Along for the ride

A blog-free week, in which I should have had lots of spare time in which to do other things. I don't seem to have done anything earth shattering, other than watching Andy's magnificent win. I've also watered the allotment and done a fair amount of playing - just over 4 hours in total this week.

The playing is going very well. I'm finding that I am in good control of the bag, starting and stopping more cleanly. My fingers are light on the chanter. My grace notes sound good. My old tunes are all still playable, the new tunes are coming on well. Dragon, Somme and Magersfontein are almost dotless, the longer ones need more work but are speeding up, which is good. As I've mentioned before I am enjoying the music now. To go back to my favourite analogy of driving I'm passed the stage of staring manically at the road ahead, twitching when I change gear and panicking when I change lanes. I can cruise gently along and enjoy the scenery and the trip.

I must get back to playing with drones. I'm inclined to do a Vicki special and block the fourth drone with blue tac until I get used to them.  I do also need to get much better at switching between chanters. A to E I can do, with only a moment or two to adjust. E to A is really hard. I think that I hold the bag and position the drones differently with the two chanters. I need to take more note next time I get comfortable with A again.

Some tunes. These are the three military ones. I feel they should go together as a set, but I can't decide which order. Both Somme and Magersfontein tag nicely on to the end of the Dragon, although oddly I always want to play the B part of the Somme after the Dragon.

Recording isn't great - I was struggling the day I recorded and though I did endless takes I didn't get one good one. Didn't help that I was on the cusp of moving off dots so had them because I needed them but found them distracting me. My fingers ran away with the Dragon - too fast for accuracy. Also a hideous bit before Somme where I am, I'm afraid, shifting sheet music round on my stand. Timing not great. I can do better - I am doing better  - but I was cross by the time I got to this version of the recording.


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