Tunes for us

I've played a few times over the last few days, partly because I’ve had some days off, but mostly because we’ve been given some tunes of our very own! The fiddler in the fan’s band sent a tune for us (the plural covers me and my pipes, BTW) out of the blue.  We tried it out – it’s in D – and it went OK, but there were a few notes out of range. We mentioned this, rather shyly, and back came another tune!

The odd thing is that I learned the reading of dots for pipes in A, and all my music is set for A. As with a whistle if I change to D I play the same fingering, it’s just that different notes come out. So when the tune sent was in D, even though I was fully intending to play it on the D chanter, I had to transpose it to A so that I knew which notes to play, or at least, which fingers to put where. Although my handwriting is, I think, reasonably clear, my writing of notes is so scruffy that I can’t read my own score so I was thankful for one of the fan’s bits of kit that allows me to type music.

The other interesting thing is how differently a non-piper thinks, in terms of dots. I expect this happens with any instrument, so admire anyone who writes for a whole orchestra. Some of the note sequences sound rather odd to my ear. Some of the sequences put together notes that really aren’t easy to play one after another, partly because my fingers have an expectation of certain note patterns. A tremolo was called for on a high G, which must be one of the hardest notes to add an interesting grace to. But it’s nice to think differently about the pipes and what they can play and how they can sound, especially as I am aware that I very much play them as miniature GHB.

Speaking of which, the recording is of two standard pipe tunes and a Scottish song: The Georgia Whaling Song, Flett from Flotta and the Shores of Loch Bee. I am hoping these work as a set. I think I've got the wrong number of repeats in Whaling. All tunes have the odd garbled moment where I miss a note in my rush. I race too fast into Bee, and then have a sort of a pause while I listen and wonder if I really am playing Bee or just Flett again, only faster. Drones a little wavery, perhaps: that's what comes of using bellows rather than bag. Otherwise, I think it sounds OK. 

Check this out on Chirbit