Donna e mobile

I feel rather fickle today. I got my pipes out to play and decided I really should give the A a go. I fiddled about to get comfortable and played the Tree to remind my fingers where everything was, then launched into my new tunes. It was a little hard work - both in terms of the pressure and the fingering, my bottom hand really having to stretch (although I'm not sure why as I had my practise chanter out yesterday afternoon and didn't feel I needed to stretch at all).

Anyway, it went reasonably well, and I thought what a nice sound the A has. It's deeper and richer than the D. It has more gravitas for marching tunes. I played once with the drones, just to try, and it was a bit of work, but not a struggle. I played the King. The fan likes the King in A. I need to decide which tunes go best with which chanter.

Played everything except Alick. Played for 30 minutes, felt tired, decided to have one tune on the D, and raced through the new tunes and Galloway, not feeling tired at all.

I love them both, the A and the D, and they almost feel like two different sets of pipes: they sound different, they play differently, both fingering and bellows. Maybe they should have two names. There was a moment when I thought I loved the D so much that maybe I had bought unwisely and should have had just a D set instead of the combination, but I love A, too: I'd miss it if I didn't have it. As a one instrument gal it gives me a little air of variety.

But the whole month has gone well. I haven't struggled, it's not been difficult to play every day - I've never felt it a chore, and I've always enjoyed it. Last time it felt like a real test of endurance, something I was never sure I'd manage.

I've totted up time spent. There were a couple of "not sure" entries, and I've disregarded those, but I make it around 18 hours playing. 18 hours! Not bad when you compare it to my total for the beginning of May which was 60 hours over 18 months, and this is almost a third of that in just one month!

I think I'm going to give myself a break and allow myself not to play if I don't want to, but it's definitely worth booking in another play every day month. Maybe September.

Playlist June 2013

Three months on since the last one. Not a massive amount of difference in the two lists, perhaps, but more tunes waiting in the wings now. I see the Dragon has been kicking about since January.

I think I'm picking tunes up faster. Either I'm just getting better at learning them, or I am getting better at persevering and playing them over and over instead of once or twice each time I play.

I do need sets. I don't seem to be very good at identifying tunes that will work together. I hear sets I like, but there will be one or two tunes I can't find dots for, or can't play. I'm also not sure if it's OK just to pinch other people's ideas for sets.

Tunes I can play without dots

• The Atholl Highlanders (I don't play this often and never get  it played to my satisfaction, despite not needing dots)
• Banks of Allen (but I play this rarely...)
• Battle of Waterloo (near as dammit)
• Bonnie Galloway
• The Barren Rocks of Aden (accuracy still not great)
• Castle Dangerous
• Eagle's Whistle (I keep forgetting that I know this one)
• Flett from Flotta
• The March of the King of Laoise
• My Home Town
• The Rowan Tree
• South Georgia Whaling Song
• Teribus

Tunes languishing and never quite making it to the list above

• Battle of Waterloo
• Leaving Barra

Tunes I am actively learning

• Alick C McGregor
• The Battle of the Somme
• The Boy's Lament for his Dragon
• The Highland Brigade at Magersfontein
• The Shetland Fiddler
• Troy's Wedding

Hail fellow, well met

It's odd how we find tunes. As I've noted before the fan sometimes brings me tunes, but somehow they never quite appeal to me. I'm sure much of that is to with wanting to find my own tunes, with wanting tunes to find me.

Some I hear and immediately love and want to play. Some I do play, some I just can't find the dots for, and some I can find but just cannot play (and, much as I love it, and glad as I am to have found the right dots, Delvinside is falling firmly into this camp.) Some , as I've mentioned before, suddenly seem friendly, just because they are familiar. When I listen to a new CD any tunes I know from elsewhere will leap out at me, and it's like coming across someone you know at a large party where you thought you knew no one. It doesn't mater how dull or uncongenial you normally find that person, you'll be glad to see them.

Today's tune I came upon in a roundabout way. I was looking at a discussion on the Session that had a video with some tunes played by Canterach. I'd not heard of them, Googled, and found very little beyond a tantalising suggestion that Mr MacInnes might once have been a member (which may have been why one commenter on the discussion thought the music might be by the Tannahill Weavers).

Anyway, I found a CD with some clips, and that included the Highland Brigade at Magersfontein. It sounds very familiar indeed, so I must know it from somewhere, but have no idea where. It's a slow march. I always think of marching as trudging, but this has a swing in its step. I did wonder if it would pair nicely with the Somme or the Dragon, but it doesn't seem to much care for either of them.

An hour's play today. Monkey in D, no drones. I must spend some time with drones, and in A, and with Morag.

Magersfontein, over and over, getting things wrong that I got right in the previous round and so one, as I always seem to.  Somme, Dragon, Troy, Fiddler, Alick. Home Town. King. Whaling Song I struggled with. I should go back to my established tunes for a while, let the new tunes simmer.



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Day 28

About half an hour this evening, maybe more, spread over a period of time, because I kept having to stop to be distracted. Monkey in D, no drones. Round and round with Troy, which is coming - I'm starting to hum it from time to time. It's tricky because the usual pattern isn't there of some bars, repeat those bars with a variant ending, next lot maybe a different start then the same, last lot, as those just done with maybe a different end. Also round and round with the Dragon.

