All shall be well

Out to the usual session today. I played for an hour earlier in the afternoon, which went OK. The A seemed like a lot of work, so I flipped across to the D and found my fingers soft on the chanter, the chanter itself buzzing, grace notes that are so fast and short it takes me a time or two of close observation to see that they are actually there. Having problems with the B part of the Trail after the Farewell, which is odd as when I played the Whaling Song (the B part of which I have been conflating with the B part of the Trail) that was fine and dandy.

The session was small and I felt relaxed. I plunged directly into Flett and Bee, with only a wobble as I thought about how the Bee begins. Promptly lost track of where I was and I think I only played it twice, but fellow sessioneers who hadn't seen me play for a couple of months felt I'd improved.

Later on I played the King. I struggled a bit with a few bars in the middle of the A part, but by the time the second play through came I was fine. Later I confidently told the fan I was going to play Rowan Tree and was half way through the A repeat before I realised I was actually playing Magersfontein, which was good. Next up Home Town where the fan says I am sitting on a rogue note for too long. I need to work out which. Bonnie Galloway for grand finale.

During the first set I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew, and my heart was beating away at a serious tempo, but after that  was fine. A tiny bit of sticky fingers, which interferes with gracing as the tiny movements you make for a grace aren't always enough to break the seal between finger and chanter if the skin is damp. But the bellows/bag/drones were good and I felt very relaxed with them, in control, doing minimal pumping, barely pumping at all at times, withholding pumping when I needed to hold a note or move to high A (both of which sounds vile if you apply pressure to the bellows at the same time).

So, not perfect: a few small errors and hesitations, but on the whole not bad, not bad at all.