Raising the bar

Back from our holiday. I spent the whole time humming Magersfontein, and thought a lot about my pipes. I was worried that I would have forgotten how to play, but I slipped right back into it, all my tunes and everything. Yesterday I played for an hour and 40 minutes, broken into three sessions so I didn't tire my arms, but actually it was all very comfortable.

It occurs to me that I'm being harsh on myself in not updating my play list. There was a time where if I could rush through a tune, A and B parts once only, without having to check the dots, even if I had to adjust mistakes or have big pauses to think in, then I considered it learnt and added it to the list. Now I feel I must be able to play the entire tune through three times over without hesitation, deviation or repetition every single time I try to play it, before I consider it learnt. I suppose the better you get at something the higher your expectations are.

I'm enjoying reading the Barry Shears book and learning lots about Scotland, Canada, emigration, piping families and so on. Am slightly frustrated that he doesn't pick up on the pictures. There are lots of them and they show pipers (nearly all men) holding pipes in so many different ways. Bag under the left arm  or the right arm; left or right hand uppermost  on the chanter; chanter way off to the side, slap in front, held very high or very low. Presumably it was the formality of piping bands that called for everyone to hold pipes the same way. I wonder if different ways of holding affected the sound.

There is also just one very short section on female pipers, mostly briefly biographies of two particular women, but no indication of what the men, or indeed, other women thought about this. Was it accepted or frowned upon? Were there many women pipers? Were there many women musicians? Lots of unanswered questions.

Hopefully back soon with more recordings. I've got several long weekends coming up, so plenty of time to play, record and blog!