Thigh bone connected to the hip bone

I'm still trying to find a way to be comfortable and this evening nothing worked. It occurs to me that the advice I've seen and been given to wear the bellows as high as possible isn't helpful. The bellows surely need to be adjacent to your elbow, and where that sits depends on the relative length of your arms and body. Actually I see that pipe makers Richard and Anita Evans recommend having the bellows  just above your right elbow.

Wearing the bellows low I am still resting my forearm or wrist on the side, which hurts, because I press, rather than rest, the arm to get at the chanter. Looking at picture of other pipers most hold their arms well clear of the bellows. At least, small pipers do,  Uilleann pipers all seem to lay their forearms along the bellows...

The bellows also slide around my waist, but I don't think I fancy pulling the strap much tighter. However I am definitely using the bag to control air flow better when the bellows are sitting lower. And setting the bellows lower, to stop me continuing to push the outer half down, is what started this whole thing in the first place.

I'm not sure that looking at other pipers is helping. I think that everyone will hold their pipes in a way that suits the size and shape of their instrument and their own body. It's a very physically intimate instrument in some ways, being cuddled into your body on each side and the drones at the front. There is a way for the two of us to fit together, the monkey and I, without damage to either of us. We'll find it eventually.

Comparing apples and pears

I put my tablet on a higher surface this evening, which means I've got a better view of myself playing, but it makes it harder, of course, to compare with yesterday's footage.

I felt today as though the drones were sitting too low. The bellows strap was loose so my bellows kept working their way around my waist. The strap was cutting into my arm above my elbow. I also had some problems with my wrist resting on the bellows uncomfortably. The chanter was somehow in the wrong place so my fingers kept missing: it's a bit like typing with the keyboard off to one side, nothing is quite where you are expecting it to be.

On the plus side my left arm ached, and I think the reason is that I've been working the bag more than the bellows, which is good. I suppose it's also good that despite everything I managed to play tunes, shoving the bellows around, angling the chanter, hoisting bits up and pushing other bits down while I played.

I need to play like this more, try videoing myself a few more times, probably look at footage of other pipers to see where everything is sitting in relation to everything else.

I've labelled this with the now little-used label whinge, but despite the list of things that aren't right I am quite happy, and sure I'll find the perfect tube length soon.

Getting the measure of things

Still playing, although not so often as I was, but not blogging much.

A few days ago I received a 10" piece of piping from Ian Kinnear. I calculated that 10" would be the absolute maximum required to allow me to wear the bellows low so that they sit under my elbow, so that I don't push the outer side of the bellows down, giving me enough leverage to gently, evenly and fully open and compress the bellows, but not forcing me to rest wrist or upper forearm on the bellows, cutting off circulation and feeling. At the same time I want the bag tucked high under my left arm, again to give control over airflow, but also to make  it comfortable for me to reach and hold the chanter. Being female, and with a generous helping of bust, I also want to ensure that nothing is getting squashed in the middle.

Removing the existing tubing wasn't easy (I'm keen not to cut it in case it turns out to have been the ideal length all along). Brute force was the answer in the end, and getting the new tubing on was greatly aided by the tiniest smear of washing up liquid at the fan's suggestion.

I found I could play at once with bellows low, bag high, and 10" in between. I suspect that it's like driving. Once you can drive it's most comfortable to drive one's own car set up in a particular way, but if push comes to shove it's perfectly possible to drive a different car, or one's own car with the seat further back than usual or the steering wheel higher than usual, or an extra 3 adults in the car...

I felt as though it would be useful to see how I looked, but we only have small mirrors set at a height for checking hair in the mornings. So I went hi-tech and videoed myself on my tablet. Looking at the resulting footage I can see:

1. I look a lot like my sister;
2. When I play I look like I'm about to cry (the fan says he doesn't think this is normally the case);
3. My fingers move mysteriously on the chanter and it's often hard to tell which fingers are moving. This seems to me to be a good thing;
4. I can't be totally comfortable with the tubing as when I press the bellows I execute a sort of Mexican wave of hunching first the bellows shoulder then the bag shoulder;
5. I may be kinking the tube a little;
6. It looks as though I am not pushing down the outer side of the bellows at all;
7. My hands looks relaxed on the chanter.

I think now I need to persevere, play like this a few times, and then if I feel it's not quite right and can't get rid of the Mexican wave, then I need to shave off half an inch and go through the whole process again...

