Too many notes

I've just scraped half an hour this afternoon, despite the fan being out. It's still feeling very tense, very had work on my elbows and shoulder; the drones still sound wavery. Still, I am enjoying it, and will have a cup of tea and probably go back to it.

Some good things to note. One is that I find that if I get stopped mid tune (because the connector flips out or a drone peg falls out) I can pick the tune up where I was interrupted - I don't keep having to take everything from the top anymore. Even trying to play along to the Eagle on my chanter the other evening I could pick it up and carry on - fall in step with the CD. It's like that moment when you stop having to do skipping on a long rope from a standing start and learn how to step into an already turning rope and just carry on.

The other good thing is that instead of relying entirely on memory for playing dotless - trying to remember finger patterns or sneakily visualising the dots (I still feel bad about this) - I've been trying to hum the tune and work out how it must go. I think I've already been doing this with the tunes I do supposedly know - when I get stuck I work through them, but I think I've only just noticed that.

I've not played the King for a few days. Tried it today and whole chunks are coming together, finally, although there are two bars in the middle of the A part which I'm really struggling with. The Eagle is coming along, but still just bare bones. I need to listen very carefully, and probably to the Ian McInnes whistle version as well as the Sea Stallions to get a feel for possible gracing.

Starting on some new tunes. The Boy's Lament for His Dragon (also known as The 72nd's Farewell to Aberdeen), and the Thornton Jig, otherwise just The Thornton. I was reminded of the Thornton yesterday evening. I had a tune in my head and hummed it to the fan , asking him to name it. We decided it was Coilsfield House, which has too many notes for me to play, sadly. It's also sad because half way through humming the Dragon I sometimes find that I've wandered into Coilsfield by accident. The fan says this can be a sign that two tunes would work together. We arrived at the Thornton because Coilsfield made the fan think about the Heilandmen, which is followed on the album by The Thornton. We've always been fond of word association games, and we seemed to have sipped into musical association.

Anyway - time for that cup of tea, and maybe a spot more piping. No recording as the fan took the recorder out to a rehearsal with him.