For light relief I played Tree, Home, Galloway, Teribus, Rocks. My fingers found a tune of their own, which turned out to be a bit of the Fiddler that they particularly like, so I played that. Foot tapping a bit random, useful on Town and just random with Troy.

In Troy where there are three Es or Ds I am giving a G grace on one and dropping to a strike for the next. Sounds good and I like selecting grace notes - although sometimes my fingers select them for me.

I'd mention how much I love this, but I'd hate to think I was becoming repetitive.

Piper's elbow

My right elbow has felt a little tender in the last few days. I don't think it's my pipes - more likely to be the stupid amount of time I spend using a PC during the day. Anyway, I don't think holding back on piping time a little for a day or two will hurt. 20 minutes this evening, Monkey in D, droneless, Galloway to warm up then round and round with Troy.

Oddly enough I'm anticipating the end of the month with a distinct "oh no" feeling, as if I'm going to stop playing then. I was thinking that I ought to go back to Monkey in A for a week, but then thought that I'd run of of time to do that because the month ends on Sunday so there isn't a week left. Very odd. Not only will I continue to play I will try to keep the regularity, even if I don't make it quite daily.

Short and sweet

I've had The Battle of the Somme going round my head all day again today...and when I got home and started the fan rushed in to point out that I was playing the wrong timing, again. Sorted myself out and played it round and round, but somehow couldn't quite get it without dots today. Not totally sure I've got the timing of the second bar of the B part right just yet - I'm aware that I am adjusting my foot tapping at that point.

I've been thinking that one reason the short tunes are coming along faster is that I tend to play AA BB AA BB and then probably do it again, and, if I'm on a roll, do it some more times, just for fun. The longer tunes I'm playing AB, or ABCD for the four parters, maybe repeating once, and then moving on. I must persevere with them: it's not as if I don't have the stamina. Gave the Fiddler a go, round and round, slow, to get the notes right.

However, my bellows elbow a little tired this evening, and my hands a little cold so I'm not closing fingers down cleanly on the chanter, so after 15 minutes I felt I'd made my point about playing every day, but clearly need a rest, so I stopped.

Monkey in D, with and without drones, but mostly without and I should get back to having them because presumably the drone reeds need playing in just as much as the chanter reeds.

Relativity

The fan says he’s noticed, being away for a week, how I have improved. I have not noticed. I keep wanting to feel that surely I must have improved, over the months, but I can’t feel certain of it. I suppose it’s seeing something every day. It’s when you don’t see a friend for ages that you notice a weight change, or grey hairs: when we see ourselves every day the changes are so gradual we think we’re the same as ever. Only sometimes, looking at old photos, perhaps, and thinking how young we looked, way back then.

 

The rate of change also changes. We’ve lived in our village for 11 years. It feels like forever and also five minutes. We’ve not changed. So I am always surprised when I find out that a neighbour’s little girl is now at University or is expecting a baby. The difference between four and 15, between 10 and 21, between 17 and 28 are far greater than the differences for those of us who have moved from being <cough> to <cough>. Similarly I suppose that picking up a chanter and getting two notes out of it was like taking first baby steps, and picking up pipes for the first time perhaps like learning to ride a bike. There’s a clear difference between one who can and can’t walk or ride a bike, but once you’ve grasped the basics it’s harder to see the difference between one who has been cycling a month and one who has been at it for years. It all comes at once, and then any improvement (or deterioration) is slow and unseen. I was going to say “unless you ride the Tour de France” but actually, the basic cycling skills are the same and what stops me being able to do that is not a lack of ability on the bike riding front, but a lack of fitness and stamina. Even Mark Cavendish only sits on a bike, holds the handlebars and pushes the pedals with his feet, the same as a 4 year old hurtling round their back garden or an old gent cycling very slowly to the corner shop.

 

So I think I’m saying, I must be getting better. Surely I’m a better player than I was 6 months ago, a year ago. It’s just that I can’t see it, because I am living it. I only know for sure that I am a better player than I was in November 2011 when I couldn’t play at all. Although the place I do notice an improvement is at sessions, where my stage fright has gone away, I can remember tunes, I can pitch in and play without having to wait to be invited, and maybe that’s because sessions are monthly so I have clear change points to note. So maybe I am getting better. Relatively.

 

30 minutes today, Monkey in D, with and without drones. Briefly round Alick, Whaling, and Dragon, but mostly Somme, over and over, and over...

Timing

Today's post is all about timing, good and bad. Mostly bad.

My laptop is on a go slow. I've used the fan's PC all week and the laptop is clearly having an almighty sulk.

I decided to start playing at 5.45, thinking to give myself half an hour and just start dinner 15 minutes late, only I lost track and when the fan interrupted at 6.30 to show me a version of The Battle of the Somme online I moaned that he was eating in to my half hour, and then pushed on to 6.45 before I realised... Needless to say, dinner was late.

The fan pointed out that I'd misread the timing of the Somme so I've worked on that.

