Beep Beep!

Day three - more humming of Murray and with a little bit of trial and error I got the A part by heart! I made a concerted effort with the B part, but it's not there yet. This must be my fastest learning of a tune so far and bodes well for me learning new repertoire at a better rate than heretofore.

I began with A again and again felt it a struggle - a bit of neck strain, bit of tension in my hands. I moved on to D and had one of those days where I felt I had too much chest (it's a girl thing) and couldn't get comfortable. Still, it was uncomfortable but somehow not annoying so I carried on.

I've listed to the Loch Alsh tunes over and over and they are improving - I'm getting the timing better (although the grace notes, which come out on the bouzouki more like extra notes, make it difficult to follow the tune as I hear it.) There is also a note in one of them that sound like the wrong note, and I don't know whether that's to do with the different type of scale the pipes have and the different relative values between this note and whatever becomes before or after compared with the bouzouki... (I realise this would make rather more sense if  could remember which tune, which note and how it sounds odd....)

I've also stopped feeling that they would be nice to learn because of the geographical association and started feeling they are good tunes to learn in their own right.

I did some work on the Gaelic Club on those pesky DFA's. For some reason I find them tricky, although - note to self - the D to F is a darn sight easier if you bring you bottom hand down on the chanter after D, like the book says, instead of leaving it flapping in the air in a state of indecision. The same three notes appear in Balmacara, so it was doubly useful to work on them.

A couple of times with Murray I accidentally went in to the Dragon instead. They go well together and I must go back to improving the Dragon. I also mucked around trying to play Barren Rocks, because it's such a similar tune, and got lost in bits of it. I wonder if the three would go together? I should mention that I am only playing the first 2 (of 4) parts of Murray, as per Mr McInnes.

(Re - title of this blog post, I bow to the superior knowledge of Wikipedia, because I always thought that what the Road Runner said as he sped past was Meep Meep.)