I had a quick check for Magersfontein. As I thought it was a battle during the Boer War and the cheerful, upbeat tune commemorates the brigade that suffered the heaviest losses. The phantom piper who can be heard playing “mournful notes” at the battle field must be playing some other tune. Presumably these endless upbeat tunes attached to terrible events celebrate the life and bravery of the troops rather than their deaths. I’m learning rather a lot about British military history as I go through these tunes names. A far cry from my usual fields of interest.
I do need to move my new tunes to dotlessness. I think with Troy, Alick and the Fiddler I should probably break them up into sections and learn a bit at a time. I know I just about had the A part of Troy a while back, and occasionally I get bits of the B part of the Fiddler, which is most unusual – its normally the A part that comes first. I must be nearly there with Somme and Dragon and perhaps not far off already with Magersfontein. I just need to try them really: I've been sticking to dots ever since I started these.
My plan now is to try to record more often, and to cut back on blogging to make time for piping. Perhaps I'll aim to post once a week with a tune. I'd like to try keep track of hours of play, too. I'm not intending to do this forever: maybe to 100 hours, that seems like a nice goal. Somehow I feel as though I've passed a milestone this month. I'm celebrating by not playing at all this evening!
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