The fan talked through my recording, so I had to redo it. Monkey in D, with drones, but I was in a hurry, worrying about dinner, and didn't strap the bellows on properly so there are bits where I lose it because I'm not comfortably keeping the air moving. It wasn't a good move to play without for a week. Needless to say the pan that was on the hob burnt.

I managed to miss an A part repeat out on this recording (distracted by thoughts of the pan on the hob) and I thought I'd got a good swaying speed - rum-ti-di dum dum, rum-ti-di dum dum - but of course on the play back it sounds like a dirge. (To be honest a dirge would be more fitting considering the unimaginable and utterly obscene numbers of "fallen", as we like to euphemistically call the dead, that the tune commemorates.)

I fear this new timing may mean the tune will no longer sit well with the Dragon. The fan suggests The Battle's O'er and the Session suggests Heights of Dargai.

The fan says my foot tapping is OK, except that I am probably tapping to my playing, because when the playing goes off the timing I end up rearranging my foot tapping to fit in with it.

Not exactly about timing, but four months ago when I previously tried to play every day it seemed like a struggle: I remember counting the days, scraping through with maybe 5 minutes play, and being generally bad tempered about the whole thing. This time I love it: I can't wait to get home and play, I can't stop once I start playing.

This 5 minutes to blog seems to have eaten half my evening.


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Wrong Alick

30 minutes, new tunes plus Rocks (the Mice love this at present), Whaling  and Home. Bits of Somme, Fiddler and the Dragon finally coming without dots. Seems to be taking a while, perhaps because I'm working on several tunes at once. Monkey in D. No drones. Love, love, love.

Driving to the farm shop this morning and wondering again why my Alick doesn't sound at all right from what I remember of Mr MacInnes's playing I realise that he's playing Alick Cameron, Champion Piper and not Alick C McGregor. Doh!

Have I told you lately

So I played and I played - I lost track after an hour, but it's the best part of an hour and a half. I played all my new tunes. I played the King, Castle, Galloway, Flett. I fiddled with some other stuff in my book - Highland Wedding, Stirling Castle. Tunes just pour out. I stood up, I walked about, I sat down. I tapped my feet. I played and I played.

Have I mentioned how much I love this?

Marvellous Mechanical Mouse Organ

I'm starting to think of my fingers and my brain as Mice and Professor Yaffle. The mice are chaotic and make a lot of noise, but normally manage to get one over on the Professor, who thinks he's really very clever indeed.

Yesterday the Mice played a tune. Here's a tune! We will play it! The Professor took no notice. He has no use for mouse music and was thinking Important Thoughts about what to play next, or blogging, or recording. After a moment his thoughts were distracted by the Mice - silly mice - playing a fast tune on their own, without him. Ridiculous!

So he listened. It was a fast tune. A nice fast tune. How clever of the mice, playing a fast tune, all on their own. Of course, he said, that's The Athol Highlanders (because Mice are far too stupid to know for themselves what they are playing). Very nice, he says, now the B part, and he tells them how the B part goes, the B part of the Athol Highlanders.

The Mice are confused. It's a B part they wanted, certainly, but this B part resembles the A part not at all. This isn't what we were playing! This isn't the mouse tune!

Yes, yes, yes, says the Professor. You are playing the Athol Highlanders. This is the B part. Play the A part again and you'll see. So the Mice play their fast mouse tune again; and do you know what, it wasn't the Athol Highlanders at all, it was The Barren Rocks of Aden, which the Mice could play perfectly well, A and B part, when there was no idiotic woodpecker to confuse them.

Clever old Mice.

Air brushed

I was driving home yesterday listening to the Grand Concert and thinking what great tunes there out there, and how they can be played too fast, then the Iain MacInnes track started and I noticed drones, droning in in the background. I really normally only get to hear my own drones when I play. When I listen to my various CDs that have smallpipes there are other instruments, or singing, and the drones tends to be faded out. The Concert is obviously recorded live, with just a mike pointed at unadulterated pipes, real pipes, with drones droning. I keep thinking drones sound wrong, but they don't, they are part of the sound of pipes, and it's only CDs that make me think they are extra or ugly or overloud.

Anyway, back to today. I was cheerful until late afternoon when I suddenly felt that I couldn't bear another hour without the fan, and it's all of today, and all of tomorrow, and pretty much all of Sunday to get through without him, and even Georgette Heyer couldn't cheer me up. So I dragged the Monkey out and played and played for an hour (a few small bits of attending to dinner in  between) and loved every minute, even though all my tunes (Troy, Alick, Somme, Dragon, Fiddler) all gave me problems. Lots of foot tapping, rather oddly. I don't seem to be able to stop it now. Nothing went well, but I loved it, and played those tunes over and over. Felt much more cheerful, and after all, it's only really tomorrow, and then he'll be back the next day.

