Hub City Highlanders
Hattiesburg MS
Hub City Highlanders is a pipe band based in Hattiesburg and performs regionally in parades, ceremonies, highland games, and elsewhere. The band started as a school juvenile band 8 years ago, and most of the performers are still students. In October, members competed with another band at Stone Mountain Highland Games in Atlanta, Georgia, and placed 2nd in their grade level. The band plays traditional tunes, as well as contemporary tunes not specifically written for bagpipes.
The drum corps includes the drum major, Scottish snare drummers, and a midsection of flourishing tenors and one bass drummer. The drum major leads the band while on parade and gives commands for when to play, turn, halt, counter-march, or circle up. The DM also gives cut-off commands at the end of each medley. Scottish snare drummers play a regimental style with crisp double-snare drums using a traditional grip. The bass drummer keeps a steady beat while the tenors flourish to add embellishments to the tune, and the whole drum corps add dynamics to the melody the pipers play as bagpipes cannot change their volume.
The Great Highland Bagpipe is a traditional instrument that does not play in concert pitch and requires proper training to play well. The piper fills a reservoir bag with air that travels through 4 pipes: a melody pipe (chanter) and three drones. The playing technique means the pipes continually play, and specific embellishments are written to compensate for separations in melody notes. In addition to bagpipe tunes, most pipers learn and appreciate a great deal of the history and tradition of bagpipes and being a piper, such as their use in the British military including the D-Day invasion of World War II.
HCH is family friendly and teaches all pipe band instruments to anyone 10 years old and up at no charge. To join, support, or hire the band, go to: hubcityhighlanders.com or call Matthew Beall at 601-466-2711