Wednesday, December 9, 2009

year end and congrats




Well, it’s coming up for the end of the calendar year and there is so much that can be talked about I don’t know where to start. Instead of just thinking of all that we should have or could have done over the past year, I think we’ll just look to the future.

I’m very excited about the music program here. I am always working on ways to better serve all the students and the customers of brucegandymusic. One such item that will be coming up in the early New Year is the music collection which will now be available on CD. This is an easy to read PDF form E-book with ease of navigation and all of the tunes from the 4th volume of contemporary and traditional music right there on your computer screen so you can practice with ease while sneaking a break at work if you like. Also, for the new year, I am hoping to have it all recorded as well as many people have requested to have all the tunes in mp3 form. I now have the new finale 2010 music writing program but even though I used older versions previously, this one seems to have quite a learning curve, but we’re working away typesetting the older tunes as well as lots of new tunes coming.

I hope, perhaps will feature some in the near future as I have quite a stack of traditional tunes in the ¾ , 4/4 and easier march type tunes . The tunes for commission part of the site has been very busy and I have tried to fill the orders but sometimes, producing a quality tune that can hopefully stand the test of time is just not easy, but we’ll manage with a bit more time. Where ever your piping travels take you over the next year, I hope they are more rewarding and successful than the last.

Finally, a very proud day for me this year recently on November 21st as I had 3 students out of an invited 10 playing for the top amateur prize in piping at the George Sherriff Memorial Contest in Hamilton. This was a great day of piping that I enjoyed with my long time friend Ken Eller. He kept busy most of the day recording the contest for the archives from up in his own special place at the church. Finally, I am happy that I decided to go up to hear and more happy that I will have the memory of the contest and the picture of these three young men to remember it by. This picture and is now up on my bulletin board at the office showing off my students, Richard Gillies ( holding the presentation set of pipes) Chris Lee and Thomas Harrington. All the players played well and I know that these three put in a tremendous effort to be ready for the day. This is what makes our art form so good and shows a very positive future ahead of us

1 comment:

Iain MacDonald said...

Congratulations on a great year Bruce. Great to read that not only did you excel personally in the past year, but also that your students are continuing to be among the top upcoming players. That, and a near miss as North American Pipe Band Champions for the 78th at Maxville....not a bad year at all!