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.
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