As a teenager, he won the World Pipe Band Championships twice and the World Drum Corps Championships with the Dysart and Dundonald Pipe Band.[5]
He was leading drummer of the 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band[6] when it won the World Championships in 1987, becoming the first pipe band based outside Scotland to do so.[4]
In 1992, the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band (SFUPB) reckoned that their drumming could be improved and invited Maxwell to join.[7] Subsequently, the SFUPB won the World Championships a total of six times.[8][4]
Maxwell has been involved in teaching members of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, and in the system of feeder bands that make up the Robert Malcolm Memorial Pipe Band.[9] Maxwell helped start the "Piping Hot Summer Drummer" instructional program in 1994 as a drumming-only school. It has now been running for more than twenty years as a summer camp for pipers, drummers and highland dancers of all ages and levels.[10][11]
In New Zealand, he has taught many drummers and judged competitions.[12]
In 2015 he received a BC Community Achievement Award.[13]
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