It's odd how differently different tunes progress. McIntyre's Farewell and Capt Angus I thought were dead and turn out to be alive and well and rather thinking of getting together, which is great. My only reservation is that I think they may feel more comfortable on A. When did I last fire up the A chanter? Don't even ask...
The Cabot Trail is needing more work on grace notes: a common complaint. Miss G is currently the pester tune: she wants to be played after absolutely every other tune I play.
Some tunes arrive and very quickly are ready for release into the wild. Others seem to spend endless months suffering from false starts and relapses. some recover, some languish as chronic patients, and some die off....
Still, I'm playing a lot at the moment and, dead and dying tunes not withstanding, I'm loving every minute of it.
Ramblings of an easily distracted learner piper
Wednesday 28 January 2015
Monday 26 January 2015
The reel thing
Now I've got the right dots everything is falling into place. I've been humming Alick C today: first time ever. Getting a decent speed up, too. Work needed on speed (getting faster, being fast and in control, keeping the speed even), on grace notes, and on the C part where I am struggling with timing in a couple of bars. Am going to work on the A and B, maybe get those by heart before I start on the C and D.
The fan suggests a new sort of challenge: that I set myself to learn a new tune between now and the next session. Not sure I'm up to this. I wouldn't be happy about taking a single tune, with no companion. I would need to find a tune, and decent dots. I think maybe if it was a march I might manage it, maybe if I played it a lot. Maybe. I'm so conscious of the tunes (Dragon, Rocks, Troy, Cudgel. Highlanders, Braemar, to name but a few) that I've pegged away at for so long and never got to be happy with. I don't chose tunes: they chose me. Still, it's an idea I haven't totally rejected...
The fan suggests a new sort of challenge: that I set myself to learn a new tune between now and the next session. Not sure I'm up to this. I wouldn't be happy about taking a single tune, with no companion. I would need to find a tune, and decent dots. I think maybe if it was a march I might manage it, maybe if I played it a lot. Maybe. I'm so conscious of the tunes (Dragon, Rocks, Troy, Cudgel. Highlanders, Braemar, to name but a few) that I've pegged away at for so long and never got to be happy with. I don't chose tunes: they chose me. Still, it's an idea I haven't totally rejected...
Sunday 25 January 2015
Notes from the tune clinic
This is the current list of tunes being nurtured. The goal for each of them is that they are fit to be seen out at a session. Their problems are varied.
Horsburgh Castle. Diagnosis: unclear. I did wonder if actually I just don't like it, but I hum it often, and when I play it...yes, I do like it. Maybe it would sound better in A. Almost committed to memory, but regular lapses. Perhaps it's just waiting for its set-mate, Miss G.
Miss Girdle. Now she has got over her identity crisis she's recovering well. Suffering from a lack of grace notes. Slow in her movements, but gradually getting faster.
Troy's Wedding. Long term patient. A part fine and dandy. B part OK if I get the gracing right - a slightly sticky finger prolonging a grace throws me into confusion. C part either goes very well or goes too fast and goes wrong. Fingers often too tense at this point. D part - intermittent memory loss.
South Georgia Whaling Song. Tendency to go to fast and for snaps to either not appear at all or go so fast they are almost invisible. Despite ongoing attachment issues with the Cabot Trail has tendency for B part to morph into the Trail (which itself is suffering form a lack of speed control and a lack of grace notes.) It's annoying because this is a total relapse: I first played it at a session just weeks after starting to learn it.
Alick M McGregor. Much better now that I have moved from Session dots to proper dots. My problem is that whoever transcribed for the session clearly heard doublings as two notes, and wrote them as such, and I've been trying to add more grace notes, and this proliferation of notes has severely affected speed. Improving well.
The Irishman's Cudgel. Tendency to get stuck in a loop of B part, unable to recall how to get back to the A part. Those drops down to G don't always work very cleanly. Lack of grace notes. Generally improving.
The Braemar Gatheirng. Unhealthy attachment to dots, some stiffening of fingers, especially in the C part where I am having problems with D graces on the move from A to C.
