Panic Over

First posted Jul 1st, 2012 by newpiper

Well, perhaps not panic so much as self-recrimination. Because it occurs to me that there's a very good reason why my playing of Ae Fond Kiss hasn't improved over four months, and that is because I've not worked on it. I played it intensively on the day I recorded it with my fan. I've played it perhaps once or twice since, and then I played it on Friday maybe a couple of times and hit record because Friday Harbor wasn't going well, and the Kiss was at least half recognisable, and then I could feel I'd got the recording bit out of the way. Where I've worked on a tune - like Carl Magnusson or the Highlanders or Nigel's tune - I have got better. Much better. I suppose you might think that a piper of seven months' standing might be able to play better than one of two months', but there is no reason why a person who has played a tune a dozen times should be noticeably better than someone who has played it ten times.