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.
Ramblings of an easily distracted learner piper
Showing posts with label timing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label timing. Show all posts
Sunday, 11 September 2016
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
Mistaken identity
I started off with Arthur this evening, and got very confused, because the notes were what I was expecting, and yet the tune wouldn't come and kept grinding to a halt after the first four or five notes. Eventually I realised I was trying to play Hills of Perth using the dots for Arthur, and failing to notice my mistake because the first couple of bars of Perth are already in my head and because the first four or five notes of the two tunes are identical.
I need to do some careful listening to get the fourth part of Perth and the third and fourth of Arthur. I am also finding that Arthur's timings are much easier to get when I sling in more gracing. Perth, on the other hand, seems to want only the barest minimum of necessary graces.
Still struggling finding a comfortable way of doing things. Either bag or bellows can be OK, but not both at once, and the nearer I get the more the tube kinks, so I suspect that more needs to come off.
It also occurs to me that Mr Kinnear set the pipes up for me, including cutting straps, and possibly tubing, when I first collected them, so at one stage they must have looked right to his practised eye. When I saw him recently and mentioned the mangled bellows he didn't say that it was a major problem or that I must change anything - he said I could try wearing the bellows a little lower. Maybe I'm over-reacting to a minor problem. Maybe I only need an extra half inch or so...
I need to do some careful listening to get the fourth part of Perth and the third and fourth of Arthur. I am also finding that Arthur's timings are much easier to get when I sling in more gracing. Perth, on the other hand, seems to want only the barest minimum of necessary graces.
Still struggling finding a comfortable way of doing things. Either bag or bellows can be OK, but not both at once, and the nearer I get the more the tube kinks, so I suspect that more needs to come off.
It also occurs to me that Mr Kinnear set the pipes up for me, including cutting straps, and possibly tubing, when I first collected them, so at one stage they must have looked right to his practised eye. When I saw him recently and mentioned the mangled bellows he didn't say that it was a major problem or that I must change anything - he said I could try wearing the bellows a little lower. Maybe I'm over-reacting to a minor problem. Maybe I only need an extra half inch or so...
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
Silver lining
We have a plumbing issue, and I'm waiting for the plumber to arrive. This has worked out nicely in the end as it means I've managed to carve out some piping time on a day when I'm going out in the evening and wasn't sure how I was going to manage more than a token 5 minutes playing time.
Sound of Sleat - this is at the stage where things get worse before they get better. Struggling to remember the timing of the opening bars, although it's fine once I get going. The third part is trickiest, somehow, and I still can't play GDE graces on that row of Bs although they are fine on the As. I am gracing the Bs, I'm just not sure how. Maybe I'm just dropping down to A between each. This tune doesn't go with Brandy...
Braemar Gathering - I seem now to have got over fudging the run up in the middle of the A part, although I still seem a bit tense around the grace between a low A and a C. Garbling a few bits as tbe tempo comes and goes, slowing down for those A to C transitions, charging through other phrases.
Troy - lost this totally today: struggled through all of it. It's fast, but as for accuracy...
Heroes and Highlanders. Isn't that a nice name for a set? Not sure that they go together, but will work on it. Very nearly there with Heroes, just a few glitches. The 4th part of Highlanders has a tendency to be the slowest.
Father John's Boat Trip doing OK.
Sound of Sleat - this is at the stage where things get worse before they get better. Struggling to remember the timing of the opening bars, although it's fine once I get going. The third part is trickiest, somehow, and I still can't play GDE graces on that row of Bs although they are fine on the As. I am gracing the Bs, I'm just not sure how. Maybe I'm just dropping down to A between each. This tune doesn't go with Brandy...
Braemar Gathering - I seem now to have got over fudging the run up in the middle of the A part, although I still seem a bit tense around the grace between a low A and a C. Garbling a few bits as tbe tempo comes and goes, slowing down for those A to C transitions, charging through other phrases.
Troy - lost this totally today: struggled through all of it. It's fast, but as for accuracy...
