Deep in the Carolina Mountains
If you have never been to the North American Academy of Piping and Drumming summer pipe school I highly encourage you all to do so. Nestled in the mountains of North Carolina at Valle Crucis an amazing experience awaits. You’ll have piping classes with world renowned pipers and drummers. Not only do you take lessons from these amazing people you get not one, but two concerts daily by them. I have gotten my first exposure to piobaireachd as well as strathspeys. The talent at this camp ranges from advanced beginners like my self to people who are just starting out to grade one and open pipers.
There is nothing like sitting out on the porch at night looking at mist covered mountains and hearing amazing pipe music until 10:00 (that’s when all piping must stop) There is a céilidh where we saw amazing talent and heard some really bad jokes as well as a few funny ones. Dennis and I were lucky enough to be put in the Farm House with a group of guys who have been coming to this thing for numerous years (one gentlemen from VA has been here 21 consecutive years) so we learned the ropes quickly. As long as you don’t plan on dieting you’ll be in good shape you get three squares a day and the food is awesome. Not on the light side but delicious.
I don’t see how you can attend this and not come out a better piper/drummer. Dennis and I attended this week while Robin and Fay are coming down next week. Hopefully, with the blessings of my wife, this will become a yearly thing for me. For more information about the school and the instructors please check out the link for the school at www.naapd.org
I agree that NAAPD is an awsome experience. You must go in with the idea that you will learn some things and improve while you are there. But look how long we’ve worked on this thing up to this point. NAAPD gives you the tools to go home and work on your own and improve for the next year. In addition to that, you meet other people in the piping community that become your new friends. Its also humbling from the standpoint that you meet kids that look at something once and with their flying fingers, play the tune from memory! Try that with a 50 old brain!
I highly recommend attending the camp and truly one of the highlights for me was playing as a massed band for the opening of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. Its truly amazing to me that someone can take 100 people and get that many people tuned and as precise as we were from so many varied backgrounds in such a short amount of time. Awesome! The games are the biggest in the country and the best atheletes and dancers in the country attend. A wonderful experience all the way around. I will be back!
I’m proud of all four of you for going. I’d type more, but I just got back myself. Five days and four hour naps every twenty four hours, makes a lad a wee bit tired. Dennis did a great job Thursday night and you guys got some great compliments on your work. I’ll see you at practice. So now you know, only the track around Macrae Meadow is the only flat surface on that entire mountain-LOL
Pipie
After four summers (five sessions) of “band camp” at Valle Crucis, I’m still in love with the place! I’m already looking forward to attending next year. Anyone interested in checking out a beautiful retreat in the mountains can go to the North American Academy of Piping and Drumming to see for themselves. Click onto the 2008 Slide Show for pictures of scenery and students. Dennis and Doug attended Week 3, Robin and I were there for Week 4.