Roll up! Roll up! Ladies and gentlemen, prepare youselves to see a miracle! The Pipe Doctor is here to cure all your ills!
Did you plant out squash and sweetcorn the day before howling tempests, sleet and rain struck? Did you cancel a planned holiday because your boss wouldn't let you take leave? Did you work out that thanks to timings of your least favourite work task you won't get to have any leave next year? Has the public library catalogue been down all weekend preventing you requesting books? Did you get stuck half way through the crossword? Did you send your sister a sub-standard birthday card because you couldn't find a really nice one anywhere? Do you seem to have been struck down with adult-onset hayfever for no reason at all? Just 30 minutes with the Pipe Doctor will cure these ills!
Yes, I know, first world problems. I enjoyed playing. It just about took my mind off things. But I'm still really cross about the cancelled holiday. We were going to Ireland to play music and see really nice people.
(Braemar Gathering doing OK except for one phrase that keeps getting mangled, got the 4th part of Troy, but the 3rd part still gives me problems and I end up clutching tight on my chanter. Still only two parts to Father Macmillan.)
Ramblings of an easily distracted learner piper
Showing posts with label Ireland; chanter; distractions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ireland; chanter; distractions. Show all posts
Monday, 18 May 2015
Monday, 3 December 2012
Progress
First posted Sep 18th, 2012 by newpiper
Yes, I do really feel as though I am making progress now. Still working on getting those tunes by heart. Still too hit and miss for my liking: too many glitches and hitches, but coming on. Now I'm not concentrating 100% on remembering the tune I can look around a bit as my fingers play. So I am listening to my drones more, and also noticing how my breathing sits with the bellows and the bag. I'm hopeful that once I get these tunes properly done I'll be able to try tapping my foot as I play. You'd think that would be easy, but it is like learning to drive a car, when you can check the speedo, or change gear, or remember where the indicators are, but all three at once is too much to ask - and if it suddenly gets dark and pours down with rain the chances of you finding lights and switching on your wipers without causing a major pile up are vanishingly slim.
So, get more of my tunes by heart, learn to tap foot. Then I want to learn more tunes. I started on Joe McGann a while back, abandoned it while learning the others dotless, and now I don't fancy it. I mean - it's a great tune, and it sounds good when the Fan plays it, but it's his choice not mine and I don't have the real desire to play it. So I've set it to one side in favour of Troy's Wedding. More practice needed, as ever. The allotment season is drawing to a close now, just some pre-Christmas knitting to distract me, so hopefully I'll spend more time piping.
Yes, I do really feel as though I am making progress now. Still working on getting those tunes by heart. Still too hit and miss for my liking: too many glitches and hitches, but coming on. Now I'm not concentrating 100% on remembering the tune I can look around a bit as my fingers play. So I am listening to my drones more, and also noticing how my breathing sits with the bellows and the bag. I'm hopeful that once I get these tunes properly done I'll be able to try tapping my foot as I play. You'd think that would be easy, but it is like learning to drive a car, when you can check the speedo, or change gear, or remember where the indicators are, but all three at once is too much to ask - and if it suddenly gets dark and pours down with rain the chances of you finding lights and switching on your wipers without causing a major pile up are vanishingly slim.
So, get more of my tunes by heart, learn to tap foot. Then I want to learn more tunes. I started on Joe McGann a while back, abandoned it while learning the others dotless, and now I don't fancy it. I mean - it's a great tune, and it sounds good when the Fan plays it, but it's his choice not mine and I don't have the real desire to play it. So I've set it to one side in favour of Troy's Wedding. More practice needed, as ever. The allotment season is drawing to a close now, just some pre-Christmas knitting to distract me, so hopefully I'll spend more time piping.
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