The best of times, the worst of times

In some ways this was a really bad month to choose to play every day. To add to the expected busy period at work I had some stuff that can crop up at any time and of course would  choose the busy period in which to appear, plus something big and totally unexpected and very time consuming also appeared. This means I've been tired, cross, headachy and stressed out and the last thing I've needed when I got home has been more stuff to do.

It’s also peak allotment season with courgettes needing to be harvested every other day, sweet peas ditto, and things needing to be watered  most days.

On the positive side the piping has proved a huge stress release at the end of the day, providing I've not been too tired. The fan’s workload starts to ease off a little this month so he’s been more able to step in and do some cooking. The plot really only need s attention every other day. And the knitting season is dead on its feet: just one paltry pair of socks started in April and finished this weekend. Normally that’s maybe two weeks’ worth of knitting at most. 

I've started another project, but it will take no time at all to do. This is partly driven by a deadline (it’s for a forthcoming baby and has to be handed over before the mother-to-be leaves work) and partly just by the fun of it: one of my favourite things to knit and takes no time at all.

As ever when I get to the end of a month of intense playing I feel a mix of relief and regret. The relief is that I will have time to do other things, and that I will be able to choose when to play rather than feeling it’s another target for the day. Regret because I will miss playing every day, and because I never do as much, learn as much, improve as much as I hope to during these months. 

There will be others – am penciling in September.

Pleased as Punch

The fan says I'm doing really well, sounding fluent, putting on a spurt of speed. I must be pleased, he says. But I can only think of all the other times when he has said nice things, or I've felt I've improved, and yet here I still am, with a long long list of things I want to do better. Better gracing, better bellows control, better switching between chanters, faster learning of tunes, bigger repertoire. I don't feel very pleased at all, really.

Gather round

Almost the end of my month of playing (as near as dammit) every day. I meant to do a lot of recording, but have failed miserably on that score.

I did manage something today. It's the Braemar Gathering. Not too bad. You can hear where I get those snaps backward and somehow I've lost all the D graces between my low As and Cs, although they came back as I carried on playing. Just the first three parts. Hoping to get these a little tidier before I add in the last part.

Now wondering what I can play it with. Deaf Shepherd put it with Morag MacNeil, Tangusdale, Colin Clark Carruthers (which sounds as though it ought to be a cautionary tale, possibly involving a boy who shunned pipe practice), New Hands and Donella Beaton.



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Out, damned dots

I meant to entitle this post "damned if you do" but once I thought of this it was too good to resist...

I've been working hard at Braemar. I've really struggled with the repeated FAFs. They go long, short, standard and I kept wanting to play them as short, long, standard. Still, I kept working away and eventually turned them round. And then the fan said it sounded very good except there were some Scotch snaps I  was apparently missing.

Que? Scotch snaps - short, long, standard. Ah yes, I remembered them well... The fan looked at the dots and confirmed I was playing as written i.e. wrong.

So this evening I've been trying to unlearn my careful learning and switch round the long and shorts. I'm getting the hang of the A then D grace on C business, but where the C is the first note of a "snap" (there are two that go CDA) it's adding to the chaos. Almost wish I'd never bothered with the dots at all....

Oh, go on then

I wasn't going to play this evening. It seems that now the pressure is (finally) easing off at work I feel more tired than ever. All I wanted to do this evening was curl up with a book, leaving the allotment unwatered and not even bothering to start a new knitting project to take to my knitting group tomorrow. Well, the plot will have to stay dry tonight, but I've dragged my project out to cast on and I've done some piping.

My hands were cold and my pipes sounded odd to me. The fan says they sounded fine to him. It's like those mysterious days when the car seems to sound growly or rattly for no particular reason. Or the mysterious way in which 19 degrees (the standard temperature in the flat over the year) can seem blissfully cool in summer but unbearably cold in winter.

I worked on the Braemar Gathering, sticking to the first two parts and reading the dots rather than using them as a guide to the shape of things while I play what I think the tune sounds like. I don't know the tune well enough.

(As an aside I was thinking of The Session and the insistence there on the purity - even moral superiority - of playing by ear and thinking of all those great pipe tunes I have the dots for and perhaps will never hear anyone else play in my entire life, let alone hear often enough to learn...)

But, round and round with the A and B, working on timing, trying to throw in D grace wherever low A moves to C. It's a nice movement and ought to be simple enough. I played a few other bits and pieces but nothing sounded right or felt comfortable, and I almost wish I hadn't bothered at all.

