King George V's Army
⚡ The Short Version
A four-parted competition-style 2/4 march. King George V's Army, written by Major G.S. McLennan, is a great step up from simpler two-parted marches into more technically demanding four-parted tunes.
Four-note groupings drive the rhythm. Each beat can be built from combinations of long and short notes in pairs — short-long, long-short — and breaking each four-note grouping into two pairs makes the rhythm manageable.
Hold the note before an embellishment. Whether it's a C strike, a taorluath, or a birl, hold the note right before the movement so the embellishment lands precisely on the beat instead of arriving early.
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🎼Sheet MusicPDF📄Bonus SheetPDF · Tips & Background🎵Tune Recording (Full Bagpipes)MP3🎧Full Recorded Lesson with Jori ChisholmMP3
⏱️ In this lesson
00:08Four-Parted March A Competition-Style 2/4🔒
00:43Two-Note Dots Combinations Double and🔒
01:12Four-Note Building Beats from Groupings🔒
02:25the First Playing Part🔒
03:13Part the in Watch C Strike 2🔒
04:20the Low on Birl on B Taorluath and A The🔒
05:01Through 3 Notes Holding Part Dotted🔒
06:39the Through Working Tricky Passages🔒
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🎬 Every class moment about this tune
Every time King George V's Army came up in a live class, with the moment I said it — click a timestamp and you land right there.
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▶ 00:14:02Chanter — 2026 Practice Session 26, Februarythe George George full note V's part. for Pulling Lament — on Army III playthrough — reach King a up to King a the piobaireachd with side before third🔒
▶ 00:01:13— Practice December Session 19, Chanter 2024two with cut King notes for in Farewell note George 79th's on… to a 2/4 in marches, asks cut row second citing lands Army, help where Gibraltar A V's and The the member🔒
▶ 00:18:13— Practice December Session 19, Chanter 2024first. finding iPad: comes dot the where the up King every on George spot cut Marking first Army every comes spot where and V's🔒
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About this tune
🔒 The write-up and the quotes from this tune are part of the members’ page.
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