Heroes and Highlanders. Isn't that a nice name for a set? Not sure that they go together, but will work on it. Very nearly there with Heroes, just a few glitches. The 4th part of Highlanders has a tendency to be the slowest.
Father John's Boat Trip doing OK.
Sunday, 15 March 2015
You don't know until you try
There was a time when part of what I was keen to learn, and to demonstrate I had learned, was the ability to play tunes from memory. I now know that, given time, I can indeed play (a handful) of tunes from memory. So these days when I set out to learn a tune I am not setting out to play it through without dots, so much as play it evenly, with the correct timings, appropriate gracing, decent speed and so on. I don't know that this has necessarily turned into a dependence on dots, but it has certainly led to a feeling that it's taking me an awful lot longer to learn tunes by heart.
Today, rather by accident, I discovered that I know the first two parts (all I am currently playing, partly because I'm not 100% sure of the timing in the other parts, and partly because two parts are easier to learn than four) of John Macmillan. I hadn't tried because I really thought I hadn't got it in my head at all, but there it wss.
This may be down to having put Synergy in the CD player in the car, where my feeling is that I play the track over and over and generally only notice the point at which the next tune in the set kicks off and I realise that I have missed John, again. Clearly it has sunk in, from listening, and from playing, and I have not lost my ability to grasp the basics of a tune within a week or two. I'm pleased that a reasonable amount of grace notes have been sucked into my playing memory with the main dots. I now need to improve what I have learned, especially the timing in the second part of the B part, and then consider learning the next two parts, and finding it a set partner.
The other thing I want to learn is the origin of the word "Father" in the title as listed on the CD. I have it on dots from the session, where perhaps it was picked up from Synergy. But why is it there on the CD? They have pipers, they must know Donald Macleod, which is where I have dots from (book 1). It's not a trad tune, with origins lost and titles confused over the years: Macleod attributes it clearly to Norman Macdonald, Glasgow. A bit of research required...
Still having problems with cold/numb right hand, positioning of bellows, and still sticking with D, having not played A at all since who knows when.
Today, rather by accident, I discovered that I know the first two parts (all I am currently playing, partly because I'm not 100% sure of the timing in the other parts, and partly because two parts are easier to learn than four) of John Macmillan. I hadn't tried because I really thought I hadn't got it in my head at all, but there it wss.
This may be down to having put Synergy in the CD player in the car, where my feeling is that I play the track over and over and generally only notice the point at which the next tune in the set kicks off and I realise that I have missed John, again. Clearly it has sunk in, from listening, and from playing, and I have not lost my ability to grasp the basics of a tune within a week or two. I'm pleased that a reasonable amount of grace notes have been sucked into my playing memory with the main dots. I now need to improve what I have learned, especially the timing in the second part of the B part, and then consider learning the next two parts, and finding it a set partner.
The other thing I want to learn is the origin of the word "Father" in the title as listed on the CD. I have it on dots from the session, where perhaps it was picked up from Synergy. But why is it there on the CD? They have pipers, they must know Donald Macleod, which is where I have dots from (book 1). It's not a trad tune, with origins lost and titles confused over the years: Macleod attributes it clearly to Norman Macdonald, Glasgow. A bit of research required...
Still having problems with cold/numb right hand, positioning of bellows, and still sticking with D, having not played A at all since who knows when.
Monday, 26 January 2015
The reel thing
Now I've got the right dots everything is falling into place. I've been humming Alick C today: first time ever. Getting a decent speed up, too. Work needed on speed (getting faster, being fast and in control, keeping the speed even), on grace notes, and on the C part where I am struggling with timing in a couple of bars. Am going to work on the A and B, maybe get those by heart before I start on the C and D.
