Notes on the Weekend | Upper Potomac Music

Notes on Weekend Classes, Sessions, Concerts, and more

This year, the Pipers Weekend offers 2-hour long classes at a variety of levels in Scottish smallpipes, border pipes, Northumbrian small pipes, Irish uilleann pipes, and piper-friendly repertoire for mixed-instruments in a variety of styles.

Evening Activities: A Friday night round-robin (introductions, show and tell, and open mike) is followed by sessions in 3 different repertoires. Saturday night’s showcase concert is followed by late night jams in the student center and local pubs.

*Repertoire Classes: Open to mixed instruments, students must have the ability to learn music by ear. Pieces will be chosen at several tempos, so there should be something accessible to most playing levels during the 2 hour class. Repertoire classes will be tailored to our registered students interests and in friendly keys for the style of pipes the teacher is focusing on. Please sign up early to help instructors to select suitable repertoire!

Lessons: Teachers are asked to allow time to teach up to 4 half-hour private lessons during the weekend (schedule has long breaks to accommodate some of these). These will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis to students, who will pay their teacher directly ($35/half hour lesson) at the lesson. Sign up early to secure your spot. We will schedule the lessons, based upon each teacher’s comfort and responsibilities.

Mini Classes: Students are invited to share their knowledge with others in a mini class setting. These have been in a variety of areas including repertoire, hand skills (things like reed making), and non music related topics… (history, culture, etc). It’s a great way to get to know other students. These classes are offered during breaks and after the afternoon classes on Saturday.

Rental Instruments: Sorry, no rentals in 2024.

Maintenance Clinic: Friday Afternoon Scottish Smallpipe Maintenance Class will be not be offered this year, but we encourage participants to gather to share, visit, and help others on Friday afternoon to better prepare for the classes during the weekend. If you feel competent to help, and are willing to do this, please let us know so that we can inform others who might need some assistance.