Pottering round this evening, spending time doing nothing much, and I've put on some music to help things along. It's Piob is Fidheall, which I haven't listened to much in a while.
I was pottering around making a cup of tea, enjoying the tunes when I heard one that I tuned into immediately, because it's one I'm playing at the moment: Hills of Perth. Which puzzled me, because I didn't think Perth was listed in the booklet. Sure enough, there is no mention of Perth, and the first tune on track 7 is down as Donnie MacQueen's.
No further information is given about the tune in the CD booklet, other than that it was in a manuscript belonging to Duncan Currie of South Uist. Duncan is described as "an ancestor", but no clue is given to dates.
Hmm, further investigation leads me to the website of Cranford Publishing, where a listing of tunes for the CD gives the opener on track 7 as Hills of Perth aka Donnie MacQueen's. Perhaps Duncan Currie meant to indicate it was a tune he learned from Donnie, presumably before it was published by John Wilson, or, indeed, by the LBPS. No clue as to the identity of Donnie, who was presumably more formally Donald, and South Uist, judging by a quick trawl of the web, has had its share of Donald MacQueens over the years.
Ramblings of an easily distracted learner piper
Showing posts with label tunes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tunes. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 September 2016
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Sound of silence
I spent June learning one or two new tunes, but generally polishing existing tunes. I had intended to make recordings, to demonstrate progress, to spur me on. Somehow I didn't get round to it.
Today promised bright and has turned grey and damp, so rather than go to the plot for more harvesting and weedicide I got my pipes out. I think this recent flurry of activity is in part due to the knowledge that tomorrow is a session, the first since July, and I'm afraid of sounding rusty.
So, pipes - and recorder (as in, recording machine, not the instrument). I intended perhaps to do Flanders/Perth and Flanders/Valery in the hope I could decide which is the better pairing. I played this and that by way of warm up, including a reasonably tidy effort on Women/Sleat, which I didn't record because I wasn't expecting it to work. My right hand has a tendency to tense during Sleat, and my bellows tend to slip, which suggests to me that I am not yet comfortable with the tune and am hunching myself up, which, of course, makes things worse.
I had a dry run on Flanders, which I was pleased with, then hit the red button and messed the tune up three times, and several more times after that, even when I'd given up in recording. In the end, thinking I'd have nothing to show for my efforts, I recorded Magersfontein/Vittoria forgetting that it's not five minutes since I last recorded them.
I still feel that my repertoire seems to have hit some sort of steady state whereby new tunes edge out older ones. I've been humming Athol Highlanders, stumbled on the dots for Troy, which I think I had forgotten I ever knew, hardly think to play Braemar (which still needs work), actually had to check the dots before I could play Rowan Tree or Galloway.
Check this out on Chirbit
Today promised bright and has turned grey and damp, so rather than go to the plot for more harvesting and weedicide I got my pipes out. I think this recent flurry of activity is in part due to the knowledge that tomorrow is a session, the first since July, and I'm afraid of sounding rusty.
So, pipes - and recorder (as in, recording machine, not the instrument). I intended perhaps to do Flanders/Perth and Flanders/Valery in the hope I could decide which is the better pairing. I played this and that by way of warm up, including a reasonably tidy effort on Women/Sleat, which I didn't record because I wasn't expecting it to work. My right hand has a tendency to tense during Sleat, and my bellows tend to slip, which suggests to me that I am not yet comfortable with the tune and am hunching myself up, which, of course, makes things worse.
I had a dry run on Flanders, which I was pleased with, then hit the red button and messed the tune up three times, and several more times after that, even when I'd given up in recording. In the end, thinking I'd have nothing to show for my efforts, I recorded Magersfontein/Vittoria forgetting that it's not five minutes since I last recorded them.
I still feel that my repertoire seems to have hit some sort of steady state whereby new tunes edge out older ones. I've been humming Athol Highlanders, stumbled on the dots for Troy, which I think I had forgotten I ever knew, hardly think to play Braemar (which still needs work), actually had to check the dots before I could play Rowan Tree or Galloway.