Compliments to Roy A Chisholm. New patient, progressing well. Actually found myself humming the tune this morning for the first time and some of the repeating bars I already have by heart. A few more grace notes and a tad more speed wouldn't go amiss.
Horsburgh Castle. Diagnosis: unclear. I did wonder if actually I just don't like it, but I hum it often, and when I play it...yes, I do like it. Maybe it would sound better in A. Almost committed to memory, but regular lapses. Perhaps it's just waiting for its set-mate, Miss G.
Miss Girdle. Now she has got over her identity crisis she's recovering well. Suffering from a lack of grace notes. Slow in her movements, but gradually getting faster.
Troy's Wedding. Long term patient. A part fine and dandy. B part OK if I get the gracing right - a slightly sticky finger prolonging a grace throws me into confusion. C part either goes very well or goes too fast and goes wrong. Fingers often too tense at this point. D part - intermittent memory loss.
South Georgia Whaling Song. Tendency to go to fast and for snaps to either not appear at all or go so fast they are almost invisible. Despite ongoing attachment issues with the Cabot Trail has tendency for B part to morph into the Trail (which itself is suffering form a lack of speed control and a lack of grace notes.) It's annoying because this is a total relapse: I first played it at a session just weeks after starting to learn it.
Alick M McGregor. Much better now that I have moved from Session dots to proper dots. My problem is that whoever transcribed for the session clearly heard doublings as two notes, and wrote them as such, and I've been trying to add more grace notes, and this proliferation of notes has severely affected speed. Improving well.
The Irishman's Cudgel. Tendency to get stuck in a loop of B part, unable to recall how to get back to the A part. Those drops down to G don't always work very cleanly. Lack of grace notes. Generally improving.
The Braemar Gatheirng. Unhealthy attachment to dots, some stiffening of fingers, especially in the C part where I am having problems with D graces on the move from A to C.
Compliments to Roy A Chisholm. New patient, progressing well. Actually found myself humming the tune this morning for the first time and some of the repeating bars I already have by heart. A few more grace notes and a tad more speed wouldn't go amiss.
Friday 23 January 2015
Five things - more Mr Macinnes
Five CDs that feature not enough of Iain MacInnes.
I realise I run the risk of sounding a bit obsessive and stalkerish here, but heaven knows there are few enough CDs out there featuring smallpipes, and even fewer featuring Iain, who is my smallpiping hero because I love everything he does. Although he has only given us a miniscule number of CDs of his own he has appeared elsewhere over the years. If you want to hear more of MacInnes, and who wouldn't, these are the CDs you need to get hold of.
I realise I run the risk of sounding a bit obsessive and stalkerish here, but heaven knows there are few enough CDs out there featuring smallpipes, and even fewer featuring Iain, who is my smallpiping hero because I love everything he does. Although he has only given us a miniscule number of CDs of his own he has appeared elsewhere over the years. If you want to hear more of MacInnes, and who wouldn't, these are the CDs you need to get hold of.
1. Shore Street, Billy Ross. A CD showcasing Billy and a good range of Scottish songs, on which he is joined from the old crowd from Smalltalk and Ossian, among others. Iain is credited on the first track (The Heiland Sodger). He is most certainly also on track 3 (Fiollaigean) but oddly uncredited... The pipes are right at the end of the song: blink and you'll miss them. The CD is well worth listening to. Billy has a soft and clear voice and there are interesting notes on each song and the Appalachian version of Matty Groves is worth the price of the CD alone. You'll never think of Matty Groves in the same way again.
2. Canterach. The band and the CD share a name. Now really and truly this is no less an Iain MacInnes CD than Smalltalk or The Carrying Stream. He appears on 9 of 11 tracks on whistle, GHB and Scottish small pipes. Somehow it's not one of my favourites: it's the keyboards, electric guitar and various bits of percussion and other such embellishments I could live without. It's Iain's playing,but not his usual style in terms of choice of tunes, instruments or arrangements.