Lost and found

The fan is back. I've retrieved the first part of the Cudgel, and the dots.

I lost two more days of my month. On Saturday I kept waiting for phone updates from the fan , stranded in Basel awaiting a replacement plane. On Sunday I was just too darned tired.

Today as I went through dots to find the Pickle, Cudgel, Troy, Whaling and Braemar I came across the Shetland Fiddler, Alick C and the Snuff Wife and wondered about giving them another go, but (wisely, hopefully) I stuck to what I had.

I still don't really have Troy, after all this time. The bits that work well fly from my fingers, but then I stumble over a grace and the edifice crumbles. I had the Whaling Song, but keep conflating the B part with that of the Cabot Trail. The fan tells me this means I don't really know the Whaling Song. I've listened to it again and introduced some snaps which I hope will differentiate it in my mind from the Trail. Braemar  is tricky on timing.

Played for fun this evening: Magersfontein, Bee, Flett and Dargai.

Missing

Missing the fan. He'll be back the day after tomorrow.

Missing the 27 degrees and glorious sun we were promised today. Where is the summer? I've had to stop playing tonight because my hands are too cold. (I need to knit fingerless mitts for piping in).

Missing the end of the first part of the Cudgel. I had it, but it has gone AWOL today. Lost the dots, too, so couldn't even check.

Missed a day's playing yesterday. Something big and unexpected cropped up at work this week to go with all the big and expected stuff. I got home late and after dinner I spent an hour an a half at the plot and after that I was very tired and curled up with a book and a cup of tea until it got dark and I went to bed.

Missing the fan. Did I already mention that? Only two more sleeps and he'll be home again.

The doctor will see you now...

For headache, loneliness (first whole day of the fan being away), weltschmerz, depression and a bad day at work we recommend one hour of tying in tomatoes, watering cabbages and picking strawberries, and half an hour of lovely pipe playing.

Works every time.

Small beginnings

Some while ago now I read Kirsty Gunn's beautiful novel The Big Music and I remember being just a tad depressed by the Piping Grading Table that appears in the appendices. There are 6 levels, and by the fourth level you've still only managed to become a novice.

I was reminded of this recently while listening to the Food Programme (the 1 June 2014 episode). The programme was about knives and knife makers. There was an alarming clip of Sheila Dillon apparently closeted in a kitchen with a man with an unhealthy interest in knives who muttered "chop, chop, chop" and "Sever! Sever!" as he whipped the knives about. You could hear them cutting through the air as he wielded them and I worried for Sheila's safety.

But the point of interest was that in Japan where there are apparently some very fine knife makers, a man (apparently they are always men: no women were mentioned) may work with a master craftsman for 10 (yes: ten) years before he is allowed to become a student. After a further 14 years he moves on to become an apprentice. A far cry from the days when a boy was apprenticed at 14 to learn a trade in seven years.

It made me think how far I have come. I can play a tune on my pipes. I can play a reasonably fastish tune. I can play several tunes from memory. I can play a number of tunes one after the other without stopping to wonder what tunes I know or how they go, or having a little lie down to rest aching arms. I can play in front of other people without it being a major ordeal. I can switch between A and D chanter with reasonable ease. None of these things could I do when I collected Morag back in November 2011. In fact, some of those things I still couldn't do when I collected the Monkey just over a year ago.

I still want to use more grace notes, play better grace notes, increase my speed (while maintaining accuracy), learn more tunes and become more comfortable with playing with or for other people. I need to improve my timing. I want to be a better piper.

The Pickled Cudgel

The fan was out this evening, and I didn't need to cook dinner until late, which gave me time to scoot to the plot and also grab the recorder and play. This recording is just as it happened: no bits taken off either end. I played better over the course of the session, as ever. I don't seem to be playing as fast today. I forgot the high A's on the B part of the Pickle first time round, and got lost with the timing of the Cudgel. Poor fingering/gracing on the repeated low A's in the Pickle and somehow fluffed the final bars of both parts of the Cudgel every time. At least I'm consistent!

No drones as no fan to tune them.

The fan will be on his annual trip next week so expect to see more of me here, hopefully with more recordings, unless I get distracted, of course.


