Goldilocks

I left my office one day last week and got half way to the car before I realised that I was still wearing my office shoes and that my driving shoes were still tucked under my desk. I decided I'd drive home in my office shoes, which that day were a reasonably sensible court shoe, with neither a very high nor very thin and fragile heel. They were, however, just a bit higher than my driving shoes, high enough to amend the angle at which my ankle rests, and to alter the angles needed in my foot on the pedal.

I didn't feel comfortable at all, so the next day I drove into work in a pair of flat pumps. The lack of heel was fine, but somehow the soles were quite slippery, and I didn't feel comfortable at all. I was certainly glad to get back to my driving shoes.

I do worry, however, that the only shoes I can drive in are my driving shoes. They aren't proper driving shoes. I normally just downgrade my oldest and tattiest pair of shoes to the role. The current pair of mid-height black courts replaced a pair of brown mock snake skin courts a few years back. I've had heels and soles replaced at least twice, but they are on their last legs. I'm going to have to adjust to a different pair of shoes. It's either that or give up driving!

I'm feeling like that with my pipes at present. I'm going through one of those periods when I can't quite get comfortable. It's not as bad as things got before I shortened the tubing, but it's bad enought to produce aches and twinges in shoulder, elbow and neck. I find myself feeling that in order to get things just right, or at least better, I have to be wearing certain things. Some are reasonably practical. If I am sitting down to play the chanter sits between my knees so a short, straight skirt isn't much use. But I've convinced myself that even the thinnest jumper means that the bellows strap for my elbow won't fit, but the top I do wear must have long sleeves so that the strap doesn't pinch. And, as previously discussed, I have to be neither too hot nor too cold. 

The most irritating thing is that none of these issues (short skirts aside) seem to either bother me or make any difference at all in a session, but playing at home I invariably change clothing or adjust the temperature, or abandon because of incorrect clothing or temperature.

Thankfully, my footwear doesn't appear to affect  my piping at all.

Slow down, you move too fast

After what feels like a piping lifetime of trying to play ever faster, I am starting to appreciate the slow. I've been hearing tunes that are played more slowly than "my" version (Shores of Loch Bee, South Georgia Whaling Song, Flett  from Flotta). I've been playing tunes that I feel need to be taken slowly (Flanders Fields). I've also been going back to tunes I feel I am, not exactly struggling with, but failing to get comfortable with (Troy's Wedding, Braemar Gathering, Sound of Sleat), despite the fact that I've been playing them, off and on, for quite some time now. 

It's possible that I may speed them up again when I'm ready, but at the moment I feel that a slower pace gives me more control. It stops me tensing fingers, rushing through bits I'm not confident on, messing up the timing. It allows me to concentrate more - or perhaps I just have to concentrate more in order to bring the speed down, and that's why the problems slip away. I'm not sure that this is going to fix things, but these are three tunes I would very much like to have settled into my session repertoire.

I do wonder to what extent my "slow" is actually faster than the "fast" I used to play. Speed is relative. 30mph seems reasonable from a standing stop, a little odd if you're slowing from 70mph as you come off a dual carriage way and, if you are actually travelling along that dual carriage way with traffic tearing by at 70mph, 80mph or more, positively suicidal.

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.



Check this out on Chirbit

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.

MOT

Well, we've been up to Scotland, and mostly avoided midges, and visited the Monkey's maker. He showed me how to add hemp, remove hemp, start from scratch when hemp falls off or pushes too far up the joint. He also showed me several alarming things to do with reeds which involved pliers and made me feel pretty much the same way I feel about steeking: very nervous and slightly sick.

I played a little while I was there so that Ian could judge that everything was working right. The fan noted that I looked nervous. I certainly was. It's not often I play for another piper, someone who can see and hear every fluffed, missed or mangled grace. I feel more worthy than I did of my Monkey, and Ian is such a nice man I am sure nothing like this ever crosses his mind, but I feel that if I was an instrument maker I might feel a little peeved about having my beautiful instrument in the hands of one who doesn't quite deserve it.

