The 23rd annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours

2023 Music Collection of the Year

Taking No Shortcuts, Reid Maxwell

A prodigious work from a lifetime of teaching, Taking No Shortcuts proved to be an exceptional addition to the library of educational material for pipe band drummers. The well-reviewed collection has already sold out its first printing, and additional shipments have been flying out the door. Reid and Grant Maxwell spoke with pipes|drums readers about the book.

Panellists’ comments:

• Reid has consolidated his material over the years into this informative resource. A must for every drummer!
• A monumental collection of tested and proven exercises that could elevate pipe band snare drumming forever.
• This book has been promised for years, and Reid has always been generous in sharing it freely at schools and workshops, so having it out in this format and available for purchase is fantastic for drummers.
• Good advice. There are no shortcuts.
• Stack up all of the piping books in the world against the pipe band drumming ones and it’ll look like a revenue chart of a movie theatre before and after covid. Reid has done his community a great service by putting out material.
• The days of holding back on information lest your pupil outdoes you are well gone as evidenced by Reid Maxwell’s Taking no Shortcuts. The idea that getting to the top requires you to be something special might have some truth to it, but Taking no Shortcuts tells everyone that it cannot be done without thoughtful hard work.
• Hands down. This is an epic work, covering years of educating. Kudos to the two-generation thing as well.
• Reid continues to pave the way as a leader and as a teacher. His ‘Taking No Shortcuts’ should have been in every drummer’s stocking this Christmas.

Also nominated (in alphabetical order)

Pipe Suites, John Dew – The first collection comprising only larger, orchestrated works, John Dew’s classical music composition education brings the piping and pipe band world a ready-made compilation of pieces that can settle onto the stage perfectly.

The RCMP Collection – A large collection amassing pipe music from across Canada, the RCMP Collection will hold a solid place on shelves and, now, on computers after the publishers made the entire book available for free online.