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I'm a believer

More miracles. I switch to A for the first time in over a week, at least, and I have no problems at all. I go straight into tunes. The pressure in the bag is higher, but that's just A. My little finger had to stretch, but it did, and there wasn't a problem.

I played some slow and sedate A tunes, then tried for the Captain, missed, and hit the Cabot Trail at speed. It has become a myth that I can only play D at speed. Myth is precisely what it is: not true at all.

I switched briefly to D and had a go at Pickle and Cudgel (how does The Pickled Cudgel sound as a set name? I'm bagging that for the first album...!) I had to start 3 bars in with the Pickle, but managed it in the end. The Cudgel is going to need more work, but is nearly ready.

Gatecrashers

I missed playing yesterday. We had guests for the weekend and I spent what little morning there was before they arrived making dessert for the evening, making up the bed, cleaning the bathroom etc, and ran out of time to play.

This evening I started with the Pickle and the Cudgel: both coming on nicely. Still with the dots but feeling they are just there for decoration at this point. After that I played five in a row: Magersfontein, Dargai, Bee, Flett...and I've forgotten which else.

The I played something familiar that was in my head. I though perhaps it was Murray, so tried and failed for the B part of that. Played the A part of Murray instead. Ran into the Barren Rocks by accident at the end and on to the B part f that. Back to Murray and on again to the mystery tune, which turned out to be the Dragon. None perfect,  but clearly they are all floating around despite my decision to drop them. And clearly they seem to work together, if only by association.

Then the Captain, McIntyre's Farewell, the King, the Cabot Trail (but maybe this was my fifth tune?), Troy, Coggeshall Fair (one of the two tunes written for us), Amazing Grace. A bit of foot tapping, intermittently: some of it distracted me as I followed my foot rather than the tune.

All in D, though. droneless. I must work with drones, with A. I must record.

Adjusting

The neighbours have gone again. They only pass through for a week or so a couple of times a year. They know we are musicians. We've asked and asked and they are quite clear. Mostly they can't hear us at all, and when they can they enjoy it. Still, when I am playing and I know they are there I always imaging throwing down the TV remote and stamping downstairs to demand that I take my pipes and stick them... I have to remember that they have gone, that creaks are the floorboards settling, not the precursor to a confrontation.

I've lost a few pounds at some stage, and maybe the leather of the straps has loosened, too, but I have to take care when strapping myself in. Today it was all too loose and I ended up with a sore thumb because I was tensing fingers on the chanter to support the drooping bellows. I can fidget things round a bit while I play, but sometimes really need to stop and sort things properly before I go on.

I'm enjoying the Pickle Tow and the Cudgel, although I am having to call out "one-two-three, one-two-three" as I play to get the timing right. I've settled on the version of the Pickle with more notes, but rather missed the high A's in the opening bard of the B part. So I decided to play the B as written first time round, and second time to swap the low A's for high A's. It's sounding good. Recording to follow soon, sometime, eventually.

Out of the woodwork

After the recent reappearance of Teribus and the Barren Rocks this week I've found myself playing Captain wotsit: the second, long abandoned, half of the Nova Scotia set. As I played the A part I assumed I'd crash out at the end of the second repeat, having no idea at all how the B part went. The mice knew.

Not getting to play for very long each day this week. It's been a bit chaotic, delayed by traffic a couple of days, a hair appointment one day, when I resorted to chanter practice only. But it's going OK, and I'm feeling relaxed about my piping, am enjoying it. I'm pleased with the quality of my gracing: I'm really getting some of those blips and chirrups instead of clunky notes. I could still do with more grace notes, more speed, more accuracy.

In other news I found (via the Session) this interesting website on Scottish music, I have two courgettes growing at the plot and about half the world's ant population on the artichokes, and I broke my ipod! I love my ipod: it allows me to remove the dross from Radio 4 and listen only to the best bits, and I really miss it. I've had to order a replacement....

Dear diary

Just popping in to say that playing every day is not the same as blogging every day! I'm intending to work on the Wee Pickle Tow (I still don't know what this is, but have fun imaging ordering a haggis on rye, extra tomato, hold the mayo...oh, and can I get a wee pickle tow with that?), the Irishman's Cudgel (aka the Drops of Brandy) and the tune that the fiddle player gave me. Troy to polish, too. Should keep me busy enough for the month.

Yesterday Teribus popped up again, and, out of nowhere, the Barren Rocks. I'm full of tunes and whenever I pick up my pipes they just fall out, it seems.