This my first collection of my compositions. Featuring, Taybank Shenanigans, Dirty Bee and Easter Island etc

Front Cover Photo by Rob MacDougall

Design & Layout by David A. Hunter

Foreword

Ross Ainslie = Great tunes

If you are reading this you may be thinking about getting yourself a wee copy of Ross Ainslie’s book of tunes! You have to ask yourself what is it exactly that makes certain compositions stand out from the huge volumes of tunes that now exist in Scottish traditional music. Is it quirkiness, an element of catchiness or simply the joy you experience when playing them? I myself am no Amadeus but do feel that great music is created through passion, enthusiasm and adventurism combined with an essential knowledge of tradition!

Ainslie certainly has a good knowledge of traditional music and is well known as a top instrumentalist through his work with several leading Scottish bands and ground-breaking outfits. Inspired by a vibrant piping scene and the tutelage of the mighty Gordon Duncan, Ross has developed into an exciting and popular composer! A great honour for the tune writer is to hear one of your compositions played in a session and this man is no stranger to that. The classics, “the Dirty Bee” and “the Taybank Shenanigans”, create a regular buzz in gatherings across the country and appeal to all age groups. “Easter Island”, performed sublimely by the “Treacherous Orchestra”, showcases his skill in the writing of a beautiful Slow Air.

As well as writing within the piping tradition Ainslie uses his multi instrumental skills to compose melodies outside the normal range of the Highland pipes and is fearless in experimenting with different rhythms and scales. This maverick spirit is echoed amongst several of his contemporaries and adds to the continual evolution of the “Living Tradition”.

Music can be described simplistically as a combination of phrases or questions and answers, or even mathematically, but if I was to come up with a formula for the music of Ross Ainslie, it would have to be Ross Ainslie = Great tunes. In culinary terms, tasty and can we have some more please?

Charlie Mckerron Capercaillie & Session A9