Faster?

A year or two ago the fan and I saw Bellevue Rendevous at Folk at the Oak. Lovely venue, where we've seen some really great music. Bellevue are a fab band - and very nice people who will happily let you hold a nyckelharpa or a bouzouki. (This happiness on the part of professional musicians to talk to fans about music and instruments is one of the things I love about folk music.)

Anyway, I mention them now because one of my abiding memories of that evening was Mr Marwick, during a particularly fast and furious piece (I believe he said the musical direction read "play like the devil"), turning to his fellow musicians each in turn and simply saying "faster?", and, of course, they upped the tempo. Upping the tempo is something I'm really trying to do, but not getting very far with. My fingers keep falling over themselves and the gracing goes for a burton. My other problem at the moment is that I am still relying on the bellows for my air supply (why???) and as soon as I stop pumping I lose pressure, and I need a good steady pressure to play at speed. I'm also suffering from fingers tightening up, to the extent where I start to fear that I will snap the chanter if I don't loosen up. Also, my left hand is not well-positioned and I'm not closing down on the holes cleanly. All beginner stuff, all very annoying.

I am also wondering about optimum speeds. I've been listening to another Xmas present today: the grand concert of piping from 1995. It's a bit of a shame that three of the six pipers are on GHB, only two on smallpipes and one on border pipes. Still, it's good to hear some pipers and some tunes I've not heard before. I enjoyed Mr MacDonald and Mr MacInnes most. The others, Mr Duncan in particular, seem to think that the main point is to go as fast as possible. I prefer a more sedate pace, where I can hear the tune, the grace notes, the texture of the music.

To be honest, one of my problems today is that I am concentrating more on what's going in this post than I am on actually playing..... So, recording is an example of how badly things go wrong when I try to go too fast. It's the Barren Rocks of Aden. I've started slow and speeded up, and wobbled to a bad end, with the tempo coming and going throughout. And it is bad, but it's a darn sight faster than this effort from June, and probably faster than this from September. So maybe I am getting faster....slowly.


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