Category Archives: Advanced

Gordon MacRaes Favourite

This weeks shared drum score has been a long time coming. Since my good friend Gord MacRae passed away a few years ago, I’ve been wanting to write a drum score for this great tune composed by Michael Grey. Gord was a good friend of mine and we played together for years in Triumph Street and stayed together on the band trips and enjoyed many pasta wine dinners. Another piper friend of mine from the band sent me this tune and I really enjoyed it, so it’s been in my head for some time. Here’s the result finally.

The drum score written for the experienced or advanced drummer, and is suitable for solo competitions. This time I’ve added the Continue reading →

Sandys New Chanter

This drum score was written about a year ago for a band in Malta. It was meant to be a show tune for the bands parade gigs, or as a march off kind of tune. The beginning of the score is meant to be a drumming intro to the set/tune.

The level of the drum score is for the experienced to advanced level drummers. It’s got a few tricky Continue reading →

The 24th Guards Brigade At Anzio

This weeks shared drum score was written for the Cross Borders Pipe Band – for the MSR. We’re going to compete with this at the World Championships in Glasgow this year (2024). This past weekend we had a band rehersal weekend in Copenhagen and, we had planned to finish it off by performing in public at Kongens Nytorv right next to The Royal Theatre and famous Nyhavn. However unsteady weather meant that we thought we could spend the time better rehersing inside. Anyhow.

The drum score starts off with a Continue reading →

Alick C MacGregor

This weeks shared drum score was written for the very melodic reel Alick C MacGregor. I’ve heard it played many times by solo players over the year, and always found it very pleasing to listen to, so it was a nice challenge to write something for this great tune. It’s written for the experienced/advanced level and presents a few challenges such as Continue reading →

Loch Loskin

This first shared drum score of 2022 was written to be the strathspey of an MSR for a band of experienced players who wanted a drum score with a challenging edge to it. So here we go. The score is meant to fit the better experienced to advanced drummers. The chips/unison written in there, help to further express the dynamics in the drum score, which should be reflected in the attached recording. The most challenging stuff in there is probably Continue reading →

Schiehallion

This weeks shared drum score was written as an intro to a medley for a band of experienced players. In this particular version they played the tune without repeats (I guess to make room for longer tunes later on in the selection). I decided to make a small change in the 2nd part to create a better overall flow – you can hear the change being played in the recording although it’s not written into the drum score sheet. There are some challenging Continue reading →

Dr. Ross’ 50th Welcome To The Argyllshire Gathering

This weeks shared drum score was written very recently for the 6/8 march Dr. Ross’ 50th Welcome To The Argyllshire Gathering. A good drummer friend and former drumming student of mine had been asking me if I’d write something for this specific tune for a very long time. Finally I got it made. I’m not a super huge fan of the tune, mainly because of all the on beat taccums in there. Come, enough is enough. However, I finally made up something and wrote on paper, and I’m quite pleased with the result.

The score is meant to fit the level of an advanced drummer, and it has a lot of interesting single runs in there, as well as some Continue reading →

Sonny Brogans Mazurka

This weeks shared drum score was written for the tune Sonny Brogans Mazurka – or maybe even a mix of that and another mazurka. It’s written from how I remember the tune played back in my childhood when I listened to my first band play this. I wrote the drum score to my memory of this tune, but always found the tune and that type of tune really interesting to drum to. Extremely exciting stuff 🙂 It’s written for Continue reading →

Bronnies Blue Brozzi

This weeks shared drum score was made this past summer for the 2 parted version (2 first parts) of the jig Bronnies Blue Brozzi. I’ve always enjoyed listening to and playing this jig. I remember we played this jig in a concert set with Triumph Street Pipe Band and I was playing the djembé for this rocking tune. Very good times.