Recording is the Boy's Lament for His Dragon, aka The Boy's Lament for His Kite, aka The 72nd's Farewell to Aberdeen.  I'm playing a mix of dots and how I think the tune sounds on the CD, and the bits where I hesitate are the bits where the dots are least like what I think I can hear. I keep practising the final bar run down FEDC, throw on D, G on D, but when I play the tune I end up playing G on D then the throw on D, which doesn't sound as good, but is easier somehow. Needs work. Timing needs work. Everything needs work. Recorder did its usual and left me with the embarrassing ragged start and end.  But the tune is lovely and lively and not much like a lament, but describes well the swing in the step that I'd have if I were saying a cheery farewell to Aberdeen, because its the one place in Scotland I just don't like, not at all, and if I were ever there again I'd be very happy to leave.


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Off the boil

Today, for no apparent reason, things aren't so easy: more effort needed. The weather is cooler (although the temperature in the flat only varies by a degree or two either way), but I can't think what else has changed.

No idea how long I played for because I forgot to check when I started. The main frustration has been with recording. I thought to do a medley of tunes, but as  things weren't going so well I decided to go for the Somme followed by the Dragon. I bombed out n the Dragon, but I wasn't worried, because on the big recorder I can, of course, edit tracks and I was just going to cut the end off.

Despite following the fan's instructions to the letter and despite the machine telling me I had chosen a start and end point it gave me the unedited track as the master. So not only do I have a ragged attempt at the Dragon, which ends in tears, I also have puffing away trying to get the bag full, and an unseemly squeak from the chanter.

To add insult to injury my laptop doesn't like the big recorder any more than the small one and steadfastly ignored it no matter how I connected the two. I've come to the PC to transfer the file and convert to MP3 and email it to myself to pick up on the laptop because I can't remember my Chirbit password. Email sent...and clearly decided to come by the email equivalent of second class mail. Managed to remember my Chirbit password so have stuck to the PC.

So here we are - the Battle of the Somme. No drones. Monkey in D. Some foot tapping which just happened and I couldn't stop. (I see that despite the fan's insistence that I learn this it isn't favoured by everyone.) Not sure that it helps: if anything it distracts while I try and work out if I'm playing to the tapping or tapping to the playing or tapping randomly...

Must be about playing from memory because when I muck up I'm pausing while I scan the dots to work out where I am. That note combination I complained about yesterday working OK today. Good tune, I like it.


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Still feeling the love

I did wonder this morning whether I might have jinxed my playing forever with my effusion of love yesterday, but it's all still good today. No drones again, but I hardly notice I am playing pipes: I don't think about the bellows or the bag, I just play.

Fiddling around with more new tunes. Listening to Smalltalk yesterday I was reminded how jolly the Shetland Fiddler is, and on closer inspection found it is aka the Spey in Spate, which the fan plays. Printed it out and went round and round for about 15 minutes solid. It's coming through well, already: recognisable, reasonable speed, and good to play. I think this one might be a keeper.

Cock o' the North somehow is not doing it for me, so that moves to the reject pile. Somme I am liking, although still a little worried that it's not the same as on the CD. It's nice though, except for the second and third bar on the B part. For some reason that FADF really throws me every time - partly the timing and partly D feeling very odd after A, but  I don't know why. Played a few times, played other things, noodled, realised I was playing this again, so it's sinking in fast.

Delvinside I love, but it's going to take time: the timing is a pig and a half, really. Then noodling again I played something lovely and wondered what it was and then realised it was that poor lamented dragon, the 72nd's Farewell to Aberdeen. I've got a weird version with tab and only two parts, and I am sure I had pipe version, but can't find it.

Quick run through John Morrison but  still can't make it sound like any tune I've ever heard. Still, if I can get the Fiddler, the Somme,  Delvinside, Alick (giving that a rest to percolate into my memory), that would be good. And I do need to think about sets, really. And recording.

About 50 minutes this evening. Oh - and spontaneous foot tapping.

Monkey love

It's strange, this, how I have been swept off my feet by my little Monkey. I love piping so much! I've been playing for so long it's like falling  suddenly, hopelessly, madly in love with an old friend. At least, I hope it's not hopelessly: I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship. I just want to play and play, and I love every second of it. I don't know whether it is the Monkey, or whether the Monkey's arrival just happens to coincide with this sudden surge of piping love. However - let's not reason this away, let's just enjoy.

Played for 45 minutes plus some extra time while waiting for bits of dinner to do. Somme again. Not sounding like the CD version, but then he's playing all the grace notes and, as tends to happen when you play pipe gracing on strings, they come out as strings of extra notes.  Tried the Cock o' the North (known to me in childhood as Chase me Charlie - Chase me Charlie, chase me Charlie, I've lost a leg of my drawers, chase me Charlie, chase me Charlie, lend me one of yours). It seems to get played with the Somme a fair bit. Ceol Sean has it as a march or a quickstep and neither is quite coming together. I am sight reading very well in terms of notes, but note length, timing, difficult to get right when I don't know a tune.

Also tried Mrs McL of R again, Kantara to El Arish (which the fan recommended not so long ago, and I didn't get on with, but it's in one of my books). Also found Delvinside in a version that is much closer to the one Iain MacInnes plays.

Then Whaling and Flett round and round, and once Whaling ran into the King, which became Galloway, and I just play on and on. Battle, Alick (finally humming this at work). Droneless still, but it's so comfortable, like breathing, like cuddling a little velvet Monkey, like love.

