Owners, Renters, and Squatters in a Pipe Band

Every pipe band has people with different mindsets. Skill level, years playing, rank, or title do not define mindset. Personal choice and daily effort do. A simple framework helps explain three common mindsets inside any band: owners, renters, and squatters. None connect to stripes, titles, or seniority. Each connects to attitude, responsibility, and follow-through. Let’s bring this idea into pipe band life.

Owners

Owners feel invested in everything involving band sound, culture, and mission.

When tuning drifts, they help fix it.

When logistics break, they step in.

When music needs polish, they put in extra reps.

Owners do not dump problems on leadership and walk away. They bring solutions, effort, and steady presence. Owners protect culture, support newer players, and carry mission forward — especially when work feels hard or unseen. Owners build bands.

Renters

Renters participate, show up, and fill a spot in ranks — yet personal investment stays limited. They handle items important to them — their own reeds, their own parts, their own schedule — yet broader needs often land on someone else’s shoulders. Extra lifting, mentoring, organizing, or fixing usually becomes “someone else’s job.”

Renters help occupy space in a circle. Owners strengthen a circle.

Squatters

Squatters bring little investment and create extra load for everyone else. They resist standards, skip preparation, avoid responsibility, and add friction to progress. Other players must compensate for gaps in readiness, tone, or discipline. Every band faces this reality at times. Ignoring it weakens culture. Naming it creates a path forward.

Rank Does Not Decide Mindset

Pipe Major, Drum Sergeant, Band Manager, new learner — any role can operate with an owner mindset. Any role can drift into renter or squatter patterns.

Mindset stays a daily decision.

Choice lives with each player:

more ownership or less,

more accountability or less,

more contribution or less.

Culture Starts Low in Ranks

Strong band culture grows from ground level — practice rooms, sectionals, and early learning stages. Leadership, ownership, and accountability must live among newest members, not only leadership group. When newer players adopt owner habits early, foundation grows solid for years ahead.

Culture never improves by accident. Culture improves through repeated choices.

Not Easy — Worth It

Owner mindset demands effort:

Extra tuning time

Extra listening

Extra preparation

Extra care for uniform, sound, and mission

Extra support for bandmates

Not easy — yet deeply worth it.

Wake and District exists for music, mission, and membership — and especially For Our Fallen. Mission deserves owners.

A Simple Choice

Choose leadership.

Choose ownership.

Choose accountability.

Circle grows stronger when more players make this choice — rehearsal by rehearsal, tune by tune, step by step onto every performance line.

Be an owner in your band.