3. Grand Concert of Scottish Piping. Two tracks and 10 tunes featuring Iain on small pipes. The rest of the CD isn't bad either. Two more small pipe tracks (Martyn Bennett), one lot of border pipes, and as a bonus, Allan MacDonald.
4. and 5. Tannahill Weavers, Cullen Bay and Land of Light. I've got both these albums and if it wasn't for the pipe sets I'd probably never listen to them. As it is I skip a lot of tracks. Lots of songs that don't sound trad, but apparently are, lots of strummy guitar. The pipe sets are good and include Ian playing stuff you don't hear him doing anywhere else: a Gordan Duncan tune, for instance. The smallpipes make a few brief contributions, in the main Iain is on GHB.
I saw the Tannies, years ago, in Colchester. It was before I discovered pipes, although I already loved them. The Tannies were just one of the fan's old favourite folk bands then, and I think he enticed me along with the promise of pipes. I remember I'd not long learned to knit fair isle holding the two colours one in each hand and I spent much of the evening contemplating fair isle patterns I might knit, and remember very little of the concert itself. Thank heaven Iain had left them, otherwise think how I'd be kicking myself now.
3. Grand Concert of Scottish Piping. Two tracks and 10 tunes featuring Iain on small pipes. The rest of the CD isn't bad either. Two more small pipe tracks (Martyn Bennett), one lot of border pipes, and as a bonus, Allan MacDonald.
4. and 5. Tannahill Weavers, Cullen Bay and Land of Light. I've got both these albums and if it wasn't for the pipe sets I'd probably never listen to them. As it is I skip a lot of tracks. Lots of songs that don't sound trad, but apparently are, lots of strummy guitar. The pipe sets are good and include Ian playing stuff you don't hear him doing anywhere else: a Gordan Duncan tune, for instance. The smallpipes make a few brief contributions, in the main Iain is on GHB.
I saw the Tannies, years ago, in Colchester. It was before I discovered pipes, although I already loved them. The Tannies were just one of the fan's old favourite folk bands then, and I think he enticed me along with the promise of pipes. I remember I'd not long learned to knit fair isle holding the two colours one in each hand and I spent much of the evening contemplating fair isle patterns I might knit, and remember very little of the concert itself. Thank heaven Iain had left them, otherwise think how I'd be kicking myself now.
Wednesday 21 January 2015
With compliments
Still playing most days at the moment, and enjoying it, despite cold hands, and cold pipes, which isn't a good combination. Suddenly thought to get the recorder out this evening and capture my latest tune: Compliments to Roy A Chisholm by Barry W Shears. Only been playing a few days, but it comes out at a good speed. A couple of points where I am pausing or slowing to check what comes next, a couple of outright fluffs. Not bad, though.
No drones, as always seems to be the case and I start with one of several twiddly bits that I use to check everything is OK. Not sure when I began this habit!
Felt I lacked air this evening - maybe because I'm playing fast tunes: this, Troy, Athol Highlanders, Drops of Brandy, Miss Girdle, Braemar Gathering, Alick C McGregor. Horbsurgh has gone on the pile of resting tunes.
Check this out on Chirbit
No drones, as always seems to be the case and I start with one of several twiddly bits that I use to check everything is OK. Not sure when I began this habit!
Felt I lacked air this evening - maybe because I'm playing fast tunes: this, Troy, Athol Highlanders, Drops of Brandy, Miss Girdle, Braemar Gathering, Alick C McGregor. Horbsurgh has gone on the pile of resting tunes.
Check this out on Chirbit
Monday 19 January 2015
Gone, but not forgotten
I suddenly remembered that I used to play McIntyre's Farewell. I couldn't recall it at all. I flipped over the pages in the book, took one look at the first two notes...and discovered I could still play the whole tune by heart.
While I had the book to hand I thought I'd see if any of the Cape Breton tunes played on Piob is Fidheall were in there. I thought I found one. The name looked familiar, although as it's Compliments to Roy A Chisholm that's not surprising. Compliments are a reasonably frequent tune title: Fiddlers Bid play Chris Stout's Compliments to the Bon Accord Ale House, and the name of Chisholm is also familiar (tickets booked to see him this spring!)
