I'm not doing very well with either playing or blogging. My day job is pretty dire and it seems to be sucking all the energy out of me, so I'm not getting round to much else at all, annoyingly.
Earlier this week I took delivery of a cubic metre of compost for the raised beds on the allotment, primarily for my new asparagus bed. It took about two hours in total to scoop it into buckets and chuck it into the beds. I managed to avoid blisters, but my arms have been feeling the strain.
So when the fan reminded me that it was the Foresters session I though I'd better get the Monkey out and see if I was fit to play. I played happily through a few tunes so felt happy to go out. I wasn't brave enough to try the Nova Scotia set, Loch Bee or Magersfontein. I stuck to Flett, the Whaling Song, the Tree and My Home Town. That was a small risk as I haven't played it in a while and wasn't sure if I remembered the B part, but the mice knew it, of course, and I just left them to it.
I don't want to play the same old tunes each month, but the fan says it's useful for the others to get to know my tunes so they can learn them too. Not sure how much use that is in a session that has, apart from me, the fan and the organisers, a pretty shifting population.
One who seems to be becoming a regular turns up in the middle, plays three songs, loudly, in a row, and then walks off with out saying a word. This time he brought a friend who said to the table at large "is it OK if I borrow your mandolin", with his hand already on the fan's baby. The fan said he felt he could hardly say no, and restricted himself to pointing out that it is £2k worth of instrument... Luckily I can't imagine that another piper would ask to borrow the Monkey, and it's not something that people dabble in - you're either a piper or you're not. Despite having been brought up to share anyone asking to play the Monkey would get a very firm"NO!!" in reply.
I got the recorder out this afternoon, but then couldn't remember what I had recorded lately. I played McIntyre's Farewell in A, which reminded me that I should play A more often. I went on to the King, which the fan always says sounds better on A. Struggled to get it right. Played Galloway, just to prove I can still get through a tune on A. Switched to D and got the King at last, then various of the usual suspects. I wonder if I've got to many new tunes on the go: I forget what I'm playing, forget which tunes I already know.
I just need to practice more - it's the one thing I can't have too much of.
Ramblings of an easily distracted learner piper
Showing posts with label mandolin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mandolin. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Thunderbolt City
The fan said today that I am doing better than he expected. It's not that he thought I wasn't capable, just that he doubted my ability to stick at it, given how many other instruments I've tried.
There are people who marry the first person they meet, and are happy 50, 60 or 70 years later. Many of us are less lucky and have to hunt around, which might entail everything from one night stands and disastrous dates to moving in, to give it a go... As I've mentioned before I played recorder at school - I think many people of my generation did. Before that, at my first primary school, I remember playing triangle for Away in a Manger and I have a tiny scrap of a memory that involves a concertina, but I can't have been older than four at the time. There was the violin, played to please my father. There was the trumpet, which was hopefully close enough to the baritone my sister played to be equally fun without being close enough to annoy her. That went well, and in the end it was a maths O level that came between us because I couldn't do both, and maths seemed more pressing at the time.
There was a guitar - Stairway to Heaven - taught by someone else's boyfriend... There were penny whistles, because Dad thought they'd be fun; there were ocarinas because they came in pretty colours. There was even a mouth organ, but I have no idea where it came from, and we never really worked out how to play it properly. The mandolin, of course, the mandola and bouzouki (too big).
Even when I started with my pipes they were a poor substitute. I'd fallen in love with those big, hunky GHB. I had romantic visions of me on a loch side with my pipes and the music. I wasn't prepared for the harsh reality of marching bands, uniforms, and kissing goodbye to my weekends.
And then, after a while, I stopped pining for those big, chunky, hunky GHB and fell in love with my little Monkey. Why would we not be together forever?
I'm pondering whether or not I feel I want to play every day in September. I've played today, just in case, but also because its the last of my 9 days of holiday. To mark the occasion I've also recorded! This is Cabot and Captain, again, this time with the Whaling Song. I start way too slow, partly because if I am too fast I go into Captain instead of the trail. I then fumble because I realise I have the dots, and worry they will distract me. I speed up. I make a few fluffs. I go through each tune twice. I fluff in Whaling where there are what the fan calls snaps - at least, if they aren't there Id like them to be, but somehow they make me forget the next note. Whaling is too fast - you cold never sing at this speed. Tempo is something I must get fixed. No drones - and how thin the pipes sound without them. A bit lost. Which makes sense really, because pipes and drones belong together.
