Back in your arms again

This week I've started to hear music in my head again. It's not there all the time, and it's mostly a song, but it's there, and I feel as though I must be defrosting, decompressing, becoming myself again. I was starting to feel like a person who used to play pipes, so it was a relief to be able to muster the energy and find the time tonight.

I began with A: I'm using the old trick of always putting the A chanter on before I put the pipes away. I fell straight into the Rowan Tree without even thinking, then Amazing Grace and  Galloway. Too much bellows action, snatched action at that, but it was OK, it was good.

Back to D I rambled about, my fingers feeling stiff and unpracticed, but the tunes came. Magersfontein, Flett, Dargai, Bee, Home Town, Drops of Brandy. The Dragon still floating about, wanting to be slow and lyrical, I think. The Cabot Trail kept crashing out in the B part. The Whaling Song was OK. Teribus popped up out of nowhere. Braemar stalled on the B part. Not even sure what I else I can play, could play - back in the day, back when I was a piper.

Oh  - but some foot tapping, out of nowhere. Good solid tapping that keeps time. But it only works when I'm sitting down. I can't tap and walk, obviously, but I can't tap and stand either, it seems.

I'll be glad when this rough patch at work is over and I can get back to doing the stuff I love and being myself.

Gatecrashers

I missed playing yesterday. We had guests for the weekend and I spent what little morning there was before they arrived making dessert for the evening, making up the bed, cleaning the bathroom etc, and ran out of time to play.

This evening I started with the Pickle and the Cudgel: both coming on nicely. Still with the dots but feeling they are just there for decoration at this point. After that I played five in a row: Magersfontein, Dargai, Bee, Flett...and I've forgotten which else.

The I played something familiar that was in my head. I though perhaps it was Murray, so tried and failed for the B part of that. Played the A part of Murray instead. Ran into the Barren Rocks by accident at the end and on to the B part f that. Back to Murray and on again to the mystery tune, which turned out to be the Dragon. None perfect,  but clearly they are all floating around despite my decision to drop them. And clearly they seem to work together, if only by association.

Then the Captain, McIntyre's Farewell, the King, the Cabot Trail (but maybe this was my fifth tune?), Troy, Coggeshall Fair (one of the two tunes written for us), Amazing Grace. A bit of foot tapping, intermittently: some of it distracted me as I followed my foot rather than the tune.

All in D, though. droneless. I must work with drones, with A. I must record.

Short and sweet

I've had The Battle of the Somme going round my head all day again today...and when I got home and started the fan rushed in to point out that I was playing the wrong timing, again. Sorted myself out and played it round and round, but somehow couldn't quite get it without dots today. Not totally sure I've got the timing of the second bar of the B part right just yet - I'm aware that I am adjusting my foot tapping at that point.

I've been thinking that one reason the short tunes are coming along faster is that I tend to play AA BB AA BB and then probably do it again, and, if I'm on a roll, do it some more times, just for fun. The longer tunes I'm playing AB, or ABCD for the four parters, maybe repeating once, and then moving on. I must persevere with them: it's not as if I don't have the stamina. Gave the Fiddler a go, round and round, slow, to get the notes right.

However, my bellows elbow a little tired this evening, and my hands a little cold so I'm not closing fingers down cleanly on the chanter, so after 15 minutes I felt I'd made my point about playing every day, but clearly need a rest, so I stopped.

Monkey in D, with and without drones, but mostly without and I should get back to having them because presumably the drone reeds need playing in just as much as the chanter reeds.

Timing

Today's post is all about timing, good and bad. Mostly bad.

My laptop is on a go slow. I've used the fan's PC all week and the laptop is clearly having an almighty sulk.

I decided to start playing at 5.45, thinking to give myself half an hour and just start dinner 15 minutes late, only I lost track and when the fan interrupted at 6.30 to show me a version of The Battle of the Somme online I moaned that he was eating in to my half hour, and then pushed on to 6.45 before I realised... Needless to say, dinner was late.

The fan pointed out that I'd misread the timing of the Somme so I've worked on that.