The Monkey's joints are all now really air tight, and I felt a difference when I played yesterday. I also loosened off the bellows strap as Ian says if I wear it lower down I'll stop pushing the bellows askew, but that felt very odd indeed, as if the bellows were about to slip off me entirely. I also thought too much about bellows and bag as Ian noted, as the fan has done, that I tend to snatch the bellows a bit and not use their full extent. So all in all it was a bit like getting the car back from an MOT or service. On the plus side everything is clean and shiny and tight and responsive, but then the seat will have been pushed back, the mirrors adjusted and the radio tuned to something awful. It's great to know that everything is in full working order, but it takes a while to get everything feeling familiar again.

Satisfied

First posted Oct 24th, 2012 by newpiper

The title actually describes how I feel about my piping today. I've only played the once between this evening and my last post, but it went well. This evening I got home late with a headache and a real urge to get the pipes out. So I got them out, got straight into playing, ran through my dotless tunes without picturing the dots, or even really thinking at all: it felt as though the tunes were just there in the pipes and I was releasing them.

To go back to an oft-used metaphor, it's a bit like driving. When you begin then if you have a day or two away from it you really need to remind yourself of everything before you set off. I then had a stage where I was OK unless I had a longish break and then I would just have it in the back of my mind that I hadn't driven for a while and would need to get into the right frame of mind. Later on I'd find that I'd get in and drive off and only half way down the road realise that I hadn't driven for a while, and just note the fact that it didn't bother me. Nowadays - I've driven pretty much the same route twice a day for over 10 years - I don't ever think about it: I just get in and drive, and it feels natural and I don't need to think or readjust - it's just what I am doing.

I've been trying out Troy's Wedding, but not getting very far, so spent a little bit of time this evening trying to get Bonnie Galloway by heart. It's coming. I've got Castle Dangerous sorted. Work is too much of a distraction at the moment: taking up too much mental space. A week off next week and with my Christmas knitting projects well under way and the allotment ready to be put to bed for the winter I should have time to play and hopefully blog as well. Watch this space.

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.

Annoying the Neighbours

First posted Aug 15th, 2012 by newpiper

I did try to sneak in a quick practice yesterday, thinking it was early enough not to bother the neighbours, but I forgot that various doors and windows were open...and hadn't realised that our neighbours apparently keep very early hours. So my session was quickly curtailed. However, in order to minimise noise I blocked my drones off and could hear my chanter more clearly...and thus my grace notes, which aren't bad (although listening to Iain MacInnes as I type they are still too obviously collections of fast notes rather than those chirps and burbles that they should be).

Anyway, another go this evening (on the other side of the house, with windows shut, and early in the evening!) and experimented with blocked off drones. One at a time also means I can hear the drones and how they are doing. The middle drone still doesn't sound very strong, but they don't sound as wavery and inconsistent as they do when I've got them all going. Whether that's because I can manage even pressure for one but not all, or the waver is some trick of hearing with chanter and three drones going, I know not. I do know that my shoulders ached, which means I've been pumping too much, which means I need to practice more. (This - along with "I need more time" - should surely go on my gravestone).

Anyway, while I was fiddling around between tunes listening to a drone I suddenly discovered I was playing My Home Town. What with that, almost having the Barren Rocks sorted and the Highlanders still coming slowly that's three tunes I can nearly play by heart.

One of the odd things about playing by heart is getting the exact level of concentration. To a certain extent you can think too hard about it you just have to let your fingers go. It's like driving - you don't need to ask which gear you are in or are moving to - it comes naturally, and thinking "which gear am I in" normally means you are in, or about to move to, the wrong gear. On the other hand too little concentration and you miss a part or play a part three times instead of twice. You have to sort of listen to the tune without thinking about your fingers. At least, I think that's what I'm doing.

No recording again - it still takes away more from a session than it adds because it shifts my focus. I wish I could hit record at the start, stop when I end playing for the day, and just snip out the bits I want. Or maybe I should get the fan to record me so I'm not thinking about it...