The scores on the doors

Here we are at the end of another month. It's never as difficult as I think to find time to play every day, although it isn't easy, simply because I find it hard to play soon after I've eaten, which means I have a small patch where I can play between arriving home from work and sitting down to dinner.

I suppose the other hurdle is a feeling that I want to enjoy my hobbies, not make a chore of them. I don't ever knit or read or try the crossword because I feel I ought, only ever because the fancy takes me. But I very nearly always enjoy my piping once I start, and the month does still make a difference. I did wonder whether it still would, just because a month every day when you've only played for 2 years is a chunk of one's piping life, whereas a month is much smaller fraction of 5 years.

So, what have I achieved? I think my biggest milestone is getting 4-parters comfortably by heart, including some I've been playing around with for way too long, namely Braemar and Troy I've improved Father John and made it into another set, potentially with 2 other tunes. I've learned two tunes from scratch: Sleat and Heroes.

As ever, there are things I planned on doing and didn't. Neither Dragon nor Teribus got played much. Brandy has fizzled out, despite my working out a variation - a milestone in itself. Ocean is good, learned from the fan, not from dots - another milestone - but only the A part. Miss G  sometimes rocks - goes as fast as my fingers can fly, provided I don't stop to think - and sometimes is miserably bad. More work needed. Not sure that the Highlanders have progressed much.

I'm looking forward to a break, even if only for a day or two, then I need to work on the tunes, keep polishing, and maybe pick one new one to work on. The journey continues.

Slow down

I crept home in first gear today, thanks to lorry broken down somewhere in the road. That's what the travel news said: I didn't see it myself. It took me over an hour to complete a 16 mile journey.

Having left work rather late (again) I naturally arrived home very late. Luckily the fan had agreed yesterday that he would cook today.

Horrible problems with bellows, arm and wrist today: really uncomfortable. Still, I managed Braemar (which is coming on nicely), Troy (almost there), Father John's Boat Trip (just about sorted that 2nd part repeat), Heroes (which urgently needs a set mate), and My Home Town (just because).

I stuck Miss G on the end of just about everything. I manage to get the notes wrong fast or slow, I seem only to be able to play it slowly or stupidly fast, I keep losing the last run down, and it's the tune where I seem to have most problems with wrist and bellows.

Last day tomorrow. As ever, it has been worth it, and I feel I've made some real progress, not only the tunes I've been working on.

Caught speeding

Things went well this evening. I played through several tunes slowly, so I thought, intending to get them right. When I finished the fan said I'd been going at quite a speed.

Two more days then I think I'll take break and then aim to play maybe 3 times a week. I will also try one of the new tunes I'm pondering, with the aim of getting one learned in a month, while the other new tunes continue to be polished, and the old favourites are kept free of dust.

A step too far

That's two days in a row where I really haven't felt in the mood for piping, but I made myself get up and play just one tune, just for 5 minutes...and some time later have had to tear myself away from the pipes to salvage dinner, or, today, a loaf of bread.

Piping, yes. But blogging? Just for this weekend it's a step too far. I've got other things to be doing.

Now don't wash your hands

Things are falling into place rather nicely now, I feel. I ran through everything this evening, even a rather ragged Dragon that arrived out of the blue. For variety, and just because they came to mind - or fingers - I threw in McIntyre's Farewell, My Home Town...and possibly another which I've forgotten already.

Braemar had a couple of slips and hitches, Sleat went well, John Macmillan is good with that muddled two bars slowly sorting themselves out.

At one point I decided to wash my hands. My fingers felt very slightly sticky, and also cold. I removed the bellows, which had been very comfortable, washed my hands, replaced bellows...and at once had problems with bellows, wrist, little finger which I just couldn't sort out. I played Troy, but it was a challenge with the bellows fighting against me. Oddly the 4th part is now a doddle, and it's the 3rd part that was causing me problems.

But things are falling into place. I have potential new tunes that will be session ready come October. I'm reminded again of how good it is to play every day. I wish I had the time to do it more often.