Old familiar faces

Or in this case, familiar tunes. I'm starting to feel that slowly, slowly, through much repetition this month, various tunes are creeping up alongside the Tree to that state where I don't really need to think about them; I can just play, listen, note how my fingers fall on the chanter.

Also feeling the need to find new tunes. I played for nearly an hour tonight and despite playing some tunes over and over and going back to them later and throwing in test runs of some new tunes, I felt I was running out by the end. I think the only thing I didn't play was the King.

Began on Monkey in A, droneless. Tried the "new" tunes - Blue Bonnets, which I noticed when looking for a blog post yesterday to link to that I had said in the past I liked, Battle of the Somme, which is one of those on the fan's new CD, and Mrs McLeod of Rasaay, because I would like to be able to play it and it's on the same page as Somme in the Piper's Delight. I wanted to find Balmacara, from the same CD, because we've had happy holidays there and I once sat with my chanter and played tunes on the shore of Lochalsh.

Switched to Monkey in D and played pretty much everything, including the new tunes again, Home and Flett a number of times. A medley of Tree, Galloway, Teribus, Rocks, Home, lasting almost 10 minutes.

Comfortable, except with drones, where I feel like I am losing air. Also I don't think they are in tune and the fan is away and the phone (which has a tuner on it) has gone with him.

Better

Just when I was starting to think something was horribly wrong, and that I should email Ian Kinnear and ask him what I should do to fix my Monkey, suddenly it all comes right again. Playing without drones again, but comfortably, happily, in a relaxed way, with no overblowing, no squeaks, no squawks. I started a little badly - I thought I'd see what I could remember of Alick (not much, being the answer), and then ran into Battle and got cross, and the fan suggested that rather than race into the tunes I most want to play now now now, I potter about with a few slow tunes that I know first, and actually, that worked.

I've been playing a lot with dots this month, wanting to really drum those tunes into my head. Today I did without and I managed Tree, Galloway, Town, Castle, Rocks, Teribus, Highlanders, Battle (although I'm always forgetting where I am, it feels like such an never ending loop), and the King. Half the problem is remembering what tunes I know.

Played for around 40 minutes in two sections. Monkey in A. Maybe now I know my problems are a blip only I will go back to the D for a while. And I should let poor Morag out of her case.

Hope to find plenty of playing time this week as the fan is away on his annual trip. There will be some watering to do at the allotment, some harvesting, but the Christmas mittens are about done, and there is no tennis, now that Queen's has ended in such a satisfactory way.

I've ordered a new CD, which I'll write about when it arrives. Some good tunes, also, on the fan's latest purchase - tempted to try Battle of the Somme, as I have that in one of my books.

Flogging a dead horse

Time played: 40 minutes or so

Tunes played: if played is the word for the mangling I feel I've done today. Rocks I failed to get through, the Whaling Song, Highlanders (still not happy that the dots are have for the fourth part are the same as the fourth part the fan taught me), Teribus (terrible), Galloway, Alick (still pegging away, not sure how much improvement - I don't seem to be picking any of it up and am still firmly wedded to the dots), and the Pibroch of Donald Dhu (found in the Green Book while looking for the Highlanders. It only has the first two parts of the Highlanders)

Instrument: Monkey in A

Recording: yes. Not checked to see if I managed to remove the tatty end this time. It's the only thing I recorded. Too busy being cross and desperately trying to get something to go right. I need to sit it to my left so it picks up the chanter more than the drones. During the tune I lose my place, overblow (ouch) and then struggle to get drones going again, and have to stop off the high A. The drones come and go and are hideously uneven, and at the start you can hear me struggling to get air to get anything going.

Notes: Just the same old: that I am struggling badly with my drones on the Monkey in A. I try and try but I can't get enough even air pressure, I can't get enough air, I get too much air, I just cannot get comfortable. It's madness when you think how perfectly everything is with the D. I dare n't go back to the D now - much as I long to - in case I end up never coming back to A...


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Catch-up

Fear not: despite the lack of blogging I have actually been playing.

Thursday went something like this:

Time played: a good 30 minutes of almost back to back tunes.

Tunes played: I was looking for a knitting pattern the other evening, and they are in a folder next to a folder full of music. So I flicked over the Piper’s Delight and saw that it included Hot Punch, which I’ve been enjoying from Seadan. Of course, they describe it as a jig, and the book has it as a reel or a march. I tried both, but neither sounded familiar. Ran through various tunes I know or have played (Green Hills of Tyrol, Scotland the Brave, Skye Boat Song), and a number where I know the tune or am familiar with the title but haven’t played it (Jenny Dang the Weaver, Mucking o’ Geordie’s Byre, Jenny Bawbee, Mrs McLeod of Raasay). Also ran through the Whaling Song and the Highlanders.

Foot tapping: sporadic

Instrument: Monkey in A

Recording: none – I squeezed piping in between an extended allotment visit (netting the currants), running some washing and showering. No time even to blog, let alone record.