When I pulled the CD out I found I was wrong and it isn't on the album, nor are compliments to anyone else. But it's a very good tune indeed, and I'm already getting a decent speed up with it.
Less speed at the weekend when we went to a new (to us) session to support it during the session leader's absence due to illness. Nice venue - not much like a pub at all. The main downside is the rumble of trains overhead at irregular intervals. Nice friendly crowd, although we didn't really gel musically and people did their own thing here and there. We sat in a semi circle, facing out into the pub, concert style. I had very few nerves, and most of my fluffs were down to random memory loss and cold hands. Only once did I feel panicky and then only very briefly. Maybe the stage fright is going.
While I had the book to hand I thought I'd see if any of the Cape Breton tunes played on Piob is Fidheall were in there. I thought I found one. The name looked familiar, although as it's Compliments to Roy A Chisholm that's not surprising. Compliments are a reasonably frequent tune title: Fiddlers Bid play Chris Stout's Compliments to the Bon Accord Ale House, and the name of Chisholm is also familiar (tickets booked to see him this spring!)
When I pulled the CD out I found I was wrong and it isn't on the album, nor are compliments to anyone else. But it's a very good tune indeed, and I'm already getting a decent speed up with it.
Less speed at the weekend when we went to a new (to us) session to support it during the session leader's absence due to illness. Nice venue - not much like a pub at all. The main downside is the rumble of trains overhead at irregular intervals. Nice friendly crowd, although we didn't really gel musically and people did their own thing here and there. We sat in a semi circle, facing out into the pub, concert style. I had very few nerves, and most of my fluffs were down to random memory loss and cold hands. Only once did I feel panicky and then only very briefly. Maybe the stage fright is going.
Wednesday 14 January 2015
Are we downhearted?
I notice a trend now, that when things go wrong, or just not to plan, I'm less likely to be bothered and to give up or whinge. At one stage I had a lot of whinge posts in proportion to the total. As I write this (my 410th post) only 53 others are tagged as whinges!
The thing is, I know that there are days when nothing fits, the bellows make my wrist hurt and my fingers numb. I know that there will be days when a tune - or several tunes - won't come, when my fingers don't seem to be attached to my brain or my brain seems only to remember A parts. I know there will be days when one tune just crashes out or won't come at all.
Experience now tells me that all these things will pass. Tomorrow, or the next day everything will have sorted itself as mysteriously as it fouled things up. Sometimes a break is the best form of practice. Sometimes that means literally not playing. Sometimes it means just playing tunes I know as they come to me, or playing tunes I used to know from dots, or playing tunes from dots that I don't know, or working over and over at one tune, bits of tunes.
And even when things go badly I can still enjoy the other bits, I can enjoy looking forward to better piping another day. And I can listen to some great music - I'm really enjoying Whistlebinkies, Jock Tamson's Bairns and Kenneth and Angus Mackenzie at the moment.
The thing is, I know that there are days when nothing fits, the bellows make my wrist hurt and my fingers numb. I know that there will be days when a tune - or several tunes - won't come, when my fingers don't seem to be attached to my brain or my brain seems only to remember A parts. I know there will be days when one tune just crashes out or won't come at all.
Experience now tells me that all these things will pass. Tomorrow, or the next day everything will have sorted itself as mysteriously as it fouled things up. Sometimes a break is the best form of practice. Sometimes that means literally not playing. Sometimes it means just playing tunes I know as they come to me, or playing tunes I used to know from dots, or playing tunes from dots that I don't know, or working over and over at one tune, bits of tunes.
And even when things go badly I can still enjoy the other bits, I can enjoy looking forward to better piping another day. And I can listen to some great music - I'm really enjoying Whistlebinkies, Jock Tamson's Bairns and Kenneth and Angus Mackenzie at the moment.
Sunday 11 January 2015
Take five
I've been busy today and was going to play later. Unfortunately, while peeling home grown squash to make a batch of roasted squash and sweet potato soup for the freezer I discovered exactly how sharp the lovely Victorinox blade in my vegetable peeler is. Sharp enough to slice the top of my thumb. The blood eventually subsided and I managed to make pastry and crumble topping one handed but I don't think there is going to be any piping today.