The fan talked through my recording, so I had to redo it. Monkey in D, with drones, but I was in a hurry, worrying about dinner, and didn't strap the bellows on properly so there are bits where I lose it because I'm not comfortably keeping the air moving. It wasn't a good move to play without for a week. Needless to say the pan that was on the hob burnt.

I managed to miss an A part repeat out on this recording (distracted by thoughts of the pan on the hob) and I thought I'd got a good swaying speed - rum-ti-di dum dum, rum-ti-di dum dum - but of course on the play back it sounds like a dirge. (To be honest a dirge would be more fitting considering the unimaginable and utterly obscene numbers of "fallen", as we like to euphemistically call the dead, that the tune commemorates.)

I fear this new timing may mean the tune will no longer sit well with the Dragon. The fan suggests The Battle's O'er and the Session suggests Heights of Dargai.

The fan says my foot tapping is OK, except that I am probably tapping to my playing, because when the playing goes off the timing I end up rearranging my foot tapping to fit in with it.

Not exactly about timing, but four months ago when I previously tried to play every day it seemed like a struggle: I remember counting the days, scraping through with maybe 5 minutes play, and being generally bad tempered about the whole thing. This time I love it: I can't wait to get home and play, I can't stop once I start playing.

This 5 minutes to blog seems to have eaten half my evening.


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Have I told you lately

So I played and I played - I lost track after an hour, but it's the best part of an hour and a half. I played all my new tunes. I played the King, Castle, Galloway, Flett. I fiddled with some other stuff in my book - Highland Wedding, Stirling Castle. Tunes just pour out. I stood up, I walked about, I sat down. I tapped my feet. I played and I played.

Have I mentioned how much I love this?

Air brushed

I was driving home yesterday listening to the Grand Concert and thinking what great tunes there out there, and how they can be played too fast, then the Iain MacInnes track started and I noticed drones, droning in in the background. I really normally only get to hear my own drones when I play. When I listen to my various CDs that have smallpipes there are other instruments, or singing, and the drones tends to be faded out. The Concert is obviously recorded live, with just a mike pointed at unadulterated pipes, real pipes, with drones droning. I keep thinking drones sound wrong, but they don't, they are part of the sound of pipes, and it's only CDs that make me think they are extra or ugly or overloud.

Anyway, back to today. I was cheerful until late afternoon when I suddenly felt that I couldn't bear another hour without the fan, and it's all of today, and all of tomorrow, and pretty much all of Sunday to get through without him, and even Georgette Heyer couldn't cheer me up. So I dragged the Monkey out and played and played for an hour (a few small bits of attending to dinner in  between) and loved every minute, even though all my tunes (Troy, Alick, Somme, Dragon, Fiddler) all gave me problems. Lots of foot tapping, rather oddly. I don't seem to be able to stop it now. Nothing went well, but I loved it, and played those tunes over and over. Felt much more cheerful, and after all, it's only really tomorrow, and then he'll be back the next day.

Recording is the Boy's Lament for His Dragon, aka The Boy's Lament for His Kite, aka The 72nd's Farewell to Aberdeen.  I'm playing a mix of dots and how I think the tune sounds on the CD, and the bits where I hesitate are the bits where the dots are least like what I think I can hear. I keep practising the final bar run down FEDC, throw on D, G on D, but when I play the tune I end up playing G on D then the throw on D, which doesn't sound as good, but is easier somehow. Needs work. Timing needs work. Everything needs work. Recorder did its usual and left me with the embarrassing ragged start and end.  But the tune is lovely and lively and not much like a lament, but describes well the swing in the step that I'd have if I were saying a cheery farewell to Aberdeen, because its the one place in Scotland I just don't like, not at all, and if I were ever there again I'd be very happy to leave.


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Off the boil

Today, for no apparent reason, things aren't so easy: more effort needed. The weather is cooler (although the temperature in the flat only varies by a degree or two either way), but I can't think what else has changed.

No idea how long I played for because I forgot to check when I started. The main frustration has been with recording. I thought to do a medley of tunes, but as  things weren't going so well I decided to go for the Somme followed by the Dragon. I bombed out n the Dragon, but I wasn't worried, because on the big recorder I can, of course, edit tracks and I was just going to cut the end off.