Check this out on Chirbit
Sunday, 29 May 2016
Buzzed off
In a break with tradition I played right after breakfast this morning. I'm a creature of habit, and generally feel that the morning is for chores, although at this time of year it's also for the allotment before it get's too hot, or, a more likely scenario, the weather breaks.
It was the allotment that made me change my habit. I was only there a couple of hours yesterday, which should have left ample time for piping. But two hours digging and weeding in the sun were followed by a rush to the local shops, some quick chores, a dive through tbe shower, cooking dinner...and when dinner was in the oven and I might have had my pipes out I was physically tired and lay on the sofa with a glass of wine instead.
In another break with tradition I just sat down and played non-stop, one tune after another, just in the order they occurred to me. I had been thinking to play some tunes, mainly Bee and Women in a slow and measured fashion, to really get a grip on the gracing (pun unintended!) In the end some tunes came out rather fast, and Miss Girdle just flew. She's still a bit untidy, though, like someone rushing out of the house, hatless, gloveless, hairpins dropping, still hoiking up her skirt and buttoning her blouse as she goes.
The one tune I didn't play was Loch Bee. I've been humming it a lot of late, but this morning I couldn't bring it to mind, or fingers. It just vanished.
Here is another recording from the other day. This is Magersfontein and Vittoria. It's working well as a pairing, I think, although the second half of the B part of Mags is suffering from some temporary glitches were those two little sets of fast notes are. Working on that.
Check this out on Chirbit
It was the allotment that made me change my habit. I was only there a couple of hours yesterday, which should have left ample time for piping. But two hours digging and weeding in the sun were followed by a rush to the local shops, some quick chores, a dive through tbe shower, cooking dinner...and when dinner was in the oven and I might have had my pipes out I was physically tired and lay on the sofa with a glass of wine instead.
In another break with tradition I just sat down and played non-stop, one tune after another, just in the order they occurred to me. I had been thinking to play some tunes, mainly Bee and Women in a slow and measured fashion, to really get a grip on the gracing (pun unintended!) In the end some tunes came out rather fast, and Miss Girdle just flew. She's still a bit untidy, though, like someone rushing out of the house, hatless, gloveless, hairpins dropping, still hoiking up her skirt and buttoning her blouse as she goes.
The one tune I didn't play was Loch Bee. I've been humming it a lot of late, but this morning I couldn't bring it to mind, or fingers. It just vanished.
Here is another recording from the other day. This is Magersfontein and Vittoria. It's working well as a pairing, I think, although the second half of the B part of Mags is suffering from some temporary glitches were those two little sets of fast notes are. Working on that.
Check this out on Chirbit
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
The old, old story
I am piping, perhaps every other day. I am feeling quite satisfied with my piping, feeling that it flows and is melodic. The tunes I hum during the day are the tunes that I am playing.
I'm still not happy with the size of my repertoire, which stays stubbornly small, although it is now a small number of sets, and some individual tunes, rather than just a small number of tunes.
I am happy with an adjustment that I keep forgetting to mention: I've finally settled on the ideal length for the tubing, and have lost all the problems with resting my wrist and numb fingers.
I suppose I'm not happy with how often I play. The allotment isn't as much of a distraction as it might be. For various reasons I've moved from growing from seed to buying plants, and I've been putting off buying plants while the cooler evenings persist. We've been having rain, to, so there is not much to do other than harvest rhubarb and pull up weeds.
In the meantime I am being distracted by reading and by knitting. That little piece up there is the first part of a very large, very lightweight shawl, knitted in cobweb weight Shetland wool. I need to do a lot of knitting between now and September when the intended recipient is expected.
I did manage to play and record at the weekend, but somehow haven't got round to blogging until now. This is Dargai with its new companions. I'm not 100% sure that they go together. Next month I do intend to play daily and perhaps the more I play this set the more it will sound like a set, just as the combination starts to sound familiar.