Notes: the same problems with drones and pressure. Drones sound too loud and I can’t physically get enough air through to keep them going: I’m fighting with the bag and bellows. Without drones I occasionally overblow (or, overpump, I suppose) the chanter reed. Despite this ongoing problem (and I am hoping it will just go away as quickly as it came) I really enjoyed playing: I am getting so much pleasure out of playing at the moment. Also, listening to myself, and I can always hear the gracing better with no drones, I thought how I sounded like a person who can play pipes who is trying out new tunes . It sounds OK. And almost, if I never got any better than this, being able to play a few tunes, being able to play with other people, enjoying my playing, it would be OK, it wouldn’t be bad. But I do want to get better: much, much better, and I will.

Yesterday was brief in the extreme  - barely 10 minutes of the Tree, the Whaling Song and the Highlanders, much of it with drones, which are still exhausting, Monkey in A. I wanted not to break the pledge but we needed to race out for a spot of international fiddle-playing at Bury's fine new(ish) music venue.

I'll be playing again today, later on.

More of the same

Time played: 30 minutes (just)

Tunes played: Alick, Whaling Song, King, Highlanders, Teribus, Galloway

Instrument: Monkey in A

Foot tapping: some spontaneous during the King.

Recording: nope.

Notes: again without drones. Again feeling it's too much air and the chanter squawks from time to time, but just not enough energy, somehow, to get the drones going (I went for a long walk after work and didn't get home until after 8pm). Slightly too much right thumb pressure. Playing with dots a lot at present: consolidating what I know, hopefully. King dotless, however, once again. Noting today the tiny difference in thumb movement between the AFA (thumb tap) and the AAFE (thumb swipe) in the Whaling Song.

Still adjusting

Time played: 30 minutes

Tunes played: Alick, Whaling Song, King, Highlanders

Instrument: Monkey in A

Foot tapping: some spontaneous during the King.

Recording: nope.

Notes: playing without drones. Chanter better, although putting too much stress on my right thumb. Pressure a problem: too much without drones but not mustering enough when the drones go on. These telegraphic entries are difficult to label. Am going for "whinge" although I enjoyed it, and the pipes sound great, just not comfortable with the drones, the bag, the bellows, pressure.

New shoes revisited

Time played: about 40 minutes in two 20 minute blocks (working around dinner)

Tunes played: The Atholl Highlanders, Castle Dangerous, The Battle of Waterloo, Teribus, South Georgia Whaling Song (coming on quite nicely now),The Barren Rocks of Aden, The March of the King of Laoise, Alick C McGregor

Instrument: Monkey in A

Foot tapping: spontaneously (having forgotten all about it) while playing Battle. It's just that sort of tune.

Recording: None.

Notes: Not so much ordinary new shoes as that point in the autumn as a child where you go from 6 weeks of glorious barefoot freedom into white nylon knee high socks and clunky brown lace-ups. I had to pick up my practice chanter to remind myself how to hold A and get low G - I do it with the tip of my little finger. Wiggled the A chanter to get the right angle for that, and then found I had to pull the bellows round to make that comfortable. Enormous struggle with drones: the whole thing just seemed hungry for air, so I did without for the second half of my playing and started to feel more comfortable. Tunes going OK, D throws sounding good, low Gs sounding gorgeous (I noted the first time I played Ian Kinnear pipes how lovely the low notes sounded).

Stick or twist

Time played: the first 20 minutes flew by, and late I got very excited thinking I'd hit an hour of pretty much constant playing, and then realised I was only at 45 minutes and hadn't the energy to go on. But 45 minutes, playing almost all the time, not bad at all I think.

Tunes played: Whaling Song, Flett, Galloway, King, but mostly Alick, over and over and over.

Instrument: Monkey in D. The fan says not to lose track of the A and that King sounds better on A. But D feels very comfortable right now, and I've played an A for 18 months, I've not had D before, so it's right that I get used to it. I will go back to A. I will go back to Morag.

Foot tapping: OK: did it with  Whaling Song and the King, but I have to have dots, decide where in the bar I am tapping, and then try to work out whether I am hitting the right notes at the right time. Not easy.

Recording: Fairly quick to set up but rather than setting up a million songs I just keep recording over the previous one, so it's a bit of a gamble, and you have to trust that the one you are about to do is better than the one you're about to overwrite.  I also thought that when I mastered the track I trimmed the first few seconds off, but that doesn't seemed to have worked. The main thing is I don't need the laptop out so don't get distracted by thoughts about the blog or my email or the internet.

Notes: Recording is Alick, droneless. I think the odd background sound is my bellows creaking. Some of the up and down sequences of notes seem easy to play, others I stumble over, even with the dots in front of me. Still really enjoying my playing, the tunes I play, the sound the pipes make, the lovely grace notes. (Note to self: pride goeth before a fall!!)



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Compliments for the Monkey

The session today, so the only playing I've done was there. The fan persuaded me to try the Whaling Song, which I got pretty much - B part a little messy, but otherwise not bad, and good to think how quickly I've gone from printing the dots to taking it to a session. Other than that just Town and the Tree and eventually I braved the King, and it came out OK. I hummed it through and went over it just practising fingers on the chanter (oddly still trying to pump the bellows even though the bag was detached!), then tried the first part droneless to see if I could, then just went for it.