Mostly playing The Women - seems I'm a tad obsessed. The fan says it's stuck in his head, too.

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.

Hang loose

I've always had a bit of a problem with wind instruments such as whistles where in order to reach some higher notes you over blow. I hate discordant notes, especially high discordant notes; I hate the thought that I won't hit the right note. I probably tense and over over blow, as it were. I remember in the days when I played the trumpet being encouraged to go for a higher note, pressing well in to the mouthpiece and giving it all with my lungs. I remember the teacher pulling the instrument away from me so I was barely touching mouth against mouthpiece, and the surprise at finding that note coming easily and effortlessly.

I've been thinking about this recently, noticing how, when  am relaxed, fingers are barely on the chanter. When I am tense my fingers are stiff, I grip the chanter, I find it difficult to move fingers quickly. Soft, loose fingers that don't really hold the chanter, just settle around it, make quick notes and the smallest chirrups of grace notes. I know now when a high A grace needs to be a tap of the thumb, and when a downward - or upward - swipe is better. Everything is more relaxed (usually).

Both Rocks and Dragon (how does The Barren Dragon strike as a set name?) went to pot this evening. I couldn't get either of them right. The fan says it's because I was playing faster, but even the slow walk throughs with all the gracing in was wrong. I don't get cross or bothered by this though. I know by now that if I leave these tunes to fester for a few days they will work themselves out and next time I play they will be fine.

My playing is going well at present: I'm feeling the love. I don't mention it that often these days. I suppose it's a sign of a maturing relationship. Certainly I occasionally have heart flips when I play, but generally it's a warm contented glow. It's going to be a forever thing - me and my Monkey.

None the wiser

After a bit of a break I'm back to listening to Seudan. It's odd, how it seems to have changed. Sets that seemed once to be endless tunes merged together are now clearly groupings of individual tunes. I can hear them clearly, work out how many parts each one has, identify ones I particularly like. I might have liked them before, but I am not sure I would have thought of trying to play them. I have tried Alick C McGregor, of course, and never quite got the hang of it.

I've picked out two from one set: All the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border and Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow. Dots for the first are in my Seaforth book, those for the second come from the Piper's Assistant, courtesy of the ever wonderful Coel Sean.

The Bonnets are coming on OK. I've spent two evenings working on the tune on my chanter, paying particular attention to gracing. I tried them out on pipes this evening and it went OK. I'm pleased at how quickly I am moving from first run through to something that sounds like playing a tune, and how quickly I start to remember bits.

The Pickle Tow turns out to be a total non-starter. It's one of those deceptive ones that has few bars, limited, and quite basic, gracing, straight forward note combinations. Nothing fancy at all...and yet I'm blowed if I can get even an approximation of what it sounds like on the CD. I was careful to pick a version marked as a jig - Ceol Sean has some march versions - but it's hopeless. Much, I suppose, will be down to timing, although as the tune is quite clear in my head that ought not to be a problem. I can't listen through while I read the dots as the CD is in the car for intensive listening and I can't be bothered to go out and get it, and You Tube isn't helping much.

I also have no idea what a pickle tow is. Google has offered me some lyrics and some dance instructions, but that's as far as it goes. The Gaelic name is Iain Caimbeul a'Bhanca, which is apparently John Campbell of the Bank, so that sheds no light at all on the matter. I'm clueless all round when it comes to this tune.

Busking it

I didn't do too badly today. Perhaps it was the practice before hand. Perhaps it was the session being small (the band, the fiddle player's Americana partner, a friend, plus 2). Maybe it was having my back to the wall or space around me (it can be very cramped some times). I am wary of picking one of these, fetishising it as a must-have, an "I can't play unless..."

Still, not too badly, as I said. I just let my fingers play what tune they would. We started with Bonnie Galloway. I got a little distracted because I could here the band's (Irish) piper playing a whistle and the notes caught my attention. Managed to pull my chanter adrift (still haven't been brave enough to have a go at hemping and I really must). Slightly distracted, too, by not-quite-in-tune drones.

I played Flett and that went well, but I couldn't bring Bee to mind and judged it safer to stop with Flett. Later on I gave Magersfontein its first outing. On one repeat I lost the plot totally and ended up making up notes until I got back to firm ground.

As we began to pack up I played Home Town. As I started my drones sounded ragged, the pipes thin, and I had a moment of wondering what on earth I was doing, then the fiddler pitched in and suddenly I could hear real smallpipes - just like on CD! - and just played happily.

