New

New year, new post, new tunes.

Yesterday evening I sat on the sofa, going over books of tunes and listening to some of the same tunes on various CDs. I got out my chanter and tried a handful, and they all sounded OK - recognisable. I feel the need for a whole stack of new tunes: I feel as though I've been playing the same thing for 18 months or more, and in fact, where many of the tunes are concerned, I have been doing exactly that. So I've picked a wodge and no doubt some will quickly become the same old same old, others will fizzle and fall by the wayside, and others I will do intermittent battle with, but somehow never manage to get the upper hand.

I played for 90 minutes or so. I started with A and played my way through each tune at least once, except Captain Grant, which refused to sound like any tune I had ever heard, so I abandoned it. A bit of hard work: a struggle to hold the pipes comfortably, to get the air pressure right, and my bottom hand a mess.

Then I moved to D and played the whole lot again, and even Captain Grant behaved himself this time round, after a fashion. The pipes tucked nicely under my arm and the pressure was right, and apart from occasionally overshooting the low G with my little finger it was fine.

I played mainly without gracing. Listening to these tunes a drop down to G adds a real richness, and other than a barely birl, where I clip my little finger against low G, I don't really bother with low grace notes. The tourluaths and such like I was learning with Willie, before I got my pipes, before he died, and I've not had much to do with them since. So I'm finding it a struggle, even to hit a good clean low G between some higher notes. I need to practice on the chanter. I need to practice my grips, especially when going into the grip on one note and coming out on to another.

My new tunes are:

Balmacara and The Falls of Glomach
The fan and I have stayed at Balmacara a few times and have fond memories. It's where someone in a pub in Plockton loaned him a mandolin and he joined in a session, one of his first, and it's also where I sat on the loch side and played my chanter.
I heard these tunes on Springwell and have them in Book 5 of Donald MacLeod.

The Highland Brigade at Waterloo
Not quite new, although this setting is not what I've had before. I know this tune from Tryst and it's in Book 1 of Donald MacLeod.

The Portree Men
The Highland Lassie Going to the Fair
Murray's Welcome
The Glasgow Gaelic Club
Captain Grant
These are all in Standard Settings of Pipe Music of the Seaforth Highlanders and all known to me from Tryst. Murray reminds me of the Barren Rocks and is rather lively. I'm pretty sure I've tried the Portree Men in the past, without much joy.

Delvinside
Not sure about this one. I didn't play it today. I've tried in the past, struggled to find dots that seem to match the version I know (Sealbh). I've got it on volume 1 of P-M W. Ross's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music, which I think I bought in a music shop in Portree.

I recorded three tunes, all on A, so apart from the fiddling about on the chanter yesterday this was pretty much a first play through, so they are rather raw, but set down a marker. They are The Portree Men, The Highland Lassie Going to the Fair and Murray's Welcome. 


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