The fan suggests a new sort of challenge: that I set myself to learn a new tune between now and the next session. Not sure I'm up to this. I wouldn't be happy about taking a single tune, with no companion. I would need to find a tune, and decent dots. I think maybe if it was a march I might manage it, maybe if I played it a lot. Maybe. I'm so conscious of the tunes (Dragon, Rocks, Troy, Cudgel. Highlanders, Braemar, to name but a few) that I've pegged away at for so long and never got to be happy with. I don't chose tunes: they chose me. Still, it's an idea I haven't totally rejected...
The fan suggests a new sort of challenge: that I set myself to learn a new tune between now and the next session. Not sure I'm up to this. I wouldn't be happy about taking a single tune, with no companion. I would need to find a tune, and decent dots. I think maybe if it was a march I might manage it, maybe if I played it a lot. Maybe. I'm so conscious of the tunes (Dragon, Rocks, Troy, Cudgel. Highlanders, Braemar, to name but a few) that I've pegged away at for so long and never got to be happy with. I don't chose tunes: they chose me. Still, it's an idea I haven't totally rejected...
Friday, 2 January 2015
The real Miss Girdle
So I set myself to unlearn the Miss Girdle I know, and learn another. I do it in the old way. I look at the dots and see that in terms of repeating parts it runs A,B,A,C then D,B,D,C, and so reassure myself that I only actually have four bars to learn. I play slow, slow, slow. I play to work on timing. I play again to work on gracing (the original version had none and I added very little). For some reason inserting gracing screws up timing. The fan says it sounds more like the tune he knows. I listen to the Tannahill Weavers play it, but it goes by in a blur.
And then I decide to check my Seaforth, and what do I find? Miss Girdle, of course. Another Miss Girdle. Quite similar, indeed to the second Miss G, with something of the ending arpeggios of the first Miss Girdle, which I only spot after several playings as the B part isn't repeated, and the second version is up on a separate page of the book. This one goes A,B,A,C then D,B,D,E/D,B,D,F. Six bars to learn. Of this version.
Then I speed it up a little, and do a bit of a double take, because it's Miss G - of course it's Miss G. I feel as though I've just walked passed a friend in the street because they have changed their hair or specs and I've had a moment when I've totally failed to recognise them.
And then I decide to check my Seaforth, and what do I find? Miss Girdle, of course. Another Miss Girdle. Quite similar, indeed to the second Miss G, with something of the ending arpeggios of the first Miss Girdle, which I only spot after several playings as the B part isn't repeated, and the second version is up on a separate page of the book. This one goes A,B,A,C then D,B,D,E/D,B,D,F. Six bars to learn. Of this version.
Then I speed it up a little, and do a bit of a double take, because it's Miss G - of course it's Miss G. I feel as though I've just walked passed a friend in the street because they have changed their hair or specs and I've had a moment when I've totally failed to recognise them.
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Oh, go on then
I wasn't going to play this evening. It seems that now the pressure is (finally) easing off at work I feel more tired than ever. All I wanted to do this evening was curl up with a book, leaving the allotment unwatered and not even bothering to start a new knitting project to take to my knitting group tomorrow. Well, the plot will have to stay dry tonight, but I've dragged my project out to cast on and I've done some piping.
My hands were cold and my pipes sounded odd to me. The fan says they sounded fine to him. It's like those mysterious days when the car seems to sound growly or rattly for no particular reason. Or the mysterious way in which 19 degrees (the standard temperature in the flat over the year) can seem blissfully cool in summer but unbearably cold in winter.
I worked on the Braemar Gathering, sticking to the first two parts and reading the dots rather than using them as a guide to the shape of things while I play what I think the tune sounds like. I don't know the tune well enough.
(As an aside I was thinking of The Session and the insistence there on the purity - even moral superiority - of playing by ear and thinking of all those great pipe tunes I have the dots for and perhaps will never hear anyone else play in my entire life, let alone hear often enough to learn...)
But, round and round with the A and B, working on timing, trying to throw in D grace wherever low A moves to C. It's a nice movement and ought to be simple enough. I played a few other bits and pieces but nothing sounded right or felt comfortable, and I almost wish I hadn't bothered at all.
