So the RSPBA have finally released the 14 'approved' tunes that grade 4 / novice juvenile bands will have to pick from at the majors. It's any 2 from : Teribus, Mhari Bhan, Brown Haired Maiden, Corriecholies 43rd Welcome to the Northern Meeting, Campbell’s Farewell to Redcastle, McKay’s Farewell to the 74th, GreenwoodSide, Earl ofMansfield, Sweet Maid of Glendaruel, I’ll Gang Nae Mair to Yon Toon, 72nd Highlanders Farewell toAberdeen, Drunken Piper, P/M William Ross’s Farewell to the Scots Guards, Jenny’s Bawbee

What do people think?
Are the tunes any good and are they sufficiently varied?
Will the new format really develop musicianship amongst grade 4 bands, or will it simply put some grade 4 bands off entering the majors?
How long before they try to impose something similar on the G3 MSR?

I've also been looking through the package today.

My first reactions on the tunes:

These are all well-established traditional tunes, no more modern material there at all that I can see. Every tune, I think, can be found in the Scots Guards manuals. Having said that, most of them do appeal to me.

Also what strikes me most is the amount of simplification that been recommended. The reason why most G4 bands have tended to shy away from 2/4 tunes in the past is that the average G4 band has found them more difficult to play, possibly because of the settings in the Scots Guards books which some have regarded as being rather over-graced.
Perhaps this new way of looking at these tunes may bring them back into favour and encourage more bands to play 2/4s. That would seem to be the intention.

Some interesting statistics I've noted so far on the 14 tunes in the list:

Not a single tune includes a birl with a G gracenote.

The E gracenote has been virtually eliminated. It appears only in two tunes and even then only where there are GDE sequences (Greenwoodside and The Drunken Piper).

The grip appears in only three tunes (Teribus, Mhari Bhan, Jenny's Bawbee).

Also, I've noticed something which for such an important document as this appears to be a serious printing error.
The tune 'I'll Gang Nae More Tae Yon Toon' is the only tune in the list which requires a birl to be played from any other note than Low A. In this tune the birl is played three times from E. But in each case the birl is still written as GAG instead of AGAG.

These are only my first impressions. I'll be studying them in more detail during the next few days. I also found the accompanying booklet very interesting for several reasons. But that's for another day..

Plenty to talk about. That's for sure.

Chris

Do you not think most of the tunes are a bit simple and rather samey (The Drunken Piper excepted)? Not having played most of these since I was a kid I'd forgotten how round some of them are. It seems they're almost treating grade 4 bands as 'beginners'. I haven't seen the booklet yet, but if they've simplified the tunes, or even the gracing of the tunes, from the Scots Guards settings then they're getting really condescending. I know the music board are a bit down on 4/4s, but there's plenty of 4/4s played regularly in G4 contests that require more musical expression and fingering technique than some of these tunes. Rather than pushing musical development I'm worried these tunes might (if bands play the set tunes in all contests) put off potential members of competing G4 bands through boredom.

All the tunes have been simplified in some way, mostly by cutting out gracings. The E gracenote is the biggest casualty. In every case where a C or B doubling is followed by a B or Low A the E gracenote has been removed.

In The Earl of Mansfield there are 12 D throws and here they've kept them all. But in The 72nd Highlanders' Farewell to Aberdeen which has 6 throws they've taken four of them out. ??

There are also several instances of the melody itself being simplified. Willie Ross's Farewell to the Scots Guards is one example (Line 4 bar 1). That extra Low A in the first bar, last line, which just finishes the tune off nicely just isn't there.

Having said, the booklet that comes with it makes it clear that it's quite in order to cut a tune down to match the playing ability of your pipers so you don't have to stick to the settings they provide here. That's the way I read it anyway.

As for the choice of tunes I have the same impression of them. They do all have the same feel about them. Standard traditional stuff.