Despite following the fan's instructions to the letter and despite the machine telling me I had chosen a start and end point it gave me the unedited track as the master. So not only do I have a ragged attempt at the Dragon, which ends in tears, I also have puffing away trying to get the bag full, and an unseemly squeak from the chanter.

To add insult to injury my laptop doesn't like the big recorder any more than the small one and steadfastly ignored it no matter how I connected the two. I've come to the PC to transfer the file and convert to MP3 and email it to myself to pick up on the laptop because I can't remember my Chirbit password. Email sent...and clearly decided to come by the email equivalent of second class mail. Managed to remember my Chirbit password so have stuck to the PC.

So here we are - the Battle of the Somme. No drones. Monkey in D. Some foot tapping which just happened and I couldn't stop. (I see that despite the fan's insistence that I learn this it isn't favoured by everyone.) Not sure that it helps: if anything it distracts while I try and work out if I'm playing to the tapping or tapping to the playing or tapping randomly...

Must be about playing from memory because when I muck up I'm pausing while I scan the dots to work out where I am. That note combination I complained about yesterday working OK today. Good tune, I like it.


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Day three

Time played: 35 minutes, but I am playing quite intensely these days, with only a moment or two between tunes.

Tunes played: My Home Town - had to resort to dots for the B part (no - I can't explain it either); King (over and over and round and round and still not getting it note perfect every time); Galloway (no problems);  Flett (fine once I remembered how it starts...); Alick (abut half of the A part by heart, starting on the B part. I need to listen to it.)

Instrument: Monkey in A (as were days 1 and 2).

Foot tapping: I tried, and then forgot, and ended up walking around instead. I've seen pipers (GHB) walk up and down, and they seem to pace on the spot at each end. I think this must be stop themselves making themselves dizzy...

Recording: the fan has most generously emailed me the manual for the recording kit. Guess what I'll being while the band practises tomorrow...!

Notes: playing without drones. Main chanter reed sometimes squeaky. Grace notes sounding good.

Captain's log

OK - so here we are in June, which means I need to find time every day, the allotment season has started in earnest and I have Christmas glittens to finish. Obviously something needs to give, and I think it has to be blogging. So my plan is to stick to the basics, as follows.

Day one
Time played: one hour, followed by time on the chanter and then fiddling around with Irish tunes on the whistle.
Tunes played: everything on my play list (bar Banks, Highlanders and Whistle), with dots, just to remind myself.
Notes: odd how I never have problems with bellows etc at sessions - presumably just that I have to concentrate on the tune it takes my mind of everything else. Trying to tap my foot with tunes.

Day two
Time played: 45 minutes
Tunes played: Tree, Town, Galloway, Castle, Teribus, King, Flett, Rocks - all dotless, just to prove I can. Barra, because I ought to nail this. Alick C McGregor, A part over and over until I started to get bits by heart, and the B a couple of times.
Notes: I seem to be pushing the bellows down on the outside, so wore them lower round my waist. Droneless, because my arms were tired from hoeing and raking at the plot. Everything works better when I stand up to play. A little foot tapping.

PS - also intending to record a lot, but without it taking too much piping time. Am asking the fan to write instructions for the big recording kit that plugs in to the mains - less hassle all round.

Patting my head...

Actually tapping my foot, but when piping it's like patting your head and rubbing your tummy. For a long time I couldn't move my feet while piping at all. In the last few days I've managed to get my right leg to do fast jigging up and down, but it's nervous movement more than beating time. Today I've managed to slow it down a bit, if I start tapping first, but the tapping is fairly independent of the playing.

Yesterday the fan and I worked on Home and the Tree, then I got him to help me with The Battle of Waterloo. As often happens his version wasn't the same as my dots,causing some confusion. I also pulled out my CD of pipes tunes that includes the Tree and he had to concede that it's the tune and not me making it hard to keep time throughout. We finished with him talking me through the first few bars of Cam Ye O'er Frae France. I've managed to recall it today, but only on the chanter.

He's out today and I ought to be managing a lot of playing, but it's cold: we have snow. Morag seems to be feeling the cold, and I certainly am - my fingers aren't nimble enough. I've played a few tunes, but it's hard work and I'm going back to my knitting and pile of books on the sofa.

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.