Pick 'n' Mix

We've got a wintry version of April showers today, with glorious sun following dark clouds and snow on what feels like a minute by minute basis. I'm feeling much the same about my playing.

Yesterday we had an invitation to go and play some tunes. It's always fun to do something spur of the moment and it was a small group of people we mostly know so I didn't mind getting Morag out. The Tree was fine, Home Town I fluffed the same bar in the B part over and over. Eagle's Whistle, the King, Galloway and Teribus just totally fell apart.

The Whistle and the King were on my mind because Peter Puma Hedlund himself was there! I managed not to do embarrassing gushy fan stuff at him, but it was very exciting. He's a fantastic musician, as well as being a very nice chap. I think having him there caused the nerves that meant I couldn't play those tunes. The last two tunes I fluffed because it was after midnight and my brain had gone to sleep some time before: I am not a late night person. Whatever the reason I rather felt that I had disgraced myself and that the people I was playing with probably thought I hadn't improved one jot since the last time I played with them.

On the plus side I realised when I was playing that my hands weren't shaking. Whether this was to do with being in a smaller crowd, or whether my stage fright is starting to go away I don't know. I also managed to tumble headlong out of the zone during the third playing of Home: I accidentally caught someone's eye and at that moment realised I had no idea at all what I was doing; it really was like being suddenly woken and having that "where am I?" moment.

I've played through all my tunes, with dots, today, keen to get them back into my head. The fan has been trying to help my timing with a metronome app, but the tick, tick, tick makes me feel anxious: it's like skipping and standing endlessly by that blasted rope as it turns, knowing that you have to jump in at just the right moment, and only ever managing to spot the moment at which you've just missed your chance. I worked more on foot tapping and the fan said it was noticeable. But mostly I am feeling as though I've made negligible progress over the 18 months since I've had my pipes.

Digging the dots out I discovered that on one set I had added up how many days it would be from ordering my pipes at the end of August to collection. At the time it was 215. I've now got a date to collect my monkey - just 12 days away.