My hands were cold and my pipes sounded odd to me. The fan says they sounded fine to him. It's like those mysterious days when the car seems to sound growly or rattly for no particular reason. Or the mysterious way in which 19 degrees (the standard temperature in the flat over the year) can seem blissfully cool in summer but unbearably cold in winter.
I worked on the Braemar Gathering, sticking to the first two parts and reading the dots rather than using them as a guide to the shape of things while I play what I think the tune sounds like. I don't know the tune well enough.
(As an aside I was thinking of The Session and the insistence there on the purity - even moral superiority - of playing by ear and thinking of all those great pipe tunes I have the dots for and perhaps will never hear anyone else play in my entire life, let alone hear often enough to learn...)
But, round and round with the A and B, working on timing, trying to throw in D grace wherever low A moves to C. It's a nice movement and ought to be simple enough. I played a few other bits and pieces but nothing sounded right or felt comfortable, and I almost wish I hadn't bothered at all.
Monday, 23 June 2014
Lost and found
The fan is back. I've retrieved the first part of the Cudgel, and the dots.
I lost two more days of my month. On Saturday I kept waiting for phone updates from the fan , stranded in Basel awaiting a replacement plane. On Sunday I was just too darned tired.
Today as I went through dots to find the Pickle, Cudgel, Troy, Whaling and Braemar I came across the Shetland Fiddler, Alick C and the Snuff Wife and wondered about giving them another go, but (wisely, hopefully) I stuck to what I had.
I still don't really have Troy, after all this time. The bits that work well fly from my fingers, but then I stumble over a grace and the edifice crumbles. I had the Whaling Song, but keep conflating the B part with that of the Cabot Trail. The fan tells me this means I don't really know the Whaling Song. I've listened to it again and introduced some snaps which I hope will differentiate it in my mind from the Trail. Braemar is tricky on timing.
Played for fun this evening: Magersfontein, Bee, Flett and Dargai.
I lost two more days of my month. On Saturday I kept waiting for phone updates from the fan , stranded in Basel awaiting a replacement plane. On Sunday I was just too darned tired.
Today as I went through dots to find the Pickle, Cudgel, Troy, Whaling and Braemar I came across the Shetland Fiddler, Alick C and the Snuff Wife and wondered about giving them another go, but (wisely, hopefully) I stuck to what I had.
I still don't really have Troy, after all this time. The bits that work well fly from my fingers, but then I stumble over a grace and the edifice crumbles. I had the Whaling Song, but keep conflating the B part with that of the Cabot Trail. The fan tells me this means I don't really know the Whaling Song. I've listened to it again and introduced some snaps which I hope will differentiate it in my mind from the Trail. Braemar is tricky on timing.
Played for fun this evening: Magersfontein, Bee, Flett and Dargai.
Sunday, 15 June 2014
Small beginnings
Some while ago now I read Kirsty Gunn's beautiful novel The Big Music and I remember being just a tad depressed by the Piping Grading Table that appears in the appendices. There are 6 levels, and by the fourth level you've still only managed to become a novice.
I was reminded of this recently while listening to the Food Programme (the 1 June 2014 episode). The programme was about knives and knife makers. There was an alarming clip of Sheila Dillon apparently closeted in a kitchen with a man with an unhealthy interest in knives who muttered "chop, chop, chop" and "Sever! Sever!" as he whipped the knives about. You could hear them cutting through the air as he wielded them and I worried for Sheila's safety.
But the point of interest was that in Japan where there are apparently some very fine knife makers, a man (apparently they are always men: no women were mentioned) may work with a master craftsman for 10 (yes: ten) years before he is allowed to become a student. After a further 14 years he moves on to become an apprentice. A far cry from the days when a boy was apprenticed at 14 to learn a trade in seven years.
