I had a few tunes with the fan earlier in the week. It was the second time in the space of about a week, which meant I was slightly less unused to drones. I really have to use drones every time I play, even if it is for just the first or last tune or set.
Some tunes he tells me I start slowly and then speed up. When I was a child, if I thought I was short of paper for the piece I was writing I would write faster, as if somehow hoping I’d reach the end of my piece before the paper ran out. It’s the same urge that leads me to read faster when coming to the end of a book that I don’t want to finish: as if perhaps if I can reach the end sooner there will be more book to read. I realise this makes no sense at all, but it’s what I do. I have a tendency to do the same with tunes. If I feel as though I am not playing well, my hands aren't quite right on the chanter, or I’m not 100% confident in my musical memory of the tune at hand then I tend to speed up in the hope of getting to the end of the tune before the mistakes arrive….
On another tune I speeded up because I felt I was going rather slowly and the fan seemed to be going much faster. He pointed out that he was simply playing more notes to the bar than me, so the second time around I tried to ignore it and just carry on at my own pace.
I've fiddled about with some faster tunes: Atholl Highlanders, Miss Girdle. I’m still stuck between slow but accurate or fast but messy. I think the messy is moving from wholesale chaos to general untidiness. And the fast must be improving as the fan notes that there were points when he felt it was a push to keep up with me.
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