Crossroads

I've not being playing much of late. Work has been difficult, and then we've been away. Perhaps I needed a break from it after a period when I've played pretty much every day.

I've vaguely been feeling that in a way I've got as far as I can go, that I've hit a plateau, or a comfort zone. Hopefully it's not a brick wall. Hopefully it's actually more of a crossroads. I can play in an OK sort of a way that people can apparently enjoy listening to. I can play in a way that I enjoy, and know enough tunes to keep playing for around an hour, without having to repeat myself. I still enjoy learning new tunes: not just the point of having learned, having acquired a new tune, but the actual breaking a tune into pieces, putting it back again, playing bits over and over. I know enough tunes that I can play three or four times at a session and not have to play the same tunes each time.

So I feel I've arrived at a point that we might call "good enough". My playing is OK, it sounds nice, people are happy to listen, I'm happy to play. I could stop here, maybe sometimes learn more tunes, do my thing at sessions, play to amuse myself at home. This could be as far as I get on my piping journey, and I come across various folk at sessions who seem to have just got to a stage where they are never going to set the world alight, but they are happy with what they do, and it's enough.

I could stop here...but I don't want to. I want to keep on getting better, I want to move on to the next stage, but I am not sure what the next stage looks like or how I get there. I have wondered about finding a teacher, especially to help get me back to holding the bellows in a way that is comfortable. I feel I need some more solid goals and someone to help get me there. The fan suggests that this is the stage to move on to performance in some small way. He thinks we could make a duo, although he has a potential third in mind. I'm not even sure how you go about asking somone if they'd like to play with you, out of sessions, but perhaps only to work on sets for sessions. How do you even go about choosing someone to ask?

For now I suppose I just sit here, at the crossroads, and play my pipes, and hope that eventually the way will become clear, I will be able to get up and carry on my journey.