It made me think how far I have come. I can play a tune on my pipes. I can play a reasonably fastish tune. I can play several tunes from memory. I can play a number of tunes one after the other without stopping to wonder what tunes I know or how they go, or having a little lie down to rest aching arms. I can play in front of other people without it being a major ordeal. I can switch between A and D chanter with reasonable ease. None of these things could I do when I collected Morag back in November 2011. In fact, some of those things I still couldn't do when I collected the Monkey just over a year ago.
I still want to use more grace notes, play better grace notes, increase my speed (while maintaining accuracy), learn more tunes and become more comfortable with playing with or for other people. I need to improve my timing. I want to be a better piper.
I was reminded of this recently while listening to the Food Programme (the 1 June 2014 episode). The programme was about knives and knife makers. There was an alarming clip of Sheila Dillon apparently closeted in a kitchen with a man with an unhealthy interest in knives who muttered "chop, chop, chop" and "Sever! Sever!" as he whipped the knives about. You could hear them cutting through the air as he wielded them and I worried for Sheila's safety.
But the point of interest was that in Japan where there are apparently some very fine knife makers, a man (apparently they are always men: no women were mentioned) may work with a master craftsman for 10 (yes: ten) years before he is allowed to become a student. After a further 14 years he moves on to become an apprentice. A far cry from the days when a boy was apprenticed at 14 to learn a trade in seven years.
It made me think how far I have come. I can play a tune on my pipes. I can play a reasonably fastish tune. I can play several tunes from memory. I can play a number of tunes one after the other without stopping to wonder what tunes I know or how they go, or having a little lie down to rest aching arms. I can play in front of other people without it being a major ordeal. I can switch between A and D chanter with reasonable ease. None of these things could I do when I collected Morag back in November 2011. In fact, some of those things I still couldn't do when I collected the Monkey just over a year ago.
I still want to use more grace notes, play better grace notes, increase my speed (while maintaining accuracy), learn more tunes and become more comfortable with playing with or for other people. I need to improve my timing. I want to be a better piper.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
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.
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.
Monday, 19 August 2013
Cabot trail
A long weekend, and what with various social activities, a spot of gardening and the usual chores, I somehow haven't played as much as I'd envisaged. I'm also being distracted by my current reading. However, I did manage to play on Friday and I actually recorded.
This is my first try at Nova Scotian music. It's a pair of tunes that happened to be on the one page of my book. I muddle the start because the only difference between the opening bars of the two tunes is the timing.
The tunes are Over the Cabot Trail, by Donald A Beaton, and Capt Angus L MacDonald, by PM Fraser Holmes. The Cabot Trail is interesting for its very limited gracing, and what little there is is very simple, with only the odd doubling or grip. I fluff the end of the A part of Angus each time, for no particular reason.
This is the Monkey in D, with no drones. See endless comments on previous posts about lack of drones... This morning I started humming one of these tunes (although I'm not sure which). They are lovely tunes, but very clearly not Scottish tunes, which perhaps makes it harder to remember: they aren't quite following the expected patterns.
Check this out on Chirbit
This is my first try at Nova Scotian music. It's a pair of tunes that happened to be on the one page of my book. I muddle the start because the only difference between the opening bars of the two tunes is the timing.
The tunes are Over the Cabot Trail, by Donald A Beaton, and Capt Angus L MacDonald, by PM Fraser Holmes. The Cabot Trail is interesting for its very limited gracing, and what little there is is very simple, with only the odd doubling or grip. I fluff the end of the A part of Angus each time, for no particular reason.
This is the Monkey in D, with no drones. See endless comments on previous posts about lack of drones... This morning I started humming one of these tunes (although I'm not sure which). They are lovely tunes, but very clearly not Scottish tunes, which perhaps makes it harder to remember: they aren't quite following the expected patterns.
Check this out on Chirbit
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
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.
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.
Monday, 24 June 2013
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.
Check this out on Chirbit
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.
Check this out on Chirbit
Friday, 21 June 2013
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.
Check this out on Chirbit
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.
