Shall we dance?

I've been dancing around this evening with bellows, bag, chanter, drones. Yes, drones! They have taken to slumping across my chest and resting on the bellows. The more I fiddle with strap up, strap down, bellows forward, bellows back, bag up, down, left, right, the worse everything gets. Maybe I'm just expecting too much. At sessions I play a bit, stop a bit, go to the bar, come back again. In the past I'd play and stop and play and stop during practice sessions. Now I expect to play and play, back to back sets, tunes, bits of tunes, with no break. I might sit down or stand up and take a turn or two about the room, but I'm still playing. I suppose even with a good driving positon in a comfortable car you're going to end a long distance journey with joints that need easing, muscles that need stretching.

I've also been dancing with Skippinish, having out it in the car. It's definitely an album of music for dancing to, and I imagine a Shetland tea (and yes, I do know that Shetland isn't known for piping) situation, with old and young gathered together, a dram and a wee cup of tea, something to eat, some tunes and lots of dancing.

What I can't work out is why it's dance music. In general it's the same pipe tunes I come across elsewhere, so it's not a matter of repertoire. The tunes aren't even played that fast, although the have a good, solid rhythm behind them. Perhaps it's the box. It sounds rather bouncy, somehow, with little chirps and coughs, which I assume are grace notes of some kind, and bring to mind someone calling out "woo!", "yay!", or "whup!" during some dancing. Anyway, it's good stuff, and I am enjoying it.

Whether anyone would want to dance to this recording I don't know. Recorded on the same day as the last one, and as with the last I haven't actually listened to it. As I play I feel that I need to steady the tempo of Women: it's uneven, with bits I gabble because I am unsure of them. That's the start of the B part, both sections, and the two bars in each that are variations because I'm a bit tense about getting the "wrong" variation in. The grip is...messy. The tune is missing the lilt, the smoothness, that Kevin Macleod gives it. I like it with Sleat, and the main problems with Sleat are a general tendency to be unreliable, I think I speed up through the tune as I get into my stride, and I am still not sure if I'm playing the closing bars to the B and D parts properly. I may just be repeating one (they are subtly different), or I may have then the wrong way round. I suppose if I could bear to listen to the recording I might find out.



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