Just one or two fleeting moments of stage fright: I'm not even sure if it was that which made me fluff notes, or the fluffing, or the knowledge that I was going to fluff, that caused it. But really, I barely have stage fright at all now, and can concentrate on the music.

Some interested listeners, as ever, asking whether I'm playing Northumbrian or border pipes, or even Uilleann pipes. It's good that people have at least heard of different sorts of pipes.

As I left someone said how lovely my pipes sounded: he could listen to them all day. I know how he feels.

Shrunk in the wash

I've spent much of today humming the Atholl Highlanders and thinking what a great tune it is, how very uplifting, and how very long it is since I last played it. Came home determined to play it. I had to wait while the fan talked me through the endless steps of getting the big recorder to do its thing. Got out the A chanter...and hopeless, again. Just feeling as though I could only cover the low G by dislocating my little finger, and most of the rest of the bottom hand seemed to involve dislocating my thumb, and then I couldn't find enough air, and...bleurgh. It just felt as though the chanter was suddenly too big for my hands.

I think the trick is to sit and get ready before I play. I'm like a small child rushing out to play with mother calling after me to come back, tie my shoes laces, put on my coat, but I just can't wait to get out and play, and then half a minute later I'm flat on my face, having tripped over those shoe laces. I need to sit, settle the straps to get them comfortable, twist the chanter around until I can get my hands on it comfortably, fill the bag with air so I've got a good starting point, decide on a tune, breathe, and then play.

So, back to this evening. I went back to D. The fan retuned the drones yet again. I'm now at two As an E and a D and the idea is I block off either A or D depending on chanter. Certainly this makes it easier for me to hear the drones: they stop being just a wall of sound. The problem is that when I say "block off" I mean I tap my finger on the end of the drone, but as soon as my pressure levels change, because I stop playing or whatever, the drone kicks back in.

So, cross, with the fan watching, and more than half an eye on the recorder I recorded Whaling, then redid it to get a better copy. I got distracted by several things, including noting the different ways my fingers seem to move on the D chanter, and the lovely grace noting. (Is it wrong to admire your own playing? There's a fable about vanity somewhere, and I can't remember what the creature's comeuppance was. Later, playing the Highlanders, I kept being distracted by how lovely a particular note or grace note sounded.)

So, distractions led to where-am-I? pauses and wrong notes. It's also too fast, I think - it wants to lilt and roll and sway along. My sheet music says 80bpm, not sure how much faster I am.

Also played the King (still with errors) and managed to remember the Highlanders, just needing the dots to remind me about the fourth part. A bit messy, but doesn't need much work to get it right, hopefully.

That was it. Played for 30 minutes at the end, plus fiddling around with tunes while trying chanter, tuning drones, trying recorder and so on. The recorder a lot of effort and eats up heaps of time. I may aim to record say, once a week, record several tunes, and the master them down and all that malarkey during the week in bits and then posting should be quick.

Hmm - clearly trying to keep blogging to a minimum has led to a backlog of things to say, this seems to be a very long post!!


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Day 6

Time played: About an hour in total, but some of that spent dotting in and out of kitchen to get dinner ready an hour earlier than was needed, thanks to misunderstanding between me and the fan as to what time to expect him home this evening.

Tunes played: Whaling (so close to having this by heart. Played it over and over); Rocks (fast and furious); Teribus (briefly);  Alick (I do like this - as yesterday, all four parts once each and then the whole thing again. Interesting how different gracing changes the feel - accidentally swiped down to G between thee As in the C part instead of the usual GDE and it sounds very different); Whistle (first time in ages - I think not having the dots to remind me that I know it I rely on my fingers to find it when I am just playing around); King (still not perfect, but I have realised that the bits I like and know and therefore play fast I am playing too fast and have lost the skippety beat, which I've now reinstated, and it sounds much better.)

Instrument: Monkey in D

Foot tapping: Negligible. I keep forgetting and was too wrapped up in the music today.

Recording: Still waiting for instructions and must get that sorted this weekend.

Notes: As mentioned I dotted in and out of the kitchen as I played. Began with drones, all went well. Took the drones off to try Alick then the King. Everything felt comfortable, soft and relaxed, hardly aware of needing to use the bellows. Put the drones back on for the King, went out to the kitchen, came back and couldn't find that comfort again: drones seemed out of tune and too loud, air pressure all wrong, so I flipped them off (how I love the drone switch!!) and fell back into my comfortable space. I also love the ring on the bellows arm strap, it makes it very easy to do up and undo, which means that when I stop I can just free up my arm instead of, as I do with Morag, removing my bellows entirely. It makes it easier to sit and relax in sessions and then faster to snap the bellows back and get going.

Transcendental

Time played: 30 minutes

Tunes played: Whaling (irritatingly I couldn't quite get the B part today and had to go back to dots); Battle (OK - faster on D - everything is faster on D); Galloway (without and then with drones, but not managing a clean transition); Barren Rocks (fast); Flett (OK); Alick (played through, but only once each part, as played here - not that I then repeated all four parts or appended any of it to John Morrison. One day. Maybe. Speed OK-ish but I need to get the timing right. I love the C part.); Home (this is where the title comes in - no drones, just the chanter, perfectly clear and vibrant, the bag feeling soft, that monkey cuddled into my side, pressure feeling soft and easy and even, and I just sat there and listened to the tune, to the lovely pipes, as if it was nothing at all to do with me, these pipes, this tunes, just coming together....)