Check this out on Chirbit
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Throwing down the gauntlet
Yesterday the fan and the fiddle player spent some time talking and drinking red wine, while I sat with my knitting, and after a while we decided to play a few tunes. I played the Tree - somewhat faster than my recent effort, which is really too slow, and the King. I got the King wrong pretty much every time (I blame the wine) but each time I quickly worked out where the fiddle player was and picked up the tune accordingly, which I was very pleased about. The fan says my timing was still not quite right. "But I was waiting for you", I said, so he pointed out that as my accompanist he was waiting for me...
I've been thinking of setting myself another challenge and playing every day for a month again. When I have the Monkey it will surely be no hardship to play every day, and the knitting season is all but done (bar a pair of Christmas mittens - for Christmas gone - that I've only just got hold of the yarn for), and the allotment is so far behind it will be weeks, it feels, before there is anything serious to be done there. If I choose May, and wait until I have the Monkey that will already be a week gone, and then we're away for a week, too. So perhaps I should leave it until June.
If I do challenge myself to another month of playing every day (and I do think February helped) then I need to decide whether to stick to my play list and try to get everything note perfect every time, or whether I should pick say three or four new tunes and set myself to get each one roughly dotless by the end of the month.
I've been thinking of setting myself another challenge and playing every day for a month again. When I have the Monkey it will surely be no hardship to play every day, and the knitting season is all but done (bar a pair of Christmas mittens - for Christmas gone - that I've only just got hold of the yarn for), and the allotment is so far behind it will be weeks, it feels, before there is anything serious to be done there. If I choose May, and wait until I have the Monkey that will already be a week gone, and then we're away for a week, too. So perhaps I should leave it until June.
If I do challenge myself to another month of playing every day (and I do think February helped) then I need to decide whether to stick to my play list and try to get everything note perfect every time, or whether I should pick say three or four new tunes and set myself to get each one roughly dotless by the end of the month.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Nailed it!
OK - finally - the holy grail: two tunes, three times through each, back to back, without dots, with a reasonable level of accuracy and fluency. It is, of course, The Rowan Tree and The Barren Rocks of Aden.
It is far from perfect because the speed comes and goes during the Tree where I am busy trying to remember what the fan has said about timing. Gracing is a little hit and miss because my fingers are cold (but some of those Gs sound good, don't they?) Some of the speeding up is panic as I can see the connector tube slowly pulling out of place and am hoping it will stay put for long enough for me to complete the set. During the Rocks my fingers run away in places, gabbling notes out, slurring them together, and I think (I've not listened carefully yet) that I've done too many repeats of the first A part and may have miscounted repeats elsewhere as well.
So - what should my next goal be, I wonder?
Blast - and now I see I've done this before!! But this is better, better on the Rocks, anyway. Much. But how slowly I progress.
Check this out on Chirbit
It is far from perfect because the speed comes and goes during the Tree where I am busy trying to remember what the fan has said about timing. Gracing is a little hit and miss because my fingers are cold (but some of those Gs sound good, don't they?) Some of the speeding up is panic as I can see the connector tube slowly pulling out of place and am hoping it will stay put for long enough for me to complete the set. During the Rocks my fingers run away in places, gabbling notes out, slurring them together, and I think (I've not listened carefully yet) that I've done too many repeats of the first A part and may have miscounted repeats elsewhere as well.
So - what should my next goal be, I wonder?
Blast - and now I see I've done this before!! But this is better, better on the Rocks, anyway. Much. But how slowly I progress.
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, 5 April 2013
Battling on
Working on Waterloo. I have it pretty much by heart. I don't always get the end of each part for some reason. Timing at the end of parts isn't great - partly down to hesitation. There are spots - the odd bar here and there - when I go too fast. I also have great difficulty remembering how many times I've been round on a part, especially the A, and I think that's because the two bits of the A are basically almost identical, and the same as half of the B part. (The fan agrees that it's easily done with this tune). I'm occasionally catching the bottom of my chanter against my knee and blocking it. Oh - still playing GDG on my AAA, I think. I muck up a chunk of the B several times on this recording, but it's one of those that is less technically accurate but more musically pleasing than other efforts I made.