Check this out on Chirbit
There are people who marry the first person they meet, and are happy 50, 60 or 70 years later. Many of us are less lucky and have to hunt around, which might entail everything from one night stands and disastrous dates to moving in, to give it a go... As I've mentioned before I played recorder at school - I think many people of my generation did. Before that, at my first primary school, I remember playing triangle for Away in a Manger and I have a tiny scrap of a memory that involves a concertina, but I can't have been older than four at the time. There was the violin, played to please my father. There was the trumpet, which was hopefully close enough to the baritone my sister played to be equally fun without being close enough to annoy her. That went well, and in the end it was a maths O level that came between us because I couldn't do both, and maths seemed more pressing at the time.
There was a guitar - Stairway to Heaven - taught by someone else's boyfriend... There were penny whistles, because Dad thought they'd be fun; there were ocarinas because they came in pretty colours. There was even a mouth organ, but I have no idea where it came from, and we never really worked out how to play it properly. The mandolin, of course, the mandola and bouzouki (too big).
Even when I started with my pipes they were a poor substitute. I'd fallen in love with those big, hunky GHB. I had romantic visions of me on a loch side with my pipes and the music. I wasn't prepared for the harsh reality of marching bands, uniforms, and kissing goodbye to my weekends.
And then, after a while, I stopped pining for those big, chunky, hunky GHB and fell in love with my little Monkey. Why would we not be together forever?
I'm pondering whether or not I feel I want to play every day in September. I've played today, just in case, but also because its the last of my 9 days of holiday. To mark the occasion I've also recorded! This is Cabot and Captain, again, this time with the Whaling Song. I start way too slow, partly because if I am too fast I go into Captain instead of the trail. I then fumble because I realise I have the dots, and worry they will distract me. I speed up. I make a few fluffs. I go through each tune twice. I fluff in Whaling where there are what the fan calls snaps - at least, if they aren't there Id like them to be, but somehow they make me forget the next note. Whaling is too fast - you cold never sing at this speed. Tempo is something I must get fixed. No drones - and how thin the pipes sound without them. A bit lost. Which makes sense really, because pipes and drones belong together.
Check this out on Chirbit
Monday, 22 April 2013
The toad work
The brain is a wonderful thing. Having wasted 10 hours of my life today working and getting to and from work, I then proceded to think about work, which made me grouchy and disinclined to do anything else. After a cup of tea and a chocolate brownie I decided to fight back, refuse to let work take over my entire life, and got Morag out. The grouchiness slipped over into my piping: too much pressure on my right thumb (ouch), too much air going through (too much bellows-action needed), drones too loud...
As so often happens as I played on things got better, work was driven out of my mind, I concentrated on playing. I notice that the the tunes I can play well are the tunes I have played lot recently. The problem is that the tunes I played a lot a little while ago and haven't played so much of late quickly become tunes I struggle to get right, so the Rocks are doing quite nicely now, but the King is rather shambolic. I can't play everything often all the time: apart from anything else, as my repertoire increases there simply won't be enough hours in the day (see above re time wasting).
I had to think hard just to recall which tunes I know: played pretty much everything, I think, except the much-neglected Highlanders. I also forget the coaching that the fan did with me recently on timing on the Rowan Tree. It's one-two-three-PLAY, not one-two-three-and-try-to-remember-if-you're-on-the-A-or-B-part-and-how-does-that-start-breathe-and-PLAY. Also persistently playing a run in note against the As in Teribus in the B part, and it's just because I've got into the habit and because the G makes the chanter easier to hold than flipping straight into A.
Did I mention...two weeks today I'll have my Monkey. Musical excitement all round as the fan is expecting his new mandolin to arrive from Somerset on Wednesday.