Thursday 8 January 2015
Hang loose
I've always had a bit of a problem with wind instruments such as whistles where in order to reach some higher notes you over blow. I hate discordant notes, especially high discordant notes; I hate the thought that I won't hit the right note. I probably tense and over over blow, as it were. I remember in the days when I played the trumpet being encouraged to go for a higher note, pressing well in to the mouthpiece and giving it all with my lungs. I remember the teacher pulling the instrument away from me so I was barely touching mouth against mouthpiece, and the surprise at finding that note coming easily and effortlessly.
I've been thinking about this recently, noticing how, when am relaxed, fingers are barely on the chanter. When I am tense my fingers are stiff, I grip the chanter, I find it difficult to move fingers quickly. Soft, loose fingers that don't really hold the chanter, just settle around it, make quick notes and the smallest chirrups of grace notes. I know now when a high A grace needs to be a tap of the thumb, and when a downward - or upward - swipe is better. Everything is more relaxed (usually).
Both Rocks and Dragon (how does The Barren Dragon strike as a set name?) went to pot this evening. I couldn't get either of them right. The fan says it's because I was playing faster, but even the slow walk throughs with all the gracing in was wrong. I don't get cross or bothered by this though. I know by now that if I leave these tunes to fester for a few days they will work themselves out and next time I play they will be fine.
My playing is going well at present: I'm feeling the love. I don't mention it that often these days. I suppose it's a sign of a maturing relationship. Certainly I occasionally have heart flips when I play, but generally it's a warm contented glow. It's going to be a forever thing - me and my Monkey.
I've been thinking about this recently, noticing how, when am relaxed, fingers are barely on the chanter. When I am tense my fingers are stiff, I grip the chanter, I find it difficult to move fingers quickly. Soft, loose fingers that don't really hold the chanter, just settle around it, make quick notes and the smallest chirrups of grace notes. I know now when a high A grace needs to be a tap of the thumb, and when a downward - or upward - swipe is better. Everything is more relaxed (usually).
Both Rocks and Dragon (how does The Barren Dragon strike as a set name?) went to pot this evening. I couldn't get either of them right. The fan says it's because I was playing faster, but even the slow walk throughs with all the gracing in was wrong. I don't get cross or bothered by this though. I know by now that if I leave these tunes to fester for a few days they will work themselves out and next time I play they will be fine.
My playing is going well at present: I'm feeling the love. I don't mention it that often these days. I suppose it's a sign of a maturing relationship. Certainly I occasionally have heart flips when I play, but generally it's a warm contented glow. It's going to be a forever thing - me and my Monkey.
Tuesday 6 January 2015
Two by two
I'm playing things in pairs more - I hesitate to call them sets, simply because a set for me is a set as played in an Irish-style session in an English pub: a set of three tunes, played three times each. I'm still not totally sure how well they sit together, but it's getting easier to segue from one to the other. I don't often now play one without the other.
Magersfontein and Flett is the one I am least sure of. Magersfontein seems to confuse fellow sessioneers, and they don't join in. I don't know whether it's too slow, or doesn't follow enough expected patterns, or is just plain dull. Flett they have always loved and joined in with.
Dargai and Loch Bee. Well, I keep flunking Bee, but again Dargai is a popular one and everyone pitches in.
I'm working on more pairs. Trying (as I think I've tried before) to put the Whaling Song alongside The Cabot Trail. Both in 6/8, one slowish, one much faster (and lacking gracing - needs work. Lots of work).
The other pair is the Dragon and The Barren Rocks. I've been unhappy with these for longer than I can remember. The rocks probably one of the earliest tunes I recorded for this blog. I just keeping humming these, and always together, one after the after, round and round, both of them with a real swing, not so much a march as an eager jog trot to meet an old friend or the kind of skip that comes on you (or me, at least) when you get let out of the office and the sun is still shining and the sky is still blue, a Friday sort of a feeling. Anyway, Dragon isn't too bad, now I've nailed a flurry of G graces in the B part, although it still wants to go too fast. Rocks are improving. Good gracing, provided I keep the speed down - the faster I go the more random the gracing. I play the pair of them over and over and over. Determined to get these two.
