Pipe Band Instruction

Melissa has managed the Lander Pipe Band since 2001. She has taught all of the pipers in the band and had mentored and trained the drummers in the band to produce a prize-winning ensemble performance at the Grade 5 level. All this has been accomplished in a town with a population of 7,000. Melissa can provide guidance to your band on how to build a band in a small town setting.

Starting small. This depicts the Lander Pipe Band competing at a Grade 5 band contest in Las Vegas in 2018. Three of the people in the circle this day were not from our community. They came from other places to help out; to give the band a sense of what competition is about. We happened to win this contest. But more important is the method of piecing it all together to create a good performance. It's a sort of "phone a friend" stage to get the band kick-started into competiton.

Band Startup

All bands start somewhere - SMALL. However, you don't have to sacrifice quality of the music to do this. Melissa can provide guidance to band leaders on starting a band from "scratch". Her strategies are geared toward groups who may already be affiliated with a Fire Department or other Public Entity but want to raise the level of the playing ability among the band members.

Recruitment in a Small Town

Things that hit home. For Melissa's band it was 9/11 that was the impetus for the band. Technically, it was 10/11/2001. Immediately after 9/11, there was an effort among all the pipe bands in North America to recognize the lives lost and the heroism of those who died in the 9/11/2001 attacks on the United States. The answer to this call in the town of Lander, WY (population 7,000) was to gather up all the piping students and perform in City Park. They were scarcely ready for the task. But we did the performance and we sounded good and we remembered and honored the sacrifices of those who died and the sacrifices of their families and that was the beginning of our band.

This performance sparked an interest in piping and also connected our group directly with the local Fire Department.

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