Sweet dreams

A long day at work. Arrived home tired and in desperate need of tea. As dinner was in the oven I sat down to see which of my new tunes I could play while dog tired. Braemar was OK. Heroes not so good, but I always manage to let errors in. I think it's such a simple tune I feel I can disengage my brain entirely, which doesn't work. What else? Highlanders, Ocean. Spent a few minutes fiddling around trying to play a tune in my head which I think is Castle Grant, which I used to play. Sound of Sleat. Quite pleased about that. Then Miss G,  but my bellows strap was causing major problems by then, so it didn't go well, despite the fact that by that time I felt quite awake and lively.

Had to stop there to dish up dinner, and definitely feeling tired now. Possibly the glass of wine with dinner didn't help...

Oh, go on then

I played through pretty much everything today, with the exception of the poor, defunct Dragon and Miss G. I just forgot about her, somehow. I threw in Flett, just for a change.

Battling away with Brandy. No idea why I find it so complicated. Played a little bit of Troy. It has totally failed to bubble back up into my musical memory, but a glance at the opening bar of the fourth part had me racing off, then I had hideous problems with the interface between arm and bellows, and the fan made a throwaway remark that disheartened me, so I abandoned for the day.

I was trying to think of the month (so far) in terms of tunes learned. I think I'd be happy enough to play Father Macmillan's Boat Trip to Nova Scotia at a session, but only one of those is new, and I have played Father John at a session once before.

Heroes is good to go, but I am not sure about pairing it with the Highlanders, unless it was a small session with no audience on an afternoon where my playing had been going very well. Should be fine with Dargai, and presumably therefore with Bee as well. You wait forever for a three tune set and then two come along at once...

Braemar does finally feel as though it is ready to go public, but probably not as part of a set (with Magersfontein  or anything else) just yet. Ocean would be fine if I could ever get the fan to work out the second part for me again. Brandy and Miss G still need a lot of work. Sleat is close, I think, and as for Troy, I'll reinstate it on my playlist tomorrow and see how it goes...

Repeat

Mostly just Braemar today. Getting there.

Speak severely

Apparently having a metaphorical dressing-down of Braemar yesterday worked. I don't thing I've got all the necessary gracing in, but I seem to have got rid of the tension in places where I am anticipating gracing.

Better than that, I had a day where nothing hurt, my fingers felt supple and the chanter really buzzed and sang. I played everything except Troy, which has gone into a state of deep hibernation, it seems, and the Dragon, which, frankly, I believe has probably died.

Fourth part of Sleat  continues to elude me, the repeat of the second part of John Macmillan needs work, as does the non-variant form of Brandy. But I really enjoyed playing today. It was good.

Piecemeal

After yesterday's fiasco with The Braemar Gathering, which I can't bring myself to listen to, but post below, I felt I ought to enter into battle and get it sorted. The third part seems the worst, and as I slowed it down and worked on it a bar at a time I realised that it is somewhat lacking in gracing.

My dots have no gracings, although many are needed to split like notes, so those I've always played. I've mentioned before, I am sure, that the low A to C transition needs a simple D grace, but then the low As, I feel, should have a little drop down to a bottom G, then the D grace up to the C, and then a doubling on the E. (I refer to dots in A, as written, although clearly I am playing in D).

On the little run that trips me up in the first, but generally not the third, part (BCE FGA) I keep trying to put a D grace between the B and the C, and then I think I must have played A to C and maybe that is what throws me. I've tried a G grace, but that doesn't work, so am going for a doubling on the E.

I don't feel I am playing - 3rd part again - a clean transition between B and C. There can't possibly be crossing notes, it's only a matter of dropping a finger, so I think the problem is a sloppy B with fingers not clean on the chanter. I think, too, that the garbling I mentioned yesterday is actually a tansferring of short and long note on the penultimate triplet in tbe third part, and probably the first.

Anyway. I played it in bits and pieces: this phrase, that note transition, those bars; but also in bits around getting dinner ready. I could have played earlier but have spent the day on the sofa, in the sun, reading Trollope. I also played Magersfontein,  just for the sake of variety and rather think that the two might sound well together, although that leaves poor Flett friendless. Why is it that some tunes seems to fit into multiple partnerships and others into none?