Much more relaxed today, definitely. No mad pumping, no shaking hands or weak knees, no pounding heart. I just sat, played, listened, as I do when I'm playing alone at home. Someone said to the drummer that he looked to be in a trance when he was playing: the drummer calls it Zen. Whether you call it Zen or the zone or even a state of flow I was almost there, today, almost in that space.

Blast from the past

It has only just occurred to me that I still have old clips on my web cam of me playing short items on my chanter, and that Chirbit supports wmv files. I found someone online - through The Session, I think, who said he'd comment on my technique, and I made a few short video clips for him. All I remember him saying was that I wasn't ready to play Scotland the Brave and should try Scots Wha Hae instead.

I loathe Scots Wha Hae. It's enough to put anyone off for life. I have a history of loathing the tunes in beginners' books and racing to the back of the books to find something I know and like and actually want to play. It may not be the official way to learn, but I think it challenges and stretches and makes you a better player and keeps you interested.

Anyway, the point of this is to demonstrate progress. The clip is March 2011, just over three years ago. It was before I even had Morag, before I had ever held a set of pipes, before I really started to become a piper. My playing is reasonably even, but s-l-o-w. The grace notes are all there - every one as laid out in the dots in The Piper's Delight - and clunky beyond belief. It's like looking at childhood photos and thinking, can that really be me?


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Preparations

Yesterday I sat down with the fan so he could work on some accompaniments for my tunes. This isn't really in the spirit of sessions where normally everyone plays the tune together, but he seems to think it's allowable for me...

We worked at McIntyre's Farewell and put it with the Trail. Now that the Trail is getting faster this gives a nice change of tempo. All the gracing I've been working on vanished in a puff of smoke. However, we're off to new session at the usual venue this afternoon and I'd rather get notes and the switch between tunes right and to hell with the grace notes. I've been working on it again this morning, grace notes and all, on my chanter.

The fan says the set sounds good. Two or three more of those, he says, and I'd be OK for a short slot at our local open mike venue. Absolutely not, say I: you'd need to take me in wearing blinkers, or the hoods they put on the heads of the condemned as they lead them to the gallows. As it is I'm nervous about playing this afternoon. Hence the chanter practice. Hence sitting here wearing mittens to keep my hands warm, fretting.

Life is full of surprises

We had an orgy of music at our local folk club in November: Emma Sweeney, Vamm, Anna and Mairearad, Breabach. Our folk club, quite fairly, I suppose, as we're in England, favours English Folk, so it was a welcome surprise to find so many Scots and Irish bands in the line up this season.

Anna has a good line in patter. She had an anecdote that required a Swedish accent, first checking that there were, of course, no Swedes in the audience. She had less luck with the French - there was a French man sitting (as she noted in a stage whisper to Mairearad) right in the front row.

During Braebach's set Calum noted they were about to play pibroch and asked if anyone was familiar with this. I obviously didn't shout up loud enough as Calum looked rather bemused and said he wasn't sure if that was a yes or someone's dinner disagreeing with them...

In the interval I did the fan thing and told JDM that I admired his solo CD. He seemed very surprised that anyone would have heard of it, seemed to think it made sense that I would be a fellow piper (he liked smallpipes, he said), but was amazed that I am not a lone piper in the South East. We have, I said, the Essex Caledonian, CADPAD, bands in Southend and Ipswich, and host the RSPBA London and South East competition each summer.

When Vamm were playing Catriona cheerfully said they had improved on three pipe tunes by playing them on fiddles. She did ask, laughingly, if there were any pipers in the audience. She was expecting silence, of course she was, but one voice piped up....

Vamm themselves are full of surprises. Their CD has an irritating lack of information about any of the tunes, but there is one that sounds rather Baroque-ish, and one that sounds as though it might be written by  Duncan Chisholm. Nothing sounds quite as you'd expect a couple of Scots fiddles to sound, but it all sounds very good indeed.

Just the chanter today, and more work on grace notes. Surprisingly I rather enjoyed it.

Back to basics

My day's practice was on the chanter. I dug out the Green Book and The Piper's Helper and I worked on GDE graces and grips. I rather enjoyed it and mostly stopped because the reed kept getting to water logged I kept having to dismantle the chanter to dry things off. It's not like a recorder where you can cover the fipple and blow, or a trumpet, where you have a handy water outlet. I'm sure all good pipers keep clean handkerchiefs in their sporrans for wiping a wet reed: I use the hem of my tee shirt, because it's less bother than going in search of a tissue.