Instrument: Monkey in D. I began with the A, but I'm not getting fingers cleanly on the  holes and the chanter itself sounds harsh and rasping so I abandoned almost immediately.

Foot tapping: spontaneously with parts of some tunes, but I'm tapping along to the tune, not playing along to my tapping

Recording: None. The manual is 88 pages long and written for techno-heads into multi desk tracking. The fan now says he'll show me again so I can write it down.

Notes: had the fan tune my drones in case that was why the chanter sounded so bad yesterday. Maybe it's the sudden warm spell (although our house keeps a reasonably steady temperature all year round), or travel, or leprechauns...

Darkest before the dawn

Time played: 45  minutes. I had to time play for longer, I had the will to play for longer, but the Monkey was not happy and the chanter drone kept squealing. At one point I realised the chanter was loose, probably I'd pulled it out: thumb very tense today. Later I took the chanter off to see if I could see what was wrong, accidentally took off both parts and had a mini panic that the reed had come adrift and fallen into the bag. And breathe...

Tunes played: Barren Rocks (OK); Town (OK); Galloway (in the B part my fingers decided they didn't fancy CBC and went instead for CBG, liked it so much they did it every single time); Flett (towards the end, when things really were going badly, which meant I mucked the tune up several times, but got it OK eventually); Waterloo (this ought to be signed off as a "know by heart" but somehow I never feel I am quite there, mostly because I can never remember which part I am playing, which time round); Alick (still getting stuck on remembering those same bars. A part only today); Whaling (I do like this, and am almost there by heart, which is good).

Instrument: Monkey in A

Foot tapping: a little while playing the more foot-tapping tunes (Battle).

Recording: none. Have yet to read the manual.

Notes. Last time I did this things got worse before they got better. I think I've been over pumping, hence the squeak. Felt in real need of a teacher today: someone to step in, adjust a couple of drones, tweak this, shift that, and just get me back into the way things should be. I'll get there.

Day three

Time played: 35 minutes, but I am playing quite intensely these days, with only a moment or two between tunes.

Tunes played: My Home Town - had to resort to dots for the B part (no - I can't explain it either); King (over and over and round and round and still not getting it note perfect every time); Galloway (no problems);  Flett (fine once I remembered how it starts...); Alick (abut half of the A part by heart, starting on the B part. I need to listen to it.)

Instrument: Monkey in A (as were days 1 and 2).

Foot tapping: I tried, and then forgot, and ended up walking around instead. I've seen pipers (GHB) walk up and down, and they seem to pace on the spot at each end. I think this must be stop themselves making themselves dizzy...

Recording: the fan has most generously emailed me the manual for the recording kit. Guess what I'll being while the band practises tomorrow...!

Notes: playing without drones. Main chanter reed sometimes squeaky. Grace notes sounding good.

Captain's log

OK - so here we are in June, which means I need to find time every day, the allotment season has started in earnest and I have Christmas glittens to finish. Obviously something needs to give, and I think it has to be blogging. So my plan is to stick to the basics, as follows.

Day one
Time played: one hour, followed by time on the chanter and then fiddling around with Irish tunes on the whistle.
Tunes played: everything on my play list (bar Banks, Highlanders and Whistle), with dots, just to remind myself.
Notes: odd how I never have problems with bellows etc at sessions - presumably just that I have to concentrate on the tune it takes my mind of everything else. Trying to tap my foot with tunes.

Day two
Time played: 45 minutes
Tunes played: Tree, Town, Galloway, Castle, Teribus, King, Flett, Rocks - all dotless, just to prove I can. Barra, because I ought to nail this. Alick C McGregor, A part over and over until I started to get bits by heart, and the B a couple of times.
Notes: I seem to be pushing the bellows down on the outside, so wore them lower round my waist. Droneless, because my arms were tired from hoeing and raking at the plot. Everything works better when I stand up to play. A little foot tapping.

PS - also intending to record a lot, but without it taking too much piping time. Am asking the fan to write instructions for the big recording kit that plugs in to the mains - less hassle all round.

Liscannor to Athy

Just back from a week in Ireland, soaking up lots of music, listening and playing. Heard lots of uilleann pipes. Was offered a set of Irish war pipes in a session to try. They were very much like GHB...the drones weighed a tonne and flapped about (I had to be moved to avoid breaking a light fitting - the pipes' owner said cheerfully that he'd broken several that way) and I managed to get the drones going, without too much pain and lightheadedness, but that was it.

The Monkey was admired for his sweet tones as we played in Newbridge, Liscannor and Athy. I'm afraid that only the Tree proved reliable, others I fudged (Galloway, Home Town) or crashed out on entirely (Galloway, King). I partly blame the music: hearing so much Irish it's like spending a week speaking a different language, speaking French and the moment someone asks you to say something in Italian you get tongue tied and idiotic and can't say a word. (Naturally this problem couldn't have been caused by the local brew...!)

Still, plenty of practise this month, hopefully