Miss G still on my music stand, along with Troy and the Braemar Gathering. Which would be a set and a half....
Magersfontein and Flett is the one I am least sure of. Magersfontein seems to confuse fellow sessioneers, and they don't join in. I don't know whether it's too slow, or doesn't follow enough expected patterns, or is just plain dull. Flett they have always loved and joined in with.
Dargai and Loch Bee. Well, I keep flunking Bee, but again Dargai is a popular one and everyone pitches in.
I'm working on more pairs. Trying (as I think I've tried before) to put the Whaling Song alongside The Cabot Trail. Both in 6/8, one slowish, one much faster (and lacking gracing - needs work. Lots of work).
The other pair is the Dragon and The Barren Rocks. I've been unhappy with these for longer than I can remember. The rocks probably one of the earliest tunes I recorded for this blog. I just keeping humming these, and always together, one after the after, round and round, both of them with a real swing, not so much a march as an eager jog trot to meet an old friend or the kind of skip that comes on you (or me, at least) when you get let out of the office and the sun is still shining and the sky is still blue, a Friday sort of a feeling. Anyway, Dragon isn't too bad, now I've nailed a flurry of G graces in the B part, although it still wants to go too fast. Rocks are improving. Good gracing, provided I keep the speed down - the faster I go the more random the gracing. I play the pair of them over and over and over. Determined to get these two.
Miss G still on my music stand, along with Troy and the Braemar Gathering. Which would be a set and a half....
Saturday 3 January 2015
I know where I'm going
Sometimes on gloomy winter evenings, the fan will look about him and ask "what is it all for?" It's a good question, in a way, except that it is likely to drive you nuts if you think about it too much. We're born and sometime later we die, and we tend to want to find ways of filling the gaps in between. Some climb mountains or make money or sail around the world or become famous. Others of us go to work and back, and potter about with various hobbies and distractions.
Some of those distractions seem to have a direct point or purpose: baking provides us with bread, cake and biscuits, knitting provides socks, jumpers and various accessories. But what is piping for? If I were younger, or perhaps playing a different sort of instrument, or just a different sort of person, I might be considering taking exams or joining a band. If I were better at it (when I am better at it) I could use it to entertain others, but generally I enjoy it as a thing in itself. I enjoy the process of learning, and improving, and I enjoy just sitting down and playing.
The change of year has set me thinking about change, goals, things to do. I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but sometimes it's a useful point for taking stock. I've been wondering if I can describe what it is I want to do with my piping, where I want to get to on my journey. I think I have an end point (or possibly just a staging post) in sight, although I don't have any idea how long it is going to take me to get there.
I'd like to make more use of grace notes. I do insert grace notes when dots have none, and not just the bare minimum, but not a lot more. I'd like to get to a point where I am adding more grace notes without having to think it through.
I'd like to be able to learn tunes faster. Actually, I think as I've mentioned before, that I do pick up tunes faster, it's just my definition of what it means to "know" or "have learned" a tune has changed from "managed to play it once through without mistakes and only a few pauses" to "can play it at a session and even if I am very tired I can play it without thinking about it with no mistakes".
I'd like to be able to play a greater variety of tunes. I think this is actually about timing. I can generally do marches, reels are harder, strathspeys totally beyond me. I'd like to be able to pick up dots for Mrs McLeod of Raasay or The Mason's Apron, or the Caber Feidh (all of which I have) and be able to play those tunes, but somehow I can't get speed or timing and they don't sound even half right. It's not that I can't sight read - I'm not too bad at that - but just pulling together timing and gracing and speed seems to be beyond me.
