Little and large

I decided this morning to cut loose from the dots with the Trail and the Captn. I'd been idly thinking that I didn't really know those tunes, but then managed to call them into mind so that they went round in my head. I didn't do too badly - bits and bobs, with bits missing and bits misplaced.

This afternoon I've played Trail over and over. Often I find in a tune that there is one note, a repeating note, that I get wrong every time, and I just need to name that note, and then I can remember it. It's a B in the Dragon, a D in Galloway, and a C in the Trail.

But I'm still not comfortable with A. As I've mentioned before it feels like a different instrument, bigger, more robust. I need more air in the bag, more bellows action. I struggle to hold the chanter in a comfortable spot. And this afternoon I just seemed to have too much chest, and it all seemed to be in the way. Still, I persevered. I will be as comfortable with A as I am with D. It's just going to take time.

I wish I knew, though, how people flip between similar instruments of different size; different sized whistles, say, or mandolin and bouzouki, as the fan does. Maybe having a different repertoire for each helps split them in your mind.

I need to think what the call this switching and adjustment; I need a blog label for it, because this isn't the first time I've written about it and it certainly won't be the last.