As so often happens as I played on things got better, work was driven out of my mind, I concentrated on playing. I notice that the the tunes I can play well are the tunes I have played lot recently. The problem is that the tunes I played a lot a little while ago and haven't played so much of late quickly become tunes I struggle to get right, so the Rocks are doing quite nicely now, but the King is rather shambolic. I can't play everything often all the time: apart from anything else, as my repertoire increases there simply won't be enough hours in the day (see above re time wasting).
I had to think hard just to recall which tunes I know: played pretty much everything, I think, except the much-neglected Highlanders. I also forget the coaching that the fan did with me recently on timing on the Rowan Tree. It's one-two-three-PLAY, not one-two-three-and-try-to-remember-if-you're-on-the-A-or-B-part-and-how-does-that-start-breathe-and-PLAY. Also persistently playing a run in note against the As in Teribus in the B part, and it's just because I've got into the habit and because the G makes the chanter easier to hold than flipping straight into A.
Did I mention...two weeks today I'll have my Monkey. Musical excitement all round as the fan is expecting his new mandolin to arrive from Somerset on Wednesday.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Hello World
First posted Mar 25th, 2012 by newpiper
Heavens - I got a comment! Hello world! More specifically, hello Simon, and thanks for your encouragement, and thanks for spreading the word abut this tune - I'm so glad I've come across it. I've been listening to lots of versions of the Halsway Carol. I think my favourites are the one with bells, because it's nice and clear, and Nigel's own version. I'd not really come across hurdy gurdys before, and I'm quite smitten. I love the way it starts very gently and then that that percussive effect kicks in - marvellous!
So I've been trying to pick the tune out. I started on a whistle, and then in a moment of madness crossed to the mandolin. Despite violin lessons more years ago than I care to recall I don't find strings intuitive, however, sometimes they help with patterns. The tune seems to start, for instance, with two open string notes. Does that help? I’m not sure. I picked it out on the mandolin and wrote out the dots because I didn't think I could transfer what was then a mandolin tune for me direct onto pipes. I was wrong! I picked up pipes and I played it. Well, I played the first part, and I don't think it's quite right. Interestingly I got some of my best ever finger speeds, probably because somehow I'm not thinking about playing, I'm just thinking about the tune.
The fan is away this weekend but I am hoping when he gets back to get him to listen to the proper version and my version and he'll help me out. He can listen to a tune and go "well, that's a C and you're playing C sharp" whereas I just go "this note doesn't feel right". Oddly it's sometimes the correct note next to the wrong note that that feels wrong...
Anyway - no fan, no recording kit, but plenty of time to practise and I'm doing it in small bursts. Dusty Pipes and Hector both came back. In the end reading the dots to remind me didn't help. I know that I know the tunes, because I know when I've got them wrong. I've found that actually listening to the tune and working it out as I go along is more helpful than dots.
Kicking myself for not accepting the Halsway Schottische dots when they were offered, but I think I'm learning a lot by having to work the tune out for myself. It's a great tune and it's going to sound really good on Scottish Smallpipes!
Heavens - I got a comment! Hello world! More specifically, hello Simon, and thanks for your encouragement, and thanks for spreading the word abut this tune - I'm so glad I've come across it. I've been listening to lots of versions of the Halsway Carol. I think my favourites are the one with bells, because it's nice and clear, and Nigel's own version. I'd not really come across hurdy gurdys before, and I'm quite smitten. I love the way it starts very gently and then that that percussive effect kicks in - marvellous!
So I've been trying to pick the tune out. I started on a whistle, and then in a moment of madness crossed to the mandolin. Despite violin lessons more years ago than I care to recall I don't find strings intuitive, however, sometimes they help with patterns. The tune seems to start, for instance, with two open string notes. Does that help? I’m not sure. I picked it out on the mandolin and wrote out the dots because I didn't think I could transfer what was then a mandolin tune for me direct onto pipes. I was wrong! I picked up pipes and I played it. Well, I played the first part, and I don't think it's quite right. Interestingly I got some of my best ever finger speeds, probably because somehow I'm not thinking about playing, I'm just thinking about the tune.
The fan is away this weekend but I am hoping when he gets back to get him to listen to the proper version and my version and he'll help me out. He can listen to a tune and go "well, that's a C and you're playing C sharp" whereas I just go "this note doesn't feel right". Oddly it's sometimes the correct note next to the wrong note that that feels wrong...