The only other thing to note is that elbow, wrist and thumb of my right hand are sore today. The wrist I noticed when playing, elbow and thumb only since I stopped. Oh, and Andy won another match.



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It was all going so well

I've been having a good day. It's not a working day, which is always a bonus. The weather has been much better than was being forecast earlier in the week. I went shopping for a pair of wool trousers for work and actually managed to find some I liked. I did some tidying at the allotment and managed to rig up some proper protection for my cavolo nero plants.

Then I decided to play and record... The lead for the recorder was tied into electrical spaghetti. I'd forgotten the faff of having to "create a song" before you even start. The first three-tune set I recorded and then wasted 6 minutes mastering it only to find when I tried to export it that there was allegedly no track to export... The fan salvaged the situation, and the recording, but only after I'd got cross. Add to that the collapsing bellows, a sore elbow, and a general inability to play and the whole thing is a mess.

Recording here is Father John's Boat Trip. The repeat of the 2nd part still isn't quite right. Gracing not very clean, fingers not cleanly enough down on the  chanter. I mised various repeats, which I put down to red-button-itis. Various times I found myself thinking that *this* would be the place where I'd be likely to fluff it...and duly fluffed.

No drones. I recorded a rather poor version of Braemar in which I garbled notes, merged notes, went too slow and then too fast. I will post tomorrow. I couldn't face recording it again and I am not sure how soon I'll be able to bring myself to record again. Is it any wonder that it's over 7 months since I recorded last? There has to be an easier way.

(On the positive side, Andy won a match.)
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Forward look

I've been thinking of new tunes. Not the new tunes I've been learning - am still learning - this month, but tunes for the future. I feel it might be best to concentrate on one at a time, so I am trying to keep the collection small so that tunes don't suffer from the same problem as knitting projects, where I have already lined up more than I could knit in a lifetime, and haven't yet stopped adding to the list...

I feel that I should move on from marches and work on some jigs and reels. I don't yet aspire to Strathspeys, but I will.

Having said that my first tune is another march. It's John MacColl's March to Kilbowie Cottage, which I know from The Big Spree. The second tune is The College of Piping at Summerside PEI, which is on Whistlebinkies' Inner Sound. I am going to have to take the plunge and sign up to Pipetunes for these, I think (where PEI is described as a hornpipe). There are other tunes I like, but can't find dots for. I'm listening to plenty of Breabach at present, so no shortage of pipe tunes to choose from.

I'm sure there was a third, but I've forgotten it. A fourth might be Good Drying, but there I must stop because that already takes me into next year at the rate at a new tune a month....

Today's tunes were hampered by a bad bellows day. I tried with jumper on, jumper off, bellows high, bellows low, I readjusted the strap. Much had to do with cold hands. I really must knit some fingerless mitts.

John Macmillan to start again, going nowhere, because I didn't play the other pieces in the set. I have parts of the third part in my head and should go back to that as I am only playing two parts at the moment.

Struggled to find the 4th part of Sleat or the non-variant of Brandy and resorted to dots for both. Miss G  got herself into a muddle. Home fell out by accident when I was looking for Heroes. Highlanders, whihc went with Heroes today, came out at such an alarmingly rip-roaring speed that the fan asked if I was taking off...

No Dragon, and no Troy. Hopefully it will emerge from hibernation soon.

As good as a rest

I thought I'd give myself a break from new tunes today and just play whatever came to mind or fingers. Oddly enough the first tune in my head was Father John, so I played his Boat Trip to Nova Scotia.

After that the play list looked like this:

The Rowan Tree
Magersfontein, Flett, Dargai, Bee (too many for a set, but that's how they came out)
Bonnie Galloway
My Home Town
King of Laoise
Amazing Grace

I've been considering making a list of all the half-learned, or learned and abandoned tunes I have left behind, but I feel it would be a very long list and perhaps rather depressing.

I do also need to record. Maybe at the weekend.

