City of Bristol Pipes and Drums

City of Bristol Drummers

Written by Jim McMillan Tuesday, 23 August 2011 00:00

The Role of the Drums in a Pipe Band

The Pipe Band Drum Corps is responsible for supporting the piping with a solid rhythmic foundation and a sense of pulse, often creating an interesting, relatively independent, melody line unto itself. However, keeping the beat for the Pipe Band isn’t the only responsibility of the Drum Corps.

The bagpipe is an instrument that can only be played at a single volume level. There are no mechanisms for increasing or decreasing the volume. Everything sounds the same - LOUD! The line played by the drum corps (referred to as the 'drum score') is usually based on rudimentary patterns and can often be quite involved, with solo, unison and contrapuntal passages throughout. A popular pattern in many scores is for the lead drummer to play a phrase, and the corps to play in response. This technique is known as ‘seconds’ (sometimes referred to as ‘chips’, or ‘forte’). This provides the illusion of the band playing more quietly or more loudly. This musical effect is referred to as “Dynamics”.

The overall objective of a good Drum Corps is to accompany the Pipe section. A creatively composed drum score that compliments the pipe tune, played in unison (tightly together) with ‘fortes’ will deliver good Dynamics. This overall effect creates the Band ‘Ensemble’. In competitions the overall ‘Ensemble’ of the band is judged.

There are three types of drums in a Pipe Band.

I. Snare drum: This is the most prominent sounding drum in the drum line. The Pipe Band Snare Drum is different from the snare drums used in other types of bands. Our drums have snare mechanisms on both the top and bottom drumheads. The Top drumheads, made these days of Kevlar, are also tensioned much higher than on a normal snare drum. This results in a very high pitched and crisp snare sound.

II. Tenor drum: This is the drum that fills in the middle tones in a pipe band. The tenor drum is usually pitched the same as the bass drone on the bagpipes. Some bands may have multiple tenor drums and pitch them to various notes on the chanter scale. Pipe bands can have two types of tenor drum players:

a: A “flourishing” tenor drummer does fancy “swings” with his/her mallets which visually compliment and add excitement to the band’s performance. A flourishing tenor drummer also plays rhythmic beatings that fill in the overall ensemble sound.

b: A “rhythm” tenor drummer focuses on rhythmic beating which compliment the music. A rhythm tenor drummer usually plays within a pattern framework (eg. Hard, soft, medium, soft) that helps set the “groove” for the band.

III. Bass drum: This drum is the heartbeat of the band. The bass drum is usually pitched to the bass drone of the bagpipes, but an octave lower than the tenor drum. The bass drum sets the pace of the music as well as adding the harmonic “bottom” tone of the band.