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.