Counting chickens

The more I thought of the fan's plans for three of us to play together regularly the more I liked it. I began to think of sets and arrangements...and then our putative third replied to say he had plenty on his musical plate at present, and declined our offer...

Almost everything on the list played today, except Troy (which seems to have vanished entirely from my head), and Braemar, which probably won't suffer for another day of hibernation. I've got Even in the Rain on the stereo right now in the hope of encouraging it along.

Brandy has got a bit confused between where I do and don't insert variations, and I confused the issue further by realising that I've got some ungraced low A to C changes... The  variation still quite clear, but the original of the varied bar quite lost, and even with dots I was needing to think hard to get it right.

I tried pairing Ocean with Sleat. Could work, I think. I need to do more thinking about sets.

Sing it

I swear that every time in the last two days (and nights) that I have stopped doing, thinking or dreaming, I have had Drops of Brandy going round, and round, on an endless loop.

Today I gave in amd started listening to the music in my head. I started to be convinced that I could hear...well, I wasn't sure. It was something that Realta play differently from me, but I wasn't sure whether I had got a note or two wrong, or whether my timing was adrift, or whether actually they play a variation that I had picked up.

Tunes in my head are odd. At the early stage they are there, and I am aware of them, but if I try to listen actively they vanish. They need to be reasonably established before I can actually hum them. Presumably thanks to its persistence I managed to hum this quite quickly - just today. I also managed to isolate that variation and hum it over and over to pin it down.

I got home. My plants arrived so I ran down to the plot to plant them out and get them protected from slugs and pigeons, and ran back to get dinner on the go. When I sat down with the Monkey my plan was to play that variation...but the moment I played a single note the entire tune slipped away. It didn't help that my fingers were slightly sticky, and when I washed them in haste they were slightly damp...

I tried again. And again. I sang the tune through, and again, which meant I was able to recall and sing the variation. I got the pipes going...and immediately that drowned out the tune in my head. In desperation I decided to sing it as I played. This doesn't make for good noise volumes, but it worked. I played my little variation, over and over. When I was sure I had it I wrote it down, and then checked aginst the dots and confirmed that it really was a variation for the last bar in each part. I worked on it a little more, and added in a doubling.

I also managed to recall the variation that the fan taught me at the weekend. I fiddled around with and without the variation...and had to abandon the finish sorting dinner. In all I barely played for 20 minutes. But the important thing is that I have variations, and that for the first time on pipes I've managed to pick out a tune. It's also the first time I've been able to make use of my improved ability to sing. No one else is ever going to want to listen to my warbling, but it has grown more accurate as I've been playing. If I sing or hum a tune to the fan these days he has much less opportunity to make sarcastic comments about random key changes...

I was rather afraid that having being playing longer a month of daily playing wouldn't be enough to make a difference, but even just half way through the month I feel I'm moving ahead, making progress.

Change of heart

I seem to be spending a lot of time looking forward at the moment. I ordered a pre-publication knitting book, some plants due for delivery this month, oh, and of course I am looking forward to this daily playing having an obvious impact.

Today I left work late (a return of the project that ate up too much of my life last year), remembered that my plan for dinner was at the more time-consuming end of my culinary repetoire, that I have a letter to write and bills to play, thought of squeezing in some playing time...and ended up hoping that the long-awaited box of veg plants would not arrive today.

Luckily, no plants. So I played Braemar, not exactly ad nauseum but certainly to the point where various bits started breaking, so I think it's ready to hibernate for a while.

Last night (seemingly the whole night) I had Brandy going round in my head, including Realta's variations. Yesterday the fan taught me a two note variation and amended a persistent error. Today I struggled with the tune, fell over the amended note, remembered where the variation lived, but having tried it couldn't remember what came after it. It was enough to make me wish the plants had arrived after all.

Tipping point

At last the daily playing is starting to bear fruit. The Sound of  Sleat  is almost there dotless, the escond part oddly being the most stubborn, but I played over and round it today and will work on it again tomorrow. Then I played something esle and intended to drop into Sleat,  realised I had begun something else and took a moment to identify Braemar. I think this is the first time I've played it spontaneously, without a conscious decision to do so.

