Chicago Celtic Pipe band looks for new members:
“About 12 bagpipers gathered inside the Estelle Sieb Community Center in Norridge Nov. 23 to practice with Pipe Major Chris Boyle.
The Chicago Celtic Pipe Band meets at the Sieb Center at 7:30 p.m. every Monday (except holidays).
The Chicago Celtic Pipe Band had an open house for Ridgewood High School band students at the Sieb Center Nov. 23. Neil Hansen (left) and Paul McHugh play the bagpipes.
The Chicago Celtic Pipe Band had an open house for Ridgewood High School band students at the Sieb Center Nov. 23. Instructor Charles Reece (mirror, right) helps students with a traditional drum rhythm.
The Chicago Celtic Pipe Band had an open house for Ridgewood High School band students at the Sieb Center Nov. 23. Instructor Charles Reece (middle) helps students with a traditional drum rhythm.
‘We just sit at the table, we start walking through all the new tunes, breaking them down, working on it, building them up,’ Boyle said. ‘As we get further and further in the year we spend more time on pipes. We’re working on the technique of playing, blowing, keeping a steady tone with the bagpipe, and then work on the finger execution so that we get it as tight as we possibly can. That’s the ultimate goal is basically to sound like one.
‘Then the drum corps will be working on their thing,’ he added. ‘They write specific scores to the tunes that we’re playing. So we get a nice integrated balance between the two different corps and that we have a nice solid sound.’
Pipe band manager Jim Enright said Ridgewood High School band members were invited to observe the practice in hopes of becoming new members.
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