Check this out on Chirbit
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Oh, the irony
Today is International Bagpipe day. It seems to have kept a low profile, although one relative sent me a newscutting that suggests - shock, horror - that the Scots didn't invent bagpipes. Who knew.
It's a shame the story of the piper playing on every continent didn't break today. I am not sure why the BBC felt the need to use the rather ugly term "bagpiper" rather than plain piper. At least they refrained from the "lone piper" cliche.
The irony is that today, despite humming Magersfontein at my desk, I've not felt inclined to play at all. Luckily I recorded a tune yesterday. Here it is.
Check this out on Chirbit
It's a shame the story of the piper playing on every continent didn't break today. I am not sure why the BBC felt the need to use the rather ugly term "bagpiper" rather than plain piper. At least they refrained from the "lone piper" cliche.
The irony is that today, despite humming Magersfontein at my desk, I've not felt inclined to play at all. Luckily I recorded a tune yesterday. Here it is.
Check this out on Chirbit
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Do not disturb
I played this evening with no dots. I managed the first two parts of the Horse with no problem at all. Hills of Perth was fine, except that the 3rd part was mysteriously missing and nothing would bring it to mind. Still, when I tried this earlier in the week it only had two parts, so I can't grumble.
It took a number of false starts to get to Kilbowie Cottage, and when the first part appeared I didn't recognise it. Bits of the 2nd and 3rd part were there, which is worse than earlier in the week when I managed both parts in full without too much trouble.
I had real problems with St Valery. I went round and round, pulling out Father John, bits of Leaving Barra and Vittoria, but not a note of Valery could I play, hum or picture. After a while I had a quick peek at the dots and noted the opening four notes. That didn't help. Playing the high A, thumb grace, grip that I know is in the 4th part didn't help. I went back to the dots and looked over the first part. It was like looking at a foreign language: I could see the dots, but they made no sense. Then right at the end of the first part I suddenly recalled the tune, ran off to try it, but struggled to get the first part. Again, a real regression from earlier in the week.
But I can't decide what to do for the best. Should I let the tune ferment undisturbed and wait for it to bubble up when it is ready? It's a tactic I've tried in the past and sometimes it works and other times the tune simply falls into disuse and I forget I was even trying to learn it. Should I go back to dots? Should I listen to the tune more (I've got Springwell on the CD player now) and hope it comes that way? Or should I just keep trying to play it unaided? Even after all these years of learning new tunes it seems I have no clue what the best way to learn might be.
Recording is of an established tune (for me) and a session favourite. I am hoping it might demonstrate a general improvement in my playing. It's My Home Town.
Check this out on Chirbit
It took a number of false starts to get to Kilbowie Cottage, and when the first part appeared I didn't recognise it. Bits of the 2nd and 3rd part were there, which is worse than earlier in the week when I managed both parts in full without too much trouble.
I had real problems with St Valery. I went round and round, pulling out Father John, bits of Leaving Barra and Vittoria, but not a note of Valery could I play, hum or picture. After a while I had a quick peek at the dots and noted the opening four notes. That didn't help. Playing the high A, thumb grace, grip that I know is in the 4th part didn't help. I went back to the dots and looked over the first part. It was like looking at a foreign language: I could see the dots, but they made no sense. Then right at the end of the first part I suddenly recalled the tune, ran off to try it, but struggled to get the first part. Again, a real regression from earlier in the week.
But I can't decide what to do for the best. Should I let the tune ferment undisturbed and wait for it to bubble up when it is ready? It's a tactic I've tried in the past and sometimes it works and other times the tune simply falls into disuse and I forget I was even trying to learn it. Should I go back to dots? Should I listen to the tune more (I've got Springwell on the CD player now) and hope it comes that way? Or should I just keep trying to play it unaided? Even after all these years of learning new tunes it seems I have no clue what the best way to learn might be.
Recording is of an established tune (for me) and a session favourite. I am hoping it might demonstrate a general improvement in my playing. It's My Home Town.
Check this out on Chirbit
Sunday, 21 February 2016
Speak to me
"Donald asked RSM Maclean 'Well, John, and how is the pipe going?' John replied, 'She's going so well she's speaking to me'."