I'd like to be able to pick up tunes by ear. This is a reasonably big ask, I suppose. It's something I can do to some extent. In the old days fiddling about on a keyboard of recorder I'd expect to be able to pick out bits of tunes. Apart from the Halsway Schottische, which I got in parts before someone gave me the dots, I've not managed it on pipes, despite the lure of several tunes that I love and can't find the dots for (The New House in St Peters, for example, or The Hills of Perth).
I'd like to be better at creating sets. Piping has a tradition, for bands playing GHB, of putting together marches, reels and strathspeys. For playing in sessions three of the same helps others with playing along. The tunes I've abandoned along the way seem to be the ones that I can't find partners for. The fan says that to some extent any tune can go with another: there is no magic formula. I quite like tunes that have similar sounding phrases in them, but that can cause problems with one tune morphing in to the other. Perhaps I just need to know more tunes or to listen to more sets for inspiration, or learn to play a greater variety of tunes (see above) so that I can play sets I hear on CDs. Often I find I can play one or two of the tunes, but then another I won't be able to find dots for, and another I just won't be able to play.
I'd like to be able to switch easily and comfortably between D and A. I've been neglecting A a lot, and I can only think of one time at a session when I've used both chanters. The chanters aren't the issue so much as bellows and bag, which feel very different.
So, there we have it: I just want to use more grace notes, learn faster, play a wider variety of tunes, pick up tunes by ear, be able to put sets together more easily and switch comfortably between chanters. That should keep me occupied and ward off existential angst for a while.
Some of those distractions seem to have a direct point or purpose: baking provides us with bread, cake and biscuits, knitting provides socks, jumpers and various accessories. But what is piping for? If I were younger, or perhaps playing a different sort of instrument, or just a different sort of person, I might be considering taking exams or joining a band. If I were better at it (when I am better at it) I could use it to entertain others, but generally I enjoy it as a thing in itself. I enjoy the process of learning, and improving, and I enjoy just sitting down and playing.
The change of year has set me thinking about change, goals, things to do. I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but sometimes it's a useful point for taking stock. I've been wondering if I can describe what it is I want to do with my piping, where I want to get to on my journey. I think I have an end point (or possibly just a staging post) in sight, although I don't have any idea how long it is going to take me to get there.
I'd like to make more use of grace notes. I do insert grace notes when dots have none, and not just the bare minimum, but not a lot more. I'd like to get to a point where I am adding more grace notes without having to think it through.
I'd like to be able to learn tunes faster. Actually, I think as I've mentioned before, that I do pick up tunes faster, it's just my definition of what it means to "know" or "have learned" a tune has changed from "managed to play it once through without mistakes and only a few pauses" to "can play it at a session and even if I am very tired I can play it without thinking about it with no mistakes".
I'd like to be able to play a greater variety of tunes. I think this is actually about timing. I can generally do marches, reels are harder, strathspeys totally beyond me. I'd like to be able to pick up dots for Mrs McLeod of Raasay or The Mason's Apron, or the Caber Feidh (all of which I have) and be able to play those tunes, but somehow I can't get speed or timing and they don't sound even half right. It's not that I can't sight read - I'm not too bad at that - but just pulling together timing and gracing and speed seems to be beyond me.
I'd like to be able to pick up tunes by ear. This is a reasonably big ask, I suppose. It's something I can do to some extent. In the old days fiddling about on a keyboard of recorder I'd expect to be able to pick out bits of tunes. Apart from the Halsway Schottische, which I got in parts before someone gave me the dots, I've not managed it on pipes, despite the lure of several tunes that I love and can't find the dots for (The New House in St Peters, for example, or The Hills of Perth).
I'd like to be better at creating sets. Piping has a tradition, for bands playing GHB, of putting together marches, reels and strathspeys. For playing in sessions three of the same helps others with playing along. The tunes I've abandoned along the way seem to be the ones that I can't find partners for. The fan says that to some extent any tune can go with another: there is no magic formula. I quite like tunes that have similar sounding phrases in them, but that can cause problems with one tune morphing in to the other. Perhaps I just need to know more tunes or to listen to more sets for inspiration, or learn to play a greater variety of tunes (see above) so that I can play sets I hear on CDs. Often I find I can play one or two of the tunes, but then another I won't be able to find dots for, and another I just won't be able to play.