I played everything except Troy, Dragon and Brandy. Dragon  is falling by the wayside again. Brandy I played later on when the fan and I played together for a while and he showed me a variation on the tune, which we then had to re-vary for the Monkey's (lack of) range. Some tunes seems quite fast. Too fast, for some, the fan said. He's out of practice and his finger tips are soft and he struggled to keep up. Sometimes I struggle to keep up...

The fan also tried to tempt me to play Troy, but I resisted because I know that if you disturb the  chrysalis of a pupating tune too soon all you find is a messy green gunk. Troy  will come to my fingers of its own accord when its ready to hatch.

And speaking of hatching, we conceive of an idea for a regular musical threesome, which may or may not go anywhere, but will at least ensure that we both play reasonably regulalry and that we we play together. The fan is typing the email invitation to the third now...

Wedding

We went to a wedding today. We took no instruments as a band was booked, but then the piper from the fan's (defunct) band was there with Irish pipes and the fan managed to blag a spare bouzouki. I came the closest I ever will, I expect, to blagging a set of pipes as the wedding band's flautist had a set of Ross Calderwood smallpipes on order. We had a nice chat about pipes, bands, sessions and folk clubs, then they played and I looked on...

Back late-ish and after some dithering decided to play for 10 minutes just so I can say I've played every day. Magersfontein, Dargai, Bee, Highlanders, Father John, Brandy.

I do, I do, I don't

Troys's Wedding again. It started well. I wanted to slow it down, but fingers wanted fast. The more I played the more it fell apart, but I'm not worried: this has happened before, this whole getting worse before it gets better shtick. I need to give it a break now to let it simmer in my brain.

Also played Braemar, which is ok as long as I remember that the note I need in the run up to get it right is C. Father John's Boat Trip to Nova Scotia, Miss Girdle (the final phrase over, and over, and over....), Troy again, Brandy (which I am feeling quite fond of having listened to Realta yesterday). The door bell rang and I went to pieces, knowing I was being heard by an unknown quantity...so flipped in to Dargai and Bee and ended up with the Heroes.

Yesterday I listened to an elderly recording of Troy. I've improved since then. Must get around to recording.

Solemnisation

I feel quite tired today, perhaps the change of the season. My bed is so snug when the alarm goes off that it's hard to drag myself out of it.

I still wanted to play. I thought of just playing through a couple of Tunes-I-Can-Play-When-I-Am-Dead-On-My-Feet, which would probably be Rowan Tree, Dargai, Magersfontein, maybe Home Town. But the tune that has been in my head all day is Troy's Wedding. I thought it was probably a tall order, but I sat down without dots and set myself to play it. My fingers were cold and stupid and simply wouldn't bend properly at times, but I knew which shapes I needed to make, which notes to play. I had to go over and over the fourth part, then the full thing again, round the fourth again, slow then faster. The faster just happened. But I played it through with no dots, at last committed to memory. So now I must play it and play it, no dots and eventually I will be able to take it out to a session. It's been a long time coming....

Free range

Decided to ignore the list of tunes being learned and play whatever came to mind. A couple of the current tunes tried to msucle in: Highlanders when I wanted the King, and Brandy, quite persistently, when I was trying for Flett. Had to get dots out in the end.

I played Flett, Bonnie Galloway, Dargai, Magersfontein, My Home Town, King of Laoise, MacIntyre's Farewell, Capt Angus L MacDonald, Loch Bee. I was reasonably comfortable, cold hands being my biggest issue, and I really enjoyed it.

I did have to think about what tunes I know. It occurs to me that I haven't played Cabot Trail for a while, and that I keep thinking that's what I am playing when I play Father Johns's Boat Trip, when actually it's the Capt.  If he was a naval captain that would work out rather nicely! I need to make a list of all the tunes I know, just to remind myself.

I'm listening to a lot of music at the moment, lots of Braebach in the car and all sorts of stuff (well, all sorts of Scots and Irish trad) at home. Lots of pipes. Trying to resist the temptation to print dots for new tunes and at the moment the main thing holding me back is that I'd have to get them through pipetunes which involves spending some pennies....