Archie Maclean, as quoted in Piping Traditions of the Outer Isles of the West Coast of Scotland, Bridget Mackenzie, Birlinn, 2013.
Is this speaking the same as, or related to, the buzz, I wonder? Note that the pipe is referred to in the singular, and that, like cars, motorbikes, ships and countries, it takes the feminine. I have always given names and genders to objects of importance. The Monkey is male.
And while we are on the subject of the naming of things I note that the Shores of Loch Bea/Bee aka The Sands of Loch Bea/Bee is formally known as The Glasgow Police March Past.
Also on terminology, tunes, and poems or songs, are not written or composed in this book, but are 'made'.
I'm intrigued by the number of pipers who went on to be schoolteachers (not necessarily of music) or in to the police (where the pipe bands might have been a draw, I supose). I don't know if this was just the case in the Outer Isles.
Here's a tune. Braemar, again, and still tightening up in the same places, still not relaxed with it, still struggling not to mix the 1st and 3rd parts.
Check this out on Chirbit
Archie Maclean, as quoted in Piping Traditions of the Outer Isles of the West Coast of Scotland, Bridget Mackenzie, Birlinn, 2013.
Is this speaking the same as, or related to, the buzz, I wonder? Note that the pipe is referred to in the singular, and that, like cars, motorbikes, ships and countries, it takes the feminine. I have always given names and genders to objects of importance. The Monkey is male.
And while we are on the subject of the naming of things I note that the Shores of Loch Bea/Bee aka The Sands of Loch Bea/Bee is formally known as The Glasgow Police March Past.
Also on terminology, tunes, and poems or songs, are not written or composed in this book, but are 'made'.
I'm intrigued by the number of pipers who went on to be schoolteachers (not necessarily of music) or in to the police (where the pipe bands might have been a draw, I supose). I don't know if this was just the case in the Outer Isles.
Here's a tune. Braemar, again, and still tightening up in the same places, still not relaxed with it, still struggling not to mix the 1st and 3rd parts.
Check this out on Chirbit
Friday, 19 February 2016
This and that
I've had a tune in my head all day. It felt like a B part. Once the A part turned up sometime after lunch I was able to identify it as Heroes of St Valery. As it was so clear in my head I was sure I could play it, although I know when I had the dots before I abandoned in disgust as it seemed all but unplayable. The dots took some tracking down, but once I had them I discovered that it's a nice straightforward tune, that it was the 3rd and 4th parts in my head, that I need to sort the gracing on it. And if I add it to my repertoire will it go with Vittoria (as per Mr McLeod) or Home Town (pace Mr Gillies), or something else?
While we were lunching a wedding party arrived. I must have caught a flash of button on jacket because I wasn't all all surprised when I saw that the groom and, presumably his father, were in kilts. I refrained from asking where the piper was....
No wedding in the outer isles is complete without a piper, it seems, as I read Piping Traditions of the Outer Isles of the West Coast of Scotland. It's full of snippets of random facts of island and piping life that I know that the fan *really* enjoys when I read them out in bed, over breakfast... It's a little like the book of Matthew, with various pipers begetting other pipers, marrying each other's sisters and teaching each other's sons. I have been glad to read about tunes I play, pipers I've heard or whose tunes I have played, but sorry that there are glaring gaps (no James Duncan MacKenzie of Back), apparently to prevent swaying piping judges!
I'm playing around with Return from India (needs to be faster) and The Rejected Suitor: feels like a set. Also fiddling about with The Hag at the Churn and The Pipe on the Hob. Yesterday I played with the fan who suggested that Miss Girdle and Troy could both be slower. They need to be tidier, too.
That was a bit of a first: normally he asks for more speed. Another first was me being able to fling myself into a tune he had already started on (Braemar). I had less luck the second time as he insisted he was playing a tune we'd already done, I knew we hadn't and thought it was Magersfontein. Turned out to be Battle of the Somme, which I don't play, which explains my inability to join in that one.