I'm with dots again on this one. To be honest I don't think I'm actually reading them - they're just background.
Still putting a lot of air through. Even with the bellows strap round my middle as tight as it will go it's dropping down and smacking on my hip bone. It also sounds very loud this evening. In fact it's almost as hard work as listening to The Archers, which is a real moan fest at present, with everyone lurching from one personal crisis to another.
Check this out on Chirbit
I'm with dots again on this one. To be honest I don't think I'm actually reading them - they're just background.
Still putting a lot of air through. Even with the bellows strap round my middle as tight as it will go it's dropping down and smacking on my hip bone. It also sounds very loud this evening. In fact it's almost as hard work as listening to The Archers, which is a real moan fest at present, with everyone lurching from one personal crisis to another.
Check this out on Chirbit
Saturday, 30 March 2013
Pick 'n' Mix
We've got a wintry version of April showers today, with glorious sun following dark clouds and snow on what feels like a minute by minute basis. I'm feeling much the same about my playing.
Yesterday we had an invitation to go and play some tunes. It's always fun to do something spur of the moment and it was a small group of people we mostly know so I didn't mind getting Morag out. The Tree was fine, Home Town I fluffed the same bar in the B part over and over. Eagle's Whistle, the King, Galloway and Teribus just totally fell apart.
The Whistle and the King were on my mind because Peter Puma Hedlund himself was there! I managed not to do embarrassing gushy fan stuff at him, but it was very exciting. He's a fantastic musician, as well as being a very nice chap. I think having him there caused the nerves that meant I couldn't play those tunes. The last two tunes I fluffed because it was after midnight and my brain had gone to sleep some time before: I am not a late night person. Whatever the reason I rather felt that I had disgraced myself and that the people I was playing with probably thought I hadn't improved one jot since the last time I played with them.
On the plus side I realised when I was playing that my hands weren't shaking. Whether this was to do with being in a smaller crowd, or whether my stage fright is starting to go away I don't know. I also managed to tumble headlong out of the zone during the third playing of Home: I accidentally caught someone's eye and at that moment realised I had no idea at all what I was doing; it really was like being suddenly woken and having that "where am I?" moment.
I've played through all my tunes, with dots, today, keen to get them back into my head. The fan has been trying to help my timing with a metronome app, but the tick, tick, tick makes me feel anxious: it's like skipping and standing endlessly by that blasted rope as it turns, knowing that you have to jump in at just the right moment, and only ever managing to spot the moment at which you've just missed your chance. I worked more on foot tapping and the fan said it was noticeable. But mostly I am feeling as though I've made negligible progress over the 18 months since I've had my pipes.
Digging the dots out I discovered that on one set I had added up how many days it would be from ordering my pipes at the end of August to collection. At the time it was 215. I've now got a date to collect my monkey - just 12 days away.
Yesterday we had an invitation to go and play some tunes. It's always fun to do something spur of the moment and it was a small group of people we mostly know so I didn't mind getting Morag out. The Tree was fine, Home Town I fluffed the same bar in the B part over and over. Eagle's Whistle, the King, Galloway and Teribus just totally fell apart.
The Whistle and the King were on my mind because Peter Puma Hedlund himself was there! I managed not to do embarrassing gushy fan stuff at him, but it was very exciting. He's a fantastic musician, as well as being a very nice chap. I think having him there caused the nerves that meant I couldn't play those tunes. The last two tunes I fluffed because it was after midnight and my brain had gone to sleep some time before: I am not a late night person. Whatever the reason I rather felt that I had disgraced myself and that the people I was playing with probably thought I hadn't improved one jot since the last time I played with them.
On the plus side I realised when I was playing that my hands weren't shaking. Whether this was to do with being in a smaller crowd, or whether my stage fright is starting to go away I don't know. I also managed to tumble headlong out of the zone during the third playing of Home: I accidentally caught someone's eye and at that moment realised I had no idea at all what I was doing; it really was like being suddenly woken and having that "where am I?" moment.