No wedding bells for the dragon

Crammed everything in to 20 minutes today. Played through as much as I could. Got the dots out for Sleat. Father John went to Nova Scotia again. No sign of the Dragon: he kindly sent Teribus in his place. No time to play Troy, either.

Fingers a little stiff, mostly because they weren't very warm. Yesterday's issues with pressure all gone, so I assume placing of the drones switch was the problem. Bellows more comfortable than they have been, but they do really hang oddly on the outside.

Lost and found

I'm afraid I lost my rag a little this evening. I squeezed in playing around cooking so had to keep interrupting myself to put various pans on and off the hob. I had my list of tunes, and from the outset I really struggled. The pipes seemed to be slipping out of my arms, I seemed to lack pressure, the bellows felt worse than useless. I was compensating for a lack of grip on the pipes with tension in my fingers, and I thought of all the things (outside piping, and generally rather trivial) that are bugging me right now, and that distracted me from the tunes, and when I failed to get through Troy  in one piece I gave a great roar of frustration...

Somehow, as I roared I knocked the drones switch, snarled at the drones and tunred them off again. I wonder if the drones switch had been partially engaged as flicking the switch seemed to improve the pressure, which enabled me to concentrate and get Troy  licked, although the 4th part took a couple of attempts. I fiddled about with various items on the hob, came back and calmly played Troy again.

I played everything except Father John and the Highlanders. Only bits of Sleat as I couldn't remember all of it.

At the end of playing I sat down with the pipes feeling just right , played around with some phrases, slow and steady and stately; things that just fell out of my fingers. Then Dargai and Amazing Grace, and I went back to the hob.

"That sounded nice," said the fan. "What did?" I asked. "That first piece at the end there. The slow air."  I had to admit that it was just improvisation, but surely it says something about how I am learning the musical idiom, the patterns and sounds, that I can fool the fan into thinking I'm playing a real tune when all I am doing is having a quiet moment with the Monkey, reassuring ourselves that we are friends, that everything is all right between us.

Touch not the cat

I started the day well with an hour down the plot, a pile of ironing, some handwashing of clothes I've been putting off, making bread for the week, and slinging some clothes in the washing machine, but then I made the mistake sitting down to read for ten minutes. It's not great literature, but you don't, as I know from experience, sit down with a Mary Stewart novel unless you have no plans at all for the day. Luckily the fan decided to do some hoovering, which was annoying enough to persuade me to leave to sofa, so I crawled off to play some music.

The full set again today. Braemar had one or two bits that needed thought, Troy I resorted to dots as the middle section of the fourth part escapes me. I tend to play the first phrase, then the last, at which point I can do the third, but the 2nd not at all...

Ocean I thought was going to elude me entirely but eventually came back. First part of Sleat was there, and half the second part. Third part needs lots of work. Father John's boat trip took him to Nova Scotia today as I tagged the Cabot Trail on to the end: a second potential 3 tune set. Heroes seem to be preferring Heights to Highlanders .

As for the bellows, it started OK but got harder to play as I went on. Still, I enjoy it all the same. Just the bathroom to clean and dinner to cook, but I might just peek at my book first...

Skew whiff

The complete set of tunes today. I'm aware that I am missing out those without dots. Not that I am necessarily using dots, but they remind me which tunes I'm working on. I've written out the full list of tune names to work from instead.

More bellows issues. Over the years I've pushed down the outer side of the bellows as I've played, leaving them permanently skewed. This means that if I drop the bellows down to where they need to be I need longer arms to sit on the skewed side. If a longer bit of piping doesn't do the trick I may ask Mr Kinnear to straighten my bellows. I dislike the thought of being without bellows, and therefore pipes, for any length of time...

Anyway, aside from that the tunes are OK. Braemar still losing the run up in the middle of the first part. Not getting the the two first bars or the second repeat of Father John  quite right. Heroes dotless. The Dragon still all over the place. I tried Sleat  from memory but couldn't, mostly because I was starting from B instead of A, idiotically, as what sort of a tune starts on B? The third part still stuggling - those low As and Bs need to be fast and properly graced.