I can't remember now where it was I read that you need, or generally use, fewer grace notes with smallpipes than with GHB. I've noted that graces I can do come out perfectly (chirrups, burbles etc) on A and badly (as stumbled together notes) on D. But I have become lazy, strip out everything except strikes, thumb graces, D throws and Gs. I feel I should vary my single graces more and make use of D and E. I also have a couple of tunes (Dragon, Highland Brigade) where grips would be useful.  Some tunes are too pared back, too basic without their gracing.

I rather gave up on working on gracing when I got Morag. The Green Book is full of dull exercises and dull tunes, and I have enjoyed myself much more picking tunes I like and trying to learn them. Willy, my one time tutor, was bemused that anyone would bother with books of exercises, although I suspect he used them in his youth. Vicky definitely recommended such exercises to me. I thought I'd given up that sort of thing, but right now feels like the right time to go back.

The others

As always happens when I select a batch of new tunes I take very quickly to some and others fall by the wayside. This evening I went back to some of the fallen: Gaelic Club, Captain Grant, Highland Lassie and The Portree Men. 

I played on the chanter only as the fan isn't well and had taken himself off to bed. Didn't go too badly and I managed to play for about half an hour before my lip started going and I felt I'd bothered the fan long enough. More work needed on timing and grace notes.

Childish things

It's funny how I felt that I had put my chanter behind me: after all, once you have pipes, who needs any substitute? Especially with my Monkey and his clever drones' key, it's easy to try out new tunes with minimum fuss. But recently I've been rediscovering my chanter and all its uses and benefits. It's quieter, it's less physical effort (once your lungs are in training: mine were fit to burst this evening), it's possible to play very slowly, to repeat more easily, to stop and think mid note without the accompanying collapse of bag and drones. I'd forgotten how useful it was to play a tune very slowly, putting in every single grace note as written, and when you speed up some of the gracing can be left in, but you can't shoe horn it in at speed when the pipes are in full flood.

So, half an hour with my chanter this evening. I listened to the Loch Alsh set: listened and played, listened and played. I went over Dargai very slowly with full gracing. And that was it: just paying plenty of attention to three tunes, to notes and grace notes and timings, polishing and perfecting the small things, in the way that you only really can with a practice chanter.

Stockpile

The fan is a bit of a hoarder, especially when it comes to food. Nothing pleases him more than a well-stocked larder with one, two, or even three spare jars, packets, bags, boxes or tins of everything. I, on the other hand, find that too much food makes me feel panicky. What? Must I eat all of this stuff? Our fridge is currently stuffed with the pickles that are needed for a perfect Boxing Day lunch. That was great on Boxing Day, but now it has been and gone I am starting to feel more than  little depressed by the sheer weight of food. I have visions of myself still eating cheese and piccalilli sandwiches in October.

I'm feeling a little similar about my new stockpile of new tunes: gorged and overfed, until I really don't fancy the look of any of them. I've been focussing on a few, and some of the others have been pushed to the back of the musical larder.

Having said that I very nearly got an extra tune yesterday when I discovered that the McGillivray who wrote the Duncan McGillivray tune (for his father), is the man who runs the Pipe Tunes website, and he makes the tune available there. I've been aware of this site for a while. It looks expensive (but mostly because a Canadian dollar is worth barely 50p) and I'm not sure how many of the tunes I would actually want.

For some reason this got me thinking about the Heights of Dargai, which I've tried before. A google led me to a discussion about the Dargai/Dashai confusion and then I tried again to find the dots, and they turned up on the website of the Kilbarchan band. Having got them and compared them with the version I had before (from The Session) I can't see why neither the fan nor I could work the tune out from those dots. Anyway, it's a great tune and I played it a lot on the chanter yesterday.

Despite the chanter practice my fingers struggled to sit on the A today, and it took 15 minutes or so to settle in, but then bag and bellows and everything came together and the fan noted how mellow the A was sounding. I stuck with the Club, Murray, Rocks, Dragon and Dargai and then switched to D and played the Glomach/Balmacara set. I didn't even look at the other tunes and left them to moulder, other than a quick canter through Troy, just because one of these days I am going to be able to play that blasted tune and I don't want it getting lost at the back of the larder behind all the new stuff.

Don't I know you?