This drum score was written for the advanced level, and it follows the tune quite well I find and has some obvious dynamics installed as you can probably catch Continue reading →

Cullen Bay

This week shared drum score was written this past summer during my “One drum score a day challenge”. It’s written for the tune Cullen Bay, which is a nice 5/4 march sometimes played in massed bands here in Scandinavia. I’ve played another great drum score for this tune numerous times, however this one is sort of more advanced, and was meant to be a challenge of how far can you go without Continue reading →

Bonnie Dundee

This weeks drum score was written for one of my favourite massed bands 6/8’s. I really thinki, by the way, that a lot more massed bands should be playing 6/8’s. The 6/8 rhythm has got such a nice swing and also sounds impressive.

I wrote this drum score for the experienced to advanced level back in June 2020 during my “One-Drum-Score-a-Day” challenge. I’ve always liked the tune, which I heard for the first time when I came to Continue reading →

The Pipers Bonnet

This weeks shared drum score was written back in 2003 for an off season concert band. We were a bunch of players without a fixed local band, yet some of us would play with over seas bands during the summer. In the winter time we would gather up and play concerts in Denmark.

This drum score was written for the strathspey The Pipers Bonnet. I remember thinking that this tune was somewhat tricky to write a drum score for, however I managed to come up with something. Playing it today felt a little awkward since my playing has emerged and developed into a different place now than where it was back then. Sorry for the Continue reading →

The Panda

This weeks shared drum score was written for a very popular tune composed by Gordon Duncan called the The Panda. I’ve heard this tune played by many solo pipers, bands and solo drummers over the years. It’s very catchy, and it’s one of those tunes where you as a drummer can play almost anything to it, and it will sound good. It’s also one of those tunes that can easily be arranged in multiple ways to fit into a selection or a concert set by adding different uptakes, breaks and syncopations. I wrote this drum score to the standard version of the tune. The drum score should be drumable for any drummers at the experienced/advanced level. Notice that the Continue reading →

Aspen Bank

This weeks shared drum score was written for the strathspey Aspen Bank. It’s another tune that I remember playing earlier on in my pipe band drumming journey with Holbæk Pipe Band. I believe that the tune is relatively easy for the pipers, however it can be tricky for drummers with the number of tachums in there that we should try to express as well. In this drum score I was aiming for the experienced level, however some might suggest that this should be for the advanced level, and therefore I will tick both categories for this drum score. Especially the Continue reading →

Corriechoillies 43rd Welcome To The Northern Meeting

This weeks shared drum score was made more as sort of a gimmick. I have no count of how many times I have played this tune in massed bands and at gigs, so I thought I’d be fun to just let loose and see what came out if I just more or less jammed my way through the tune. So, this version is made for the advanced drummer, and is meant as something to just have Continue reading →

The Hen’s March

This shared drum score was written for the 4 parted jig The Hen’s March. It was written for the Balagan concert band back in 2009. It was meant to be part of a jig set, as I recall. On the recording you’ll hear that I play some sort of the rhythm in the 3rd part, sort of imitating the djembe that was meant to join in at that point. The level of the drum score is for the advanced drummer. I really enjoy drumming to this lively tune. If I were to play in for solos, I’d of course Continue reading →

High Road To Linton

The shared drum score of this week was also written for High Road To Linton – however for a 5 parted version (I believe the last two was the same part repeated). It was written back in 2008 for the Balagan concert band to be played by advanced drummers in the end of our medley that year. We played it the first time at a workshop I believe. Lots of flams, swiss-ruffs and ratamacues is in this one. It’s a fun tune to Continue reading →

Touching Cloth

This weeks drum score was written back in 2007 for the Balagan concert band medley. It was the opener of the medley. The tune is written by Chris Armstrong. I wanted to create a big impact right from the get go, that’s why I wrote those two big flams for the beginning. The drum score was written for the advanced level, and suited the drummers of the drum corp at the time. In the 3rd part it’s meant to be very quiet on the repeat in the first couple of bars. We’d have the bass & tenors make a Continue reading →