I'd like to be able to switch easily and comfortably between D and A. I've been neglecting A a lot, and I can only think of one time at a session when I've used both chanters. The chanters aren't the issue so much as bellows and bag, which feel very different.
So, there we have it: I just want to use more grace notes, learn faster, play a wider variety of tunes, pick up tunes by ear, be able to put sets together more easily and switch comfortably between chanters. That should keep me occupied and ward off existential angst for a while.
Friday 2 January 2015
The real Miss Girdle
So I set myself to unlearn the Miss Girdle I know, and learn another. I do it in the old way. I look at the dots and see that in terms of repeating parts it runs A,B,A,C then D,B,D,C, and so reassure myself that I only actually have four bars to learn. I play slow, slow, slow. I play to work on timing. I play again to work on gracing (the original version had none and I added very little). For some reason inserting gracing screws up timing. The fan says it sounds more like the tune he knows. I listen to the Tannahill Weavers play it, but it goes by in a blur.
And then I decide to check my Seaforth, and what do I find? Miss Girdle, of course. Another Miss Girdle. Quite similar, indeed to the second Miss G, with something of the ending arpeggios of the first Miss Girdle, which I only spot after several playings as the B part isn't repeated, and the second version is up on a separate page of the book. This one goes A,B,A,C then D,B,D,E/D,B,D,F. Six bars to learn. Of this version.
Then I speed it up a little, and do a bit of a double take, because it's Miss G - of course it's Miss G. I feel as though I've just walked passed a friend in the street because they have changed their hair or specs and I've had a moment when I've totally failed to recognise them.
And then I decide to check my Seaforth, and what do I find? Miss Girdle, of course. Another Miss Girdle. Quite similar, indeed to the second Miss G, with something of the ending arpeggios of the first Miss Girdle, which I only spot after several playings as the B part isn't repeated, and the second version is up on a separate page of the book. This one goes A,B,A,C then D,B,D,E/D,B,D,F. Six bars to learn. Of this version.
Then I speed it up a little, and do a bit of a double take, because it's Miss G - of course it's Miss G. I feel as though I've just walked passed a friend in the street because they have changed their hair or specs and I've had a moment when I've totally failed to recognise them.
Thursday 1 January 2015
New Year Pipes
Dorchester
January 1st, 1941
"Someone at the party said they had seen pipers piping downstairs, so a piper had to be sent for. Up he came - a god of beauty seven foot high, golden-haired, with skirts skirling, bonnet at a brave angle, ribbons flying, and that appalling noise coming from the pigskin under his arm. Then everyone swoons and says there's nothing like the pipes (there isn't, thank God) and then someone always asks him to play the tune he's just played and that doesn't surprise him as it's invariable, since no one can possibly recognise a tune on the bagpipes, or at best three notes of the one that put the idea into their heads. So round and round the small room he tramped, sometimes slow, sometimes quick march, and then he played a reel and no one could dance it but me and Ann O'Neill so off the old girls swirled, and the weight lifted from my heart for a while. So maybe there is something to be said for the pipes after all."
Diana Cooper to John Julius Norwich
from Darling Monster
January 1st, 1941
"Someone at the party said they had seen pipers piping downstairs, so a piper had to be sent for. Up he came - a god of beauty seven foot high, golden-haired, with skirts skirling, bonnet at a brave angle, ribbons flying, and that appalling noise coming from the pigskin under his arm. Then everyone swoons and says there's nothing like the pipes (there isn't, thank God) and then someone always asks him to play the tune he's just played and that doesn't surprise him as it's invariable, since no one can possibly recognise a tune on the bagpipes, or at best three notes of the one that put the idea into their heads. So round and round the small room he tramped, sometimes slow, sometimes quick march, and then he played a reel and no one could dance it but me and Ann O'Neill so off the old girls swirled, and the weight lifted from my heart for a while. So maybe there is something to be said for the pipes after all."
Diana Cooper to John Julius Norwich
from Darling Monster
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