One finger, one thumb

The fan sent me a link. It's nice enough, but, well...it's not smallpipes. These are, however. I think what struck me about this clip is that Gary is much bigger than his pipes. They look quite small. Maybe even more so in this clip. My pipes always feel rather large. I am 5'3" and long legged, so the difference between wearing the strap as high up my chest as it will go and wearing it around my waist is a matter of perhaps 3 inches. I feel I peer round my pipes. I clutch them to me. They take up my whole lap when I sit down.

I also notice that Gary looks as though he's playing a tiny chanter. I am assuming he's playing in A (the fan - who is out at a session - will no doubt enlighten me). D feels about right for my hands whereas A feels big...

Which reminded me that I haven't played A since who knows when. So I did the switch and for the first two seconds I couldn't find the bottom two holes on the chanter and it sounded odd, and then it was all OK and I thought how lovely and mellow and rich A sounds. But although the chanter felt reasonably comfortable the pipes felt huge, the bag felt really full and stiff and seemed to need a lot of effort to keep it going. I stuck to it for a while then flipped to D and immediately everything felt different.

I seem to be struggling to remember tunes at the moment, perhaps because I've got a lot on at work and my head is buzzing with rubbish. Every time I try to play Flett Bonnie Galloway comes out instead. While fiddling about I got half a bar of of a Vicki and Jonny tune (maybe The Willows). I did manage Magersfontein, Amazing Grace, Loch Bee, My Home Town, Cabot Trail, McIntyre's Farewell and The Irishman's Cudgel. Fingers too tense, but I'm tired (see having a lot on at work, qv, ad nauseam).

I thought about playing every day through September, but it's going to be a pig of a month at work. October is no good as we hope to be away for a week of it. The fan suggested I go for 4 weeks instead of a calendar month and cover the end of September and start of October. Not sure that work will let up enough, although I suppose trips to the plot will have dwindled right back by then. Either way I need to play A. And I need more new tunes!!