For the Fall 2024 Williston Northampton School Bulletin, Tom Duffus ’78 submitted to the Advancement Office a biography of his life as a bagpiper. Duffus, as he highlights in his essay, came to Williston with a bagpipe in tow, and has used the musical instrument to take him across the globe playing music.
When I showed up in Easthampton for my first day at Williston in 1975, I had with me an unusual item in my baggage—my Highland Bagpipes. I had that prior summer begun the never-ending process of learning to play the instrument. My parents had exposed me at an early age to both my heritage and this music, and it stuck. I will admit right up front that playing the bagpipes is sort of nerdy. I continued lessons with a piper in Holyoke and again in the summer with my teacher back home. I would practice in the Phillips Stevens Chapel, often with fellow students coming in to listen. I have learned that half of the population LOVES the bagpipes, while the other half HATES the bagpipes. So, I chose my playing locations carefully wherever I am, and I never played in my dorm!
I kept at it, with all due patience from my family, and quizzical looks from my friends. When I went off to college at St. Lawrence University, I picked up with a champion piper in Brockville, Ontario, just across the St. Lawrence River. Each Friday afternoon, while my college mates were seeking a social respite from a week of classes without me, I ventured to Canada and back. Interestingly, both my first and this teacher were women, unusual at that time in the piping world. They were and are, to this day, amazing.
I soon advanced and began to compete in solo piping, and later with pipe bands. Bagpiping is sort of like golf: you never perfect it. It is a lifelong journey if you want to play well and keep it up. It is not an instrument that one can casually pick up to play, or fake it. It takes practice, focus, breath control, strong arms and abdomens and patience. One cannot learn the pipes without a teacher. All the music once learned, is then committed to memory. Competing in front of a judge, and the practice and lessons in between, is the only way to improve and keep fit. Many people hear pipe bands in parades. Most of those bands are not competition bands and are less precise in their play (which for some, give bagpipes an iffy reputation!). Competition bands also play in parades and events but as “jobs” to pay for the costs the band incurs for competing.
My solo piping career, and my play with a pipe band in Vermont, continued into my early 30s and then was cut short while we raised our kids—sleeping babies and piping don’t mix well. And, there is a lot of travel involved to get to competitions and rehearsals. I did continue playing occasionally for weddings, funerals and other events. When I picked it back up seriously a few years later, I focused on competing only as part of a pipe band. This is a misnomer, as bands are comprised of pipers and three different types of drummers. Competitions are held nearly every weekend from April through October all over the U.S. and Canada—and frankly, all over the world. There probably is a pipe band in nearly every county in the country, and often, many per county.
When one competes solo, you prepare your piece and play in front of a judge, usually at events known as Highland Games, where there are lots of other events such as strange Highland athletic competitions I don’t understand, and Highland dancing—which is magical. The judge scores you on the technical aspects of playing the precise movements, tempo, expression, and the tone and tuning of your instrument. There are “grades” that a player will strive for to move up to higher levels of play. Competing with a pipe band is similar, though there are four judges (two for piping, one for drumming and one for ensemble—how it all fits together). Pipe band competition involves playing sets of tunes of differing time signatures strung together in a set or medley. A pipe band is like a team sport, with lots of sweat involved and a uniform. There is also a Pipe Major—the “coach” as it were—who can cut you just before going on if you are not up to snuff that day or your instrument is having technical difficulties. And, you are playing in unison and for the good of the group, not as an individual.
After my kids hardened their ears, I joined a very high level band, at that time, in Minnesota called the Minnesota Police Pipe Band (we had two cops in the band but also played all the police line-of-duty funerals in the state—a true honor). I lived two-and-a-half hours from the band’s practice site in the Twin Cities and drove each week down and back. Now that is commitment–or craziness! I worked very hard to bring my piping back and to advance my level of play. We won many competitions across the Midwest and Southeast. In 2011, we competed in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. That was an amazing experience. There were hundreds of pipe bands from all over the World: Singapore, South Africa, Japan, South America, Europe and of course Scotland, Canada and Ireland. At the closing ceremonies, all pipers played—literally thousands of pipers playing all at once, the same tunes. It made the hair on your arms stand up.
After I moved back to the East Coast (Maine) I joined a pipe band in Portland, Maine. With this band I again competed at the Worlds in Scotland in 2019. We compete regularly around New England and Ontario. Once or twice a week, we gather for rehearsal and after now 50 years of playing the instrument, I am still playing as much as ever.