Of these, 140 are located in southern Ontario-thus there are more civilian bands in southern Ontario per capita than any other region in Canada. Currently, there are more pipe bands per capita in Canada than any country outside of Scotland, with an estimated 240 bands located from Nova Scotia to Vancouver. In Canada, they are a diasporic reminder of the 70,000 Scots who emigrated there in the 19th century (Walker 2015).

Keywords: Lifelong music learning, community music, bagpipes, communities of practice, music learning and teachingįirst established in Scotland in the 1870s, civilian Scottish Pipe Bands are now a global intergenerational phenomenon. Research questions included: How do participants teach, learn, and perform SPB music in a Canadian context? How do Web 2.0 technologies facilitate music learning in the genre? What place does this music hold in participants’ lives? What role does a “sense of community” play? How is the local situated within the global and vice versa? Finally, what practices correspond to formal school music education and what are striking differences to consider? In this, the first of a four-part qualitative multi-sited case study, we explored music teaching and learning in one Scots-Canadian Pipe Band located in rural Ontario. Intertwined with how members of Canadian SPBs learn and teach music are issues of identity and meaning, both of particular importance in the Scottish-Canadian diaspora. Because Canadian SBPs exist entirely in the community, teaching pipes and drums to beginning members of all ages-adults, teenagers, and children-is done within the confines of each local pipe band.

Currently, there are more SPBs per capita in Canada than any country outside of Scotland, with an estimated 240 civilian SPBs located from Nova Scotia to Vancouver. In Canada, they are a diasporic reminder of the 70,000 Scots who emigrated there in the 19th century. Published in Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 19 (1): 208–44 įirst established in Scotland in the 1870s, civilian Scottish Pipe Bands are now a global intergenerational phenomenon.

Scotland the brave bagpipe