I woke up this morning with bits of a tune going round in my head. I couldn't identify it, but I could "hear" it well enough to be able to hum it, so I wondered whether I might be able to pick it out on the chanter. I started and felt I got reasonably close, then I remembered what I thought might be an earlier part of the same tune, and felt more confident that I had got that. I was feeling slightly smug, when I remembered that the tune was The Glasgow Gaelic Club and as I've been playing it for three days I ought to be able to pick it out. When I got the dots out I discovered I had the shape about right, but hadn't quite got the right notes.

I was so pleased that I spent some time listening to the Club and other tunes on Tryst and then playing them over on the chanter, stopping to fiddle with timing or accuracy, trying out grace notes (and heavens, but I'm rusty with gracing).

The upshot is that on top of yesterday's excitement of getting Murray so quickly I've now got the whole of the Club by heart! To be fair, they are both very short tunes. I played Murray with the Rocks and they sound good together. The Club, rather like the Dragon, is a nice tune, but definitely feels as though it needs to sit with something else. It goes perfectly with the tune I began with this morning - Duncan McGillivray, Chief Steward - but sadly I don't have the dots for that.

New

New year, new post, new tunes.

Yesterday evening I sat on the sofa, going over books of tunes and listening to some of the same tunes on various CDs. I got out my chanter and tried a handful, and they all sounded OK - recognisable. I feel the need for a whole stack of new tunes: I feel as though I've been playing the same thing for 18 months or more, and in fact, where many of the tunes are concerned, I have been doing exactly that. So I've picked a wodge and no doubt some will quickly become the same old same old, others will fizzle and fall by the wayside, and others I will do intermittent battle with, but somehow never manage to get the upper hand.

I played for 90 minutes or so. I started with A and played my way through each tune at least once, except Captain Grant, which refused to sound like any tune I had ever heard, so I abandoned it. A bit of hard work: a struggle to hold the pipes comfortably, to get the air pressure right, and my bottom hand a mess.

Then I moved to D and played the whole lot again, and even Captain Grant behaved himself this time round, after a fashion. The pipes tucked nicely under my arm and the pressure was right, and apart from occasionally overshooting the low G with my little finger it was fine.

I played mainly without gracing. Listening to these tunes a drop down to G adds a real richness, and other than a barely birl, where I clip my little finger against low G, I don't really bother with low grace notes. The tourluaths and such like I was learning with Willie, before I got my pipes, before he died, and I've not had much to do with them since. So I'm finding it a struggle, even to hit a good clean low G between some higher notes. I need to practice on the chanter. I need to practice my grips, especially when going into the grip on one note and coming out on to another.

My new tunes are:

Balmacara and The Falls of Glomach
The fan and I have stayed at Balmacara a few times and have fond memories. It's where someone in a pub in Plockton loaned him a mandolin and he joined in a session, one of his first, and it's also where I sat on the loch side and played my chanter.
I heard these tunes on Springwell and have them in Book 5 of Donald MacLeod.

The Highland Brigade at Waterloo
Not quite new, although this setting is not what I've had before. I know this tune from Tryst and it's in Book 1 of Donald MacLeod.

The Portree Men
The Highland Lassie Going to the Fair
Murray's Welcome
The Glasgow Gaelic Club
Captain Grant
These are all in Standard Settings of Pipe Music of the Seaforth Highlanders and all known to me from Tryst. Murray reminds me of the Barren Rocks and is rather lively. I'm pretty sure I've tried the Portree Men in the past, without much joy.

Delvinside
Not sure about this one. I didn't play it today. I've tried in the past, struggled to find dots that seem to match the version I know (Sealbh). I've got it on volume 1 of P-M W. Ross's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music, which I think I bought in a music shop in Portree.

I recorded three tunes, all on A, so apart from the fiddling about on the chanter yesterday this was pretty much a first play through, so they are rather raw, but set down a marker. They are The Portree Men, The Highland Lassie Going to the Fair and Murray's Welcome. 


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Getting a grip

I played quite a lot yesterday. Not hugely successfully. I lacked the concentration to get tunes right: both Loch Bee and Magersfontein keep letting me down. My hands were uncomfortable on both chanters. I'm inclined to blame the cold and my marathon knitting sessions, but I suspect it's more down to an embarrassing lack of practice.

My stamina is good, though, and yesterday I just went from tune to tune, although I could probably have done with stopping at least once to get the bellows in the right position. It was one of those where my wrist rested on the bellows, neatly cutting off circulation in my fingers...