Apparently I am still playing every day...
And here is St Valery, with intermittent gracing and some errors.
Check this out on Chirbit
While we were lunching a wedding party arrived. I must have caught a flash of button on jacket because I wasn't all all surprised when I saw that the groom and, presumably his father, were in kilts. I refrained from asking where the piper was....
No wedding in the outer isles is complete without a piper, it seems, as I read Piping Traditions of the Outer Isles of the West Coast of Scotland. It's full of snippets of random facts of island and piping life that I know that the fan *really* enjoys when I read them out in bed, over breakfast... It's a little like the book of Matthew, with various pipers begetting other pipers, marrying each other's sisters and teaching each other's sons. I have been glad to read about tunes I play, pipers I've heard or whose tunes I have played, but sorry that there are glaring gaps (no James Duncan MacKenzie of Back), apparently to prevent swaying piping judges!
I'm playing around with Return from India (needs to be faster) and The Rejected Suitor: feels like a set. Also fiddling about with The Hag at the Churn and The Pipe on the Hob. Yesterday I played with the fan who suggested that Miss Girdle and Troy could both be slower. They need to be tidier, too.
That was a bit of a first: normally he asks for more speed. Another first was me being able to fling myself into a tune he had already started on (Braemar). I had less luck the second time as he insisted he was playing a tune we'd already done, I knew we hadn't and thought it was Magersfontein. Turned out to be Battle of the Somme, which I don't play, which explains my inability to join in that one.
Apparently I am still playing every day...
And here is St Valery, with intermittent gracing and some errors.
Check this out on Chirbit
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Shall we dance?
I've been dancing around this evening with bellows, bag, chanter, drones. Yes, drones! They have taken to slumping across my chest and resting on the bellows. The more I fiddle with strap up, strap down, bellows forward, bellows back, bag up, down, left, right, the worse everything gets. Maybe I'm just expecting too much. At sessions I play a bit, stop a bit, go to the bar, come back again. In the past I'd play and stop and play and stop during practice sessions. Now I expect to play and play, back to back sets, tunes, bits of tunes, with no break. I might sit down or stand up and take a turn or two about the room, but I'm still playing. I suppose even with a good driving positon in a comfortable car you're going to end a long distance journey with joints that need easing, muscles that need stretching.
I've also been dancing with Skippinish, having out it in the car. It's definitely an album of music for dancing to, and I imagine a Shetland tea (and yes, I do know that Shetland isn't known for piping) situation, with old and young gathered together, a dram and a wee cup of tea, something to eat, some tunes and lots of dancing.
What I can't work out is why it's dance music. In general it's the same pipe tunes I come across elsewhere, so it's not a matter of repertoire. The tunes aren't even played that fast, although the have a good, solid rhythm behind them. Perhaps it's the box. It sounds rather bouncy, somehow, with little chirps and coughs, which I assume are grace notes of some kind, and bring to mind someone calling out "woo!", "yay!", or "whup!" during some dancing. Anyway, it's good stuff, and I am enjoying it.
Whether anyone would want to dance to this recording I don't know. Recorded on the same day as the last one, and as with the last I haven't actually listened to it. As I play I feel that I need to steady the tempo of Women: it's uneven, with bits I gabble because I am unsure of them. That's the start of the B part, both sections, and the two bars in each that are variations because I'm a bit tense about getting the "wrong" variation in. The grip is...messy. The tune is missing the lilt, the smoothness, that Kevin Macleod gives it. I like it with Sleat, and the main problems with Sleat are a general tendency to be unreliable, I think I speed up through the tune as I get into my stride, and I am still not sure if I'm playing the closing bars to the B and D parts properly. I may just be repeating one (they are subtly different), or I may have then the wrong way round. I suppose if I could bear to listen to the recording I might find out.
Check this out on Chirbit
I've also been dancing with Skippinish, having out it in the car. It's definitely an album of music for dancing to, and I imagine a Shetland tea (and yes, I do know that Shetland isn't known for piping) situation, with old and young gathered together, a dram and a wee cup of tea, something to eat, some tunes and lots of dancing.