Same old

Are bad things less bad when they are familiar? Every time I play a lot I quickly hit a point where everything goes pear-shaped. (I wonder why the shape of a pear should be used to express problems...)

At least when things do go pear-shaped it's not as bad as it used to be. I don't seem to overblow, lose all grace notes, lose my ability to read music, forget all my tunes, tense my thumbs. Touch wood.

It's just this ongoing issue of not being able to hold my pipes comfortably. If it was just my elbow I'd be assuming that the pipes were exacerbating a bit of work-induced RSI, but it's my right wrist, and my little finger.

It will be fine. We'll come through this. We always do. (And in looking for previous times I've played a lot I've realised that I haven't played daily since January 2014. Oh, the shame.) Scrap that - it was June 2014. I was misled by the lack of blog posts. But still - a whole year!

Limited tunes today due in part to problems and in part because I've been working at bits that need polish, not using dots, playing until something works, not just doing a three times through.

Ocean, Atholl Highlanders, Heroes, Brandy.

Thursday

Problems again with getting comfortable. No combination of placing of bellows, elbow and wrist seems to work. I really must try longer tubing between bag and bellows.

Ocean. Really need to sort the B part so I can play it.

Heroes and Heights. A different combination today. It just needs a slight rest on the final note of the first tune for the segue to work. A couple of notes in Heroes  proving slow to sink into my brain. If I did put these two together then with Bee on the end it would make my first three tune set.

Sleat, Brandy, Dragon, Braemar, which lost that little run up again. I'm literally dropping one note down and that throws the whole thing out.

Father Johns's Boat Trip, which I like more and more as a pair.

Even on a bad day it's good, I enjoy playing.

Silver lining

We have a plumbing issue, and I'm waiting for the plumber to arrive. This has worked out nicely in the end as it means I've managed to  carve out some piping time on a day when I'm going out in the evening and wasn't sure how I was going to manage more than a token 5 minutes playing time.

Sound of Sleat - this is at the stage where things get worse before they get better. Struggling to remember the timing of the opening bars, although it's fine once I get going. The third part is trickiest, somehow, and I still can't play GDE graces on that row of Bs although they are fine on the As. I am gracing the Bs, I'm just not sure how. Maybe I'm just dropping down to A between each. This tune doesn't go with Brandy...

Braemar Gathering  - I seem now to have got over fudging the run up in the middle of the A part, although I still seem a bit tense around the grace between a low A and a C. Garbling a few bits as tbe tempo comes and goes, slowing down for those A to C transitions, charging through other phrases.

Troy  - lost this totally today: struggled through all of it. It's fast, but as for accuracy...

Heroes and Highlanders. Isn't that a nice name for a set? Not sure that they go together, but will work on it. Very nearly there with Heroes, just a few glitches. The 4th part of Highlanders has a tendency to be the slowest.

Father John's Boat Trip doing OK.

Father John's boat trip

As I walked to the allotment this evening to fetch spinach for cannelloni I found myself humming a medley of tunes that merged one into the other. One of them was Do You Love an Apple. Well, there's not much I can do about that, but the others were Father John and the Whaling Song so I thought I'd see if I could pair them up. Surely a man from Barra can't be adverse to water, and the narrator of the whaling song sounds as though some spiritual guidance wouldn't go amiss. They don't go badly together, as it happens, so it's a pairing I'll work on.

Other tunes this evening were:
Vittoria
Sleat and Braemar (I tried these two together but it was a non-starter, sadly)
Teribus (which randomly lost its D throws today)
Brandy, which I tried with Ocean, but it was hard to gauge the effect with only the A part of the Ocean. I did want to follow Brandy  with the Dragon,  but the dragon was nowhere to be found this evening.
Troy and Atholl Highlanders: not together, but both still giving problems with the interface between speed and accuracy.
Miss G.

Elbow problems again, although it was already tender from over use of my PC's keyboard at work today. I enjoyed my playing and am really looking forward to this month of piping.