Anyway - no fan, no recording kit, but plenty of time to practise and I'm doing it in small bursts. Dusty Pipes and Hector both came back. In the end reading the dots to remind me didn't help. I know that I know the tunes, because I know when I've got them wrong. I've found that actually listening to the tune and working it out as I go along is more helpful than dots.
Kicking myself for not accepting the Halsway Schottische dots when they were offered, but I think I'm learning a lot by having to work the tune out for myself. It's a great tune and it's going to sound really good on Scottish Smallpipes!
Mystery, Memory and Pattern Recognition
First posted Mar 13th, 2012 by newpiper
I've been thinking over yesterday’s playing-without-dots breakthrough and wondering how it happens. It is partly – as I know from the three tunes I can play dot-less on a mandolin – a matter of waiting for a tune to get inside your head. But it needs to get inside your head in a special sort of way that doesn't vanish the moment you play a note. I've yet to understand why a tune can drive me up the wall all day at work but mysteriously disappear by the time I arrive home. Nor do I know why a tune I love refuses to stay in my head, but one I feel I'm barely familiar with will lurk around.
I have quite a good memory for the patterns that text makes on a page. If I'm looking for a passage in a book I’ll be quite clear where on the page layout it is, what sort of shape the paragraph is, and so on. I also find that I can picture sheet music. I can’t always see the exact dots, but I can see the general pattern. The fan says this isn't the right way of playing without dots, but I can’t not visualise something I've seen. (I have no idea why this works for text, for written and printed materials, but utterly fails as far as places are concerned. I'm famous for getting excited about somewhere I believe to be a new place only to be told that I've been there lots of times before).
But patterns. Now, of course I know in purely intellectual terms that folk music is repetitive, and I know that means whole bars repeating and recurring during a piece, but somehow when you really know a piece you really begin to feel those repetitions. The repetitions can also catch you out of course – is this the repetition followed by a note going up, or the one followed by a note going down? I can also get stuck in a loop where I get the first variation but then can’t remember how the repeat resolves itself in the second variation and ending up repeating the first variation ad nauseam. Yesterday, having played through as best I could, and then had a quick look at the dots to fill the gaps, I realised in a quite visceral way for the very first time the patterns and repetition that were involved – I really saw them - and I think that’s why I had my breakthrough.
Now all I need to do is look and listen really carefully so I can learn a few more tunes without dots.
I've been thinking over yesterday’s playing-without-dots breakthrough and wondering how it happens. It is partly – as I know from the three tunes I can play dot-less on a mandolin – a matter of waiting for a tune to get inside your head. But it needs to get inside your head in a special sort of way that doesn't vanish the moment you play a note. I've yet to understand why a tune can drive me up the wall all day at work but mysteriously disappear by the time I arrive home. Nor do I know why a tune I love refuses to stay in my head, but one I feel I'm barely familiar with will lurk around.
I have quite a good memory for the patterns that text makes on a page. If I'm looking for a passage in a book I’ll be quite clear where on the page layout it is, what sort of shape the paragraph is, and so on. I also find that I can picture sheet music. I can’t always see the exact dots, but I can see the general pattern. The fan says this isn't the right way of playing without dots, but I can’t not visualise something I've seen. (I have no idea why this works for text, for written and printed materials, but utterly fails as far as places are concerned. I'm famous for getting excited about somewhere I believe to be a new place only to be told that I've been there lots of times before).
But patterns. Now, of course I know in purely intellectual terms that folk music is repetitive, and I know that means whole bars repeating and recurring during a piece, but somehow when you really know a piece you really begin to feel those repetitions. The repetitions can also catch you out of course – is this the repetition followed by a note going up, or the one followed by a note going down? I can also get stuck in a loop where I get the first variation but then can’t remember how the repeat resolves itself in the second variation and ending up repeating the first variation ad nauseam. Yesterday, having played through as best I could, and then had a quick look at the dots to fill the gaps, I realised in a quite visceral way for the very first time the patterns and repetition that were involved – I really saw them - and I think that’s why I had my breakthrough.
Now all I need to do is look and listen really carefully so I can learn a few more tunes without dots.
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