the United Kingdom in the Border region of Scotland and England.

Call of Dudy
A look at a different type of piping altogether, this documentary-style DVD on Czech/Bohemian bagpipes is available in Czech, English and German. It has been screened at Piping Live! in Glasgow, and around the world and is offered for sale on this site.