On Saturday I played for half an hour, then the fan and I played together, and one way and another the best part of two and a half hours flew by. We tried some of my session sets, and some new tunes (John MacMillan of Barra), and the fan pressed me to ever more speed on Miss G and others.
On Sunday we struggled out in tempest and in rain to a session where I didn't play so well. I started myself off on Dargai too fast but managed to keep up the pace. A fellow sessioneer recognised the tune and offered Battle of the Somme as a partner to it, which I hadn't considered. Later I managed Magersfontein and Flett, although Magersfontein kept tripping me up in the faster runs in the B part. Oh, and McIntyre's Farewell and Capt wotsit which probably went wrong somehow, but I've forgotten the nature of its particular failings.
Today, of course, when there is no one to see, everything went well, and I managed Miss Girdle and Roy Chisholm without dots. John MacMillan, who has been dogging my waking and sleeping inner ear, mysteriously vanished the moment I got the bellows going. But it's infuriating, always playing so much better at home than I do when I am out. The fan says it's always the way, but why? I suspect it's lack of practice with drones, because generally now, even with new people there, it isn't really stage fright.
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