Woodland’s courtyard boomed with a strange noise this afternoon.

The noise emanated from an odd-looking instrument, the bag pipe. It was played by senior, Colin Grommisch. Grommisch produced the strange noise by blowing into a pipe attached to a bladder of air which he squeezed to make the echoing tones.

He comes from a family of Scottish and Irish descendants, so he decided to learn to play the bag pipes as his senior project.  He was interested in learning how to play them because other members of his family play them and he wanted to play along.  The demonstration in the courtyard was his performance for his advisory showcasing what he had learned.

Ray Donaghy, Grommisch’s advisory teacher, has been impressed with Grommisch’s dedication to learning the bag pipes in such a short time.  “Colin did an amazing job even though he has only been playing the bag pipes since he started his senior project in December,” said Donaghy.

Grommisch wants to continue learning more about the bag pipes and  new songs.  He also hopes that one day he might play in a marching band, maybe even one in the Macy’s Day Parade.