That's better

A much better day today. I manged to skip out of work - I was going to say "early" but it was actually on time. The fan was on kitchen duty so I sat and played for the best part of an hour. I managed The Rowan Tree, Bonnie Galloway, the Banks of Allen. and My Home Town all twice round with only minor errors.

Then I struggled with the Rocks and dug out the dots, and I discovered that I can play faster than I can read music. My fingers were racing ahead, I was desperately trying to keep up, so that by the time my fingers hit a patch they weren't sure of and were asking which note came next my poor brain would come panting behind like a small child on a long journey - "where are we now?"

I played the Eagle a few times, fought the blasted King and so very nearly nailed it, the A part in particular is almost there. Then I gave the Dragon a whirl before going back to the King and the Rocks. As I was about to give up the fan came to talk me through the B part of the Eagle, which I'm not getting quite right and need to listen to again.

I can't define quite how playing the Eagle is different from playing all the tunes I've learnt from dots - there's a different quality to my remembering of it, somehow, and I feel I can really just drop into the music and listen to it as I play.

Apparently I was spotted at the Foresters at the weekend by someone who mentioned it to someone at work, but who that first someone was I don't know. The person I spoke to said she didn't know that I played. "Oh", said I airily, "I've not been playing long - only about 18 months - I'm just a beginner". Quoth she: "that's not what I heard", which seems like a little compliment from that unknown person.