What I can't work out is why it's dance music. In general it's the same pipe tunes I come across elsewhere, so it's not a matter of repertoire. The tunes aren't even played that fast, although the have a good, solid rhythm behind them. Perhaps it's the box. It sounds rather bouncy, somehow, with little chirps and coughs, which I assume are grace notes of some kind, and bring to mind someone calling out "woo!", "yay!", or "whup!" during some dancing. Anyway, it's good stuff, and I am enjoying it.
Whether anyone would want to dance to this recording I don't know. Recorded on the same day as the last one, and as with the last I haven't actually listened to it. As I play I feel that I need to steady the tempo of Women: it's uneven, with bits I gabble because I am unsure of them. That's the start of the B part, both sections, and the two bars in each that are variations because I'm a bit tense about getting the "wrong" variation in. The grip is...messy. The tune is missing the lilt, the smoothness, that Kevin Macleod gives it. I like it with Sleat, and the main problems with Sleat are a general tendency to be unreliable, I think I speed up through the tune as I get into my stride, and I am still not sure if I'm playing the closing bars to the B and D parts properly. I may just be repeating one (they are subtly different), or I may have then the wrong way round. I suppose if I could bear to listen to the recording I might find out.
Check this out on Chirbit
Saturday, 9 January 2016
You've changed
I logged into Chirbit today, only to find they have gone for the same tedious web design as everyone else on the planet. It took a moment or two to remember my username and then I was in. The first tune I uploaded was The Braemar Gathering. Turns out it was also the last tune I uploaded, four months ago. Took a little bit of head scratching to find the bit that gives me the html to drop the link into here, but I got there in the end.
Now, I've not listened to this or the previous version since recording. I will have to compare the two. For this new version, even though it's now a tune that just appears on my fingers rather than only coming when I specifically want it, it still has some errors. There are phrases I snatch at, garbling notes together, although generally I am more relaxed than I was. I've lost the D grace on the low A to C transition. It was making my fingers tense and although I've managed to relax my fingers I've not managed to bring the grace back. I'm not sure about the speed I am playing at, whether it wants to race, or be a little slower. I actually had the dots in front of me, but once I know a tune they are distracting more than anything else.
Recording itself was easier than I've found it in the past, although I did have to ask the fan to remind me of one or two of the various steps. I feel that I had no real red button-itis. It's just a recording, not a performance, and if I fluff bits (which I do) then that's fine. I seem to have taken the pressure off recording. Even so, the tune isn't yet reliable enough to play in sessions, and it is partnerless with no idea at all which tune it might sit with.
Check this out on Chirbit
Now, I've not listened to this or the previous version since recording. I will have to compare the two. For this new version, even though it's now a tune that just appears on my fingers rather than only coming when I specifically want it, it still has some errors. There are phrases I snatch at, garbling notes together, although generally I am more relaxed than I was. I've lost the D grace on the low A to C transition. It was making my fingers tense and although I've managed to relax my fingers I've not managed to bring the grace back. I'm not sure about the speed I am playing at, whether it wants to race, or be a little slower. I actually had the dots in front of me, but once I know a tune they are distracting more than anything else.
Recording itself was easier than I've found it in the past, although I did have to ask the fan to remind me of one or two of the various steps. I feel that I had no real red button-itis. It's just a recording, not a performance, and if I fluff bits (which I do) then that's fine. I seem to have taken the pressure off recording. Even so, the tune isn't yet reliable enough to play in sessions, and it is partnerless with no idea at all which tune it might sit with.
Check this out on Chirbit
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Piecemeal
After yesterday's fiasco with The Braemar Gathering, which I can't bring myself to listen to, but post below, I felt I ought to enter into battle and get it sorted. The third part seems the worst, and as I slowed it down and worked on it a bar at a time I realised that it is somewhat lacking in gracing.