I've played through all my tunes, with dots, today, keen to get them back into my head. The fan has been trying to help my timing with a metronome app, but the tick, tick, tick makes me feel anxious: it's like skipping and standing endlessly by that blasted rope as it turns, knowing that you have to jump in at just the right moment, and only ever managing to spot the moment at which you've just missed your chance. I worked more on foot tapping and the fan said it was noticeable. But mostly I am feeling as though I've made negligible progress over the 18 months since I've had my pipes.
Digging the dots out I discovered that on one set I had added up how many days it would be from ordering my pipes at the end of August to collection. At the time it was 215. I've now got a date to collect my monkey - just 12 days away.
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Good vibrations
Yesterday when I played I complained that my drones were TOO LOUD. The fan says it's a matter of atmospherics. Well, despite it being spring it's bitterly cold here today, with snow forecast. I guess for Scottish pipes it's weather to make you feel at home, and maybe that's why Morag sounds (to my ear) fantastic this evening. I'm droneless, because I'm working on new tunes, but the chanter is really resonating, with a rich, full sound.
The very new tunes I'm just playing with are two I've been enjoying on the Seudan CD: Alick C McGregor and John Morrison of Assynt House. Alick is doable: I can play the A part (slowly) in a recognisable form. Interesting how the pipe dots differ from the plain dots. John is another kettle of fish. Too many of those damned AAAs that need GDEs and need to be fast. I can't play anything that sounds even vaguely like. Think I'll be ditching this, but I may play around with Alick, see what happens.
Other than that I ran through Tree. I played a bit on Sunday with the fan and he pointed out that some bits of the tune didn't fit the rhythm On closer inspection I've missed some notes, or merged and shortened some. I think I've fixed that now. Also worked on timings for the King (faster where I am confident and love the particular note combinations) and Home (thinking pauses that had become permanently lengthened notes).
Also on today's playlist Flett (quite pleased with that), Teribus, Troy (A part almost by heart, but see comments above re AAA and GDE), Barren Rocks. (Speaking of playlists, I should update mine).
Recording is Heights. With dots - I've not played it for a bit and having trouble remembering it. I wanted to check timing as the fan keeps saying there's something wrong with it. I suspect the pipe version would be slightly different. Not happy with the four Es in a row, and the three As aren't great either, especially the first time round. It does need work, definitely. No improvement on the last time, either. OK - maybe this version is a tiny bit tidier. Maybe.
Check this out on Chirbit
The very new tunes I'm just playing with are two I've been enjoying on the Seudan CD: Alick C McGregor and John Morrison of Assynt House. Alick is doable: I can play the A part (slowly) in a recognisable form. Interesting how the pipe dots differ from the plain dots. John is another kettle of fish. Too many of those damned AAAs that need GDEs and need to be fast. I can't play anything that sounds even vaguely like. Think I'll be ditching this, but I may play around with Alick, see what happens.
Other than that I ran through Tree. I played a bit on Sunday with the fan and he pointed out that some bits of the tune didn't fit the rhythm On closer inspection I've missed some notes, or merged and shortened some. I think I've fixed that now. Also worked on timings for the King (faster where I am confident and love the particular note combinations) and Home (thinking pauses that had become permanently lengthened notes).
Also on today's playlist Flett (quite pleased with that), Teribus, Troy (A part almost by heart, but see comments above re AAA and GDE), Barren Rocks. (Speaking of playlists, I should update mine).
Recording is Heights. With dots - I've not played it for a bit and having trouble remembering it. I wanted to check timing as the fan keeps saying there's something wrong with it. I suspect the pipe version would be slightly different. Not happy with the four Es in a row, and the three As aren't great either, especially the first time round. It does need work, definitely. No improvement on the last time, either. OK - maybe this version is a tiny bit tidier. Maybe.
Check this out on Chirbit
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