Today I've played through a number of tunes. I dredged up Teribus from somewhere in my memory. It's a bit shaky, but not in bad shape, considering. Still working on Troy. I think the speed is good, still having problems with accuracy. Currently losing the plot on the C part where I really want double high after after both the low A (correct) and the B (wrong, wrong, wrong). I also still have a tendency to play the first and the last part only of the D part. I suppose that the D, being the only non-repeated part, I've probably played only half as often as the rest of the tune...

The fan gave me two volumes of Donald MacLeod for Christmas. He was pleased to find Jack Adrift in volume 5, which he had been looking for. I was pleased to find an arrangement in the first volume of The Highland Brigade at Waterloo. In the B part, in place of the odd drop to low G then a D grace on a low A between two high A's, and the two drops to low G around a D between two high G's, there are grips. I can play grips! The other interesting thing is that I thought this was one of those tunes that was refusing to filter into my musical memory, but several times I found I was playing the remembered version (from the David Glen Collection via Ceol Sean) instead of the version in the dots before me.

January is coming. Knitting still not finished (yes, yes - it was Christmas knitting, and Christmas has been and gone) but I will play every day. And I will learn some new tunes - I've no excuse with two volumes of P M MacLeod.

O' but ye've been long a'coming

Oh - the shame - two whole weeks without posting. Worse - practically two whole weeks without piping. Mostly it's down to my continued pre-Christmas knitting frenzy. Not everything will be done in time but so far I've managed a neckwarmer, some socks, a scarf, part of a second pair of socks, and a mild case of knitter's elbow.

I've dragged the Monkey out this evening. Our upstairs neighbours are back today from foreign parts. If I had just got off a 13 hour flight I would drink a mug of tea, have a shower and get into bed. The last thing I would want to hear is someone else's music. I've played at the front of the house, away from bedrooms, but the thought of irate neighbours banging at the door made me nervous. Still, I managed a good run through of my regular repertoire, including dusting off Alick C McGregor, because listening to Seudan has reminded me how good it is. Reasonably fast, but total reliance on dots, mysteriously.

Yes, enjoying Seudan very much, and got out Seaforth Highlanders and found several of the tunes in there: Hot Punch, Tullochgorm, Fingal's Weeping, All the Blue Bonnets. Tried some on the chanter, then found MacDonald of the Isles, which sounded good. I must find new tunes.

Still putting the A chanter on the pipes when I put them away, and so play the first handful of tunes on A each time. Not surprisingly this means I'm finding it much easier to play A again, and the switch between the two is also easier.

But I really must play more. I should play every day in January. I don't feel I go backwards much when I don't play, but I certainly don't go any further forwards, and I have to keep marching on.

Just passing through

Not getting much playing time and kicking myself for not making more effort when I had 4 days off work last week. Interesting discussion on the Session around how to fit practice in, how often to practice, how long for. Several people saying 15 minutes a day is better than nothing, whereas I've come to the conclusion that is just tokenism and doesn't help anything...

I had the practice chanter out this evening to work on those tricky bits in the Highland Brigade at Waterloo. Slow, but coming on.

Emma Sweeney was excellent last night. She has a style all of her own and sounded less American live with just a guitarist than she does on the CD.

Trick or treat

Just listening to Emma Sweeney. She's playing down our way this coming Monday and we'll be there. Maybe too much American influence for my liking, and I know the fan will spit feathers because she's only 20-something and such a good fiddle player...

I've played a little this evening. Still working on Troy, which is all there, but is in serious need of some polish. Playing around with putting Loch Bee with Flett. I think Flett will need to come first. Still finding it hard to pair tunes up. Magersfontein still trips me up from time to time, but I do like it. The Nova Scotia tunes I played, too, and Galloway. I forget which tunes I know, and have to think about it.

Working hard at the Highland Brigade at Waterloo. It's a rather sombre tune. Still enjoying that C part, and still struggling with the B and D parts with those high As split by two quick notes and a grace. Playing the As, the other two notes, no graces, and as if all four notes had the same time value. I just need to get the fingering right and relaxed and fast. It's a job for the practice chanter, really.

The recording is the Sound of Sleat. Not sure now why I wanted to play it. It's on Seal Song, of course, and in one set on my Grand Concert CD. The timing has taken a bit of work. The opening bars I found difficult, specifically the second bar. The last part is a doddle and I play that faster than anything else. Generally I'm playing too slow. I think I'm there now, timing-wise, but I vaguely wonder why I bothered. It seems a bit dull, somehow.


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