My dots have no gracings, although many are needed to split like notes, so those I've always played. I've mentioned before, I am sure, that the low A to C transition needs a simple D grace, but then the low As, I feel, should have a little drop down to a bottom G, then the D grace up to the C, and then a doubling on the E. (I refer to dots in A, as written, although clearly I am playing in D).
On the little run that trips me up in the first, but generally not the third, part (BCE FGA) I keep trying to put a D grace between the B and the C, and then I think I must have played A to C and maybe that is what throws me. I've tried a G grace, but that doesn't work, so am going for a doubling on the E.
I don't feel I am playing - 3rd part again - a clean transition between B and C. There can't possibly be crossing notes, it's only a matter of dropping a finger, so I think the problem is a sloppy B with fingers not clean on the chanter. I think, too, that the garbling I mentioned yesterday is actually a tansferring of short and long note on the penultimate triplet in tbe third part, and probably the first.
Anyway. I played it in bits and pieces: this phrase, that note transition, those bars; but also in bits around getting dinner ready. I could have played earlier but have spent the day on the sofa, in the sun, reading Trollope. I also played Magersfontein, just for the sake of variety and rather think that the two might sound well together, although that leaves poor Flett friendless. Why is it that some tunes seems to fit into multiple partnerships and others into none?
The only other thing to note is that elbow, wrist and thumb of my right hand are sore today. The wrist I noticed when playing, elbow and thumb only since I stopped. Oh, and Andy won another match.
Check this out on Chirbit
My dots have no gracings, although many are needed to split like notes, so those I've always played. I've mentioned before, I am sure, that the low A to C transition needs a simple D grace, but then the low As, I feel, should have a little drop down to a bottom G, then the D grace up to the C, and then a doubling on the E. (I refer to dots in A, as written, although clearly I am playing in D).
On the little run that trips me up in the first, but generally not the third, part (BCE FGA) I keep trying to put a D grace between the B and the C, and then I think I must have played A to C and maybe that is what throws me. I've tried a G grace, but that doesn't work, so am going for a doubling on the E.
I don't feel I am playing - 3rd part again - a clean transition between B and C. There can't possibly be crossing notes, it's only a matter of dropping a finger, so I think the problem is a sloppy B with fingers not clean on the chanter. I think, too, that the garbling I mentioned yesterday is actually a tansferring of short and long note on the penultimate triplet in tbe third part, and probably the first.
Anyway. I played it in bits and pieces: this phrase, that note transition, those bars; but also in bits around getting dinner ready. I could have played earlier but have spent the day on the sofa, in the sun, reading Trollope. I also played Magersfontein, just for the sake of variety and rather think that the two might sound well together, although that leaves poor Flett friendless. Why is it that some tunes seems to fit into multiple partnerships and others into none?
The only other thing to note is that elbow, wrist and thumb of my right hand are sore today. The wrist I noticed when playing, elbow and thumb only since I stopped. Oh, and Andy won another match.
Check this out on Chirbit
Saturday, 19 September 2015
It was all going so well
I've been having a good day. It's not a working day, which is always a bonus. The weather has been much better than was being forecast earlier in the week. I went shopping for a pair of wool trousers for work and actually managed to find some I liked. I did some tidying at the allotment and managed to rig up some proper protection for my cavolo nero plants.
Then I decided to play and record... The lead for the recorder was tied into electrical spaghetti. I'd forgotten the faff of having to "create a song" before you even start. The first three-tune set I recorded and then wasted 6 minutes mastering it only to find when I tried to export it that there was allegedly no track to export... The fan salvaged the situation, and the recording, but only after I'd got cross. Add to that the collapsing bellows, a sore elbow, and a general inability to play and the whole thing is a mess.
Recording here is Father John's Boat Trip. The repeat of the 2nd part still isn't quite right. Gracing not very clean, fingers not cleanly enough down on the chanter. I mised various repeats, which I put down to red-button-itis. Various times I found myself thinking that *this* would be the place where I'd be likely to fluff it...and duly fluffed.
No drones. I recorded a rather poor version of Braemar in which I garbled notes, merged notes, went too slow and then too fast. I will post tomorrow. I couldn't face recording it again and I am not sure how soon I'll be able to bring myself to record again. Is it any wonder that it's over 7 months since I recorded last? There has to be an easier way.
