Category Archives: Advanced

MacBeths Strathspey

The weeks shared drum score was written for the tune MacBeths Strathspey. What a nice and catchy tune. It was written in the context of being a strathspey in our in medley in Balagan. I’ve always been in favour of those long beefy tunes in a medley in general, rather than a bunch of two parted tunes all throughout. The drum score was written mainly by Louise Overgård Lindhardtsen (leading drummer in Balagan at the time), and with inputs from myself, Alex Vettas and Helge Johansson. A few of the highlights of the drum score that I really enjoyed playing with the drum corp are; the ending of the Continue reading →

The Battle Of Waterloo

The last shared drum score of this month was written in late december of 2019 for the 2020 medley of Cross Borders Pipe Band, for the tune The Battle Of Waterloo. We will be playing this as an opener in our medley. The inspiration to make this the opener came from the PM Björn who had listened to Scottish Powers medley, where they used this tune as intro to their medley.

In the drum score I use the same intro, with the long 1-beat roll into the first beat of the tune. The drum score was meant to be very straight forward since we’ll be walking as well as being very much on the beat. There’s some technical spots in the Continue reading →

Bathgate Highland Gathering

This weeks shared drum score was written for the tune Bathgate Highland Gathering.

The drum score was created for the Cross Borders Pipe Band – who will be competing at the Worlds in August 2019 in grade 3B. It’s made as the intro of a medley. Since writing the drum score, we’ve decided to NOT repeat the 1st part to give more time for other stuff later in the medley. In some spots of the tune we arranged the tune slightly different (holding some notes longer) to give more space for Continue reading →

Jimmy Young

This weeks shared drum score was originally written for Balagan to play in an MSR. It was written by myself and the LD of the band Louise Overgård Lindhardtsen. Since then I have made a few minor changes to the original drum score to make it fit the new drum corp that I will be leading soon. Sometimes it a great opportunity to revisit and re-arrange a drum score after having played it for a whole season, been listening to recordings and gotten feed-back from fellow drummers and judges. One of the things I like the most about this arrangement is the Continue reading →

Mrs Lily Christie

This drum score was written as the second 6/8 march in a 6/8 march set two 6/8 marches. The first part sets the proper 6/8 rhythm, where the next few part kind of spices it up a little bit. Especially the paradiddle/singles run in the 3rd part will be fun to play in a drum corp. In the tune; the 3rd&4th bar of the last part –  it’s really tempting to Continue reading →

The Brown Haired Maid

This drum score was written for myself to compete at the Copenhagen Winter Competition back in March this year. A piper friend of mine really like this tune and encouraged me to write a drum score for it, and also encouraged me to go and compete. I had a lot of fun writing this drum score, and also playing it in competition. The long roll beginning the 6th part was suggested to me by a piper friend of mine, because Continue reading →

Iain MacDonald

This weeks shared drum score was written in 2015 for the introduction of the medley of Balagan to compete at the World Championships. It’s made by myself and the LD Louise O. Lindhardtsen some late night after a band weekend rehersal with the band. I really like this tune and the drum score as well. It has a really nice swing to it and at the same time comes across as something very traditional. As we wrote the drum score, the PM of the band gave us some ideas for breaks and accentuations throughout the drum score. I really enjoy the lift of the endings as well – although a little bit tough to execute – if played nicely, I find that the Continue reading →

Lucy Cassidy

This drum score for the tune Lucy Cassidy, was written a few years back for myself to play at a solo competition in Luzern in Switzerland. A piper friend of mine was going to Switzerland visit a common friend of ours and asked if I wanted to come along, and also play a competition there. I accepted and had to come up with an idea for a hornpipe. So, I came up with this. I wanted the first couple of bars to be very much in sync with the tune, therefore it’s very much on the beat in the first part. The endings can be a little risky because of the Continue reading →

Three In A Row

This score of the week was written back in 2003 for a 4-parted 6/8 jig written by Bernard Bouhadana, now PM of Balagan. The piping music for this lovely jig and other great compositions can be found in the tune book Northern Lights Book One – which can be purchased here or you can of course contact Bernard directly and ask him for the piping music. I wrote a drum score for this tune, because I really like the tune – it’s so melodic and lyrical as if it tells a story. I find it to be a less ordinary jig with a few nice twists which are nice for a drummer to jam to – for example the Continue reading →

Itchy Fingers

This drum score for Itchy Fingers was written for a medley selection for a grade 4 band with a stronger drum corp. When it was played, it was however to hard for the pipers to play to, because of the off beat rhythms in the drum score. I’m guess that this drum score would be a better fit for a stronger pipe corp, that doesn’t necessarily needs a drum corp in order to keep the beat&time. The drum score can also be challenging for Continue reading →

Compositionally Challenged

This drum score was written for a tune called Compositionally Challenged composed by Iain Currie. The hornpipe was a part of a hornpipe set with the early Balagan concert band back in 2007/2008. However this tune and drum score was taken out just before the first concerts in February 2008 to give room for other stuff in the concert. The drum score is straight forward to the melody and was written not to take too much attention away from the very melodic tune. A place to really go for the dynamics would be in the Continue reading →

The Sash In Hvidovre

This last drum score of the week of 2015, was written for a tune written by Bernard Bouhadana – currently PM of Balagan. The arrangement of the tune was played by the Balagan concert band at some of the early concerts of the band in 2008 – as being the first of the reels in the ending of the medley selection. The name of the tune refers to the time in 2004 where Continue reading →

Roodies Reel

This weeks score of the week was written in 2007 for the Balagan concert band. It was the second reel in our medley selection. Although a reel, we repeated both parts. This score turned out to be one of the more challenging in that particular selection – especially the single run in the 2nd part. This was changed with the drum corp as we where playing it, because Continue reading →

Donald McLeod

This weeks drum score was written back in 2011 for a Danish drummer to compete in the advanced HJ competition at Copenhagen Winter Competition. The score follows the structure of the tune – repeating the 3rd & 4th bar of the parts 1&3 and 2&4. For the ending I thought of a few different options but ended up with this rather fancy run of Continue reading →

Swallow Tailed Coat

This 4 parted drum score for a traditional Irish tune was written back in 2007 for the Balagan concert band. We played it twice – second time through we added bass, guitar and drum kit. Since then this drum score has been played by a lot of drummers in Scandinavia for solo competitions. The drum score was written to fit the tune in a concert setting and not really as a competition type hornpipe as such. The written chips were meant Continue reading →

Ducking and Diving

This drum score was made for the Balagan concert band back in 2009. It was part of a hornpipe set that was played at a few concerts back in 2009 and 2010. The ending of each of the parts in the drum score can easily be adapted to something more suitable for your hands, without changing the overall sound of the ending too much, by for example Continue reading →

Drew James MacIntosh

A new month – a new theme. 4 parted drum scores suitable for solo competitions.

This first score of july was written in 2009 for the Balagan concerts. After a nice slow air, we played the jig twice – second time through we added guitar, bass and drum kit. A very nice opener to the concert. This drum score was written to fit the tune nicely, yet still provide the drive to the overall presentation of the pipe band. A good example of this is Continue reading →

Inspector Donald Campbell of Ness

The last advanced jig drum score this time around was written for a Danish solo drummer to compete at the Copenhagen Winter Competition. The score was written to give some challenge yet not be too difficult for a solo competition. The tune has a lot of long notes from beat to beat and can be hard to write to. I found that a good mix of Continue reading →