Wedding

We went to a wedding today. We took no instruments as a band was booked, but then the piper from the fan's (defunct) band was there with Irish pipes and the fan managed to blag a spare bouzouki. I came the closest I ever will, I expect, to blagging a set of pipes as the wedding band's flautist had a set of Ross Calderwood smallpipes on order. We had a nice chat about pipes, bands, sessions and folk clubs, then they played and I looked on...

Back late-ish and after some dithering decided to play for 10 minutes just so I can say I've played every day. Magersfontein, Dargai, Bee, Highlanders, Father John, Brandy.

All of the above

I was listening to Tryst yesterday evening and vaguely thinking that it was lovely, but that what I do isn’t sounding the same. I’m not sure why that is. It might be because I never lie back with some knitting and listen to myself. By definition if I’m listening to my pipes it’s because I’m playing them (unless I listen to recordings here, which I do with a mixture of great alertness trying to spot all the mistakes, and a cringing away because it sounds so bad I can’t bear to listen). Tryst is professionally recorded in a studio. I record mostly in the sitting room with a small hand held recorder: There is no mixing, dubbing, fading, balancing or any other wizardry applied. I’m also playing alone – I have no whistle players, fiddle players, Laud players, harpists or others to bolster the sound, except on those few recordings that include the fan. Perhaps it’s repertoire (although we have some overlap many of Ian’s tunes are beyond my abilities) and perhaps it’s a lack of grace notes. I suppose it will also be that his pipes and mine are different: he often plays in D and I believe his pipes are by Hamish Moore, I play in A on Hope Pipes (until my Monkey comes).

I suppose it could just be that Mr MacInnes is a damn fine piper with years of experience and I’m just a beginner.

 

Or all of the above.