(On the positive side, Andy won a match.)
Check this out on Chirbit
Then I decided to play and record... The lead for the recorder was tied into electrical spaghetti. I'd forgotten the faff of having to "create a song" before you even start. The first three-tune set I recorded and then wasted 6 minutes mastering it only to find when I tried to export it that there was allegedly no track to export... The fan salvaged the situation, and the recording, but only after I'd got cross. Add to that the collapsing bellows, a sore elbow, and a general inability to play and the whole thing is a mess.
Recording here is Father John's Boat Trip. The repeat of the 2nd part still isn't quite right. Gracing not very clean, fingers not cleanly enough down on the chanter. I mised various repeats, which I put down to red-button-itis. Various times I found myself thinking that *this* would be the place where I'd be likely to fluff it...and duly fluffed.
No drones. I recorded a rather poor version of Braemar in which I garbled notes, merged notes, went too slow and then too fast. I will post tomorrow. I couldn't face recording it again and I am not sure how soon I'll be able to bring myself to record again. Is it any wonder that it's over 7 months since I recorded last? There has to be an easier way.
(On the positive side, Andy won a match.)
Check this out on Chirbit
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Not bad
I thought I should so something about my plan to record some old tunes in the hope of seeing some improvement. This is MacIntyre's Farewell and Capt Angus L MacDonald. The recorder cheerfully ran out of memory half way through the first play through and time was wasted (good piping time!) while I fiddled about deleting stuff.
Other than that recording was fine, and I managed to remember the correct sequence of creating an item, recording, setting in and out points, laying down a master and exporting it.
I should have fiddled with settings a bit more - dropped the volume. I stood to play, with the recorder on a table beside me and did some swaying and shuffling about. I don't think that's too obvious on the recording.
As for the playing: it's not bad, I think. It could do with being more evenly paced, more measured, more controlled. No drones, as is often the case. But, the first attempt with the full memory aside, this was the only take I did and I have done absolutely no editing at all.
Not bad, for a beginner, I reckon. Not bad at all.
(What I haven't worked out on my Galaxy Tab is how to select the code to paste it in to Blogger to get the link. Glad that the fan still has a PC!)
Check this out on Chirbit
Other than that recording was fine, and I managed to remember the correct sequence of creating an item, recording, setting in and out points, laying down a master and exporting it.
I should have fiddled with settings a bit more - dropped the volume. I stood to play, with the recorder on a table beside me and did some swaying and shuffling about. I don't think that's too obvious on the recording.
As for the playing: it's not bad, I think. It could do with being more evenly paced, more measured, more controlled. No drones, as is often the case. But, the first attempt with the full memory aside, this was the only take I did and I have done absolutely no editing at all.
Not bad, for a beginner, I reckon. Not bad at all.
(What I haven't worked out on my Galaxy Tab is how to select the code to paste it in to Blogger to get the link. Glad that the fan still has a PC!)
Check this out on Chirbit
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
With compliments
Still playing most days at the moment, and enjoying it, despite cold hands, and cold pipes, which isn't a good combination. Suddenly thought to get the recorder out this evening and capture my latest tune: Compliments to Roy A Chisholm by Barry W Shears. Only been playing a few days, but it comes out at a good speed. A couple of points where I am pausing or slowing to check what comes next, a couple of outright fluffs. Not bad, though.
No drones, as always seems to be the case and I start with one of several twiddly bits that I use to check everything is OK. Not sure when I began this habit!
Felt I lacked air this evening - maybe because I'm playing fast tunes: this, Troy, Athol Highlanders, Drops of Brandy, Miss Girdle, Braemar Gathering, Alick C McGregor. Horbsurgh has gone on the pile of resting tunes.
Check this out on Chirbit
No drones, as always seems to be the case and I start with one of several twiddly bits that I use to check everything is OK. Not sure when I began this habit!
Felt I lacked air this evening - maