After missing several weeks of band meetings, I've been back for two. The first saw just a few of us, mostly level-one pipers, & after undergoing the drawn-out tuning process we didn't play together for that long. Evidently trouble with the management has kept us from marching around indoors, so that was it. Fortunately an expected visitor showed up with computer-rendered samples of the new tartan we're hoping to acquire. During our most recent session we students didn't even unpack our pipes. I was able to report progress at home, since I've found I can crudely play tunes I've never seen written. The response: That's the way we want it! As I've failed to point out, word is that pipe music wasn't even written down until not much more than a quarter-century ago.