Petestack Blog

Having got back to whistle and flute playing in a big way last year, this year’s addition of Scottish smallpipes to my jack-of-all-trades (master-of-none!) musical armoury was still quite accidental. True, I nearly ordered a basic set (with chanter and drone as a double bore in one piece of wood made, I think, by a guy called Ian MacGregor we used to meet at Clachaig gigs) a good twenty years ago before buying an accordion instead (!), but I’m blaming Richard Cook’s Double Scottish Smallpipes videos (seen on 27 February) for rekindling my latent interest in what I described then as ‘a way that’s sure to have consequences’ (and very quickly did!)… (more…)

Another month with no blog post (yet!), so here’s something (‘whistle rolls’) I’d originally intended to write up here but posted in response to a question about making such things (just scroll down for the images if it’s not clear what I’m talking about) to the Chiff and Fipple Whistle Forum instead… (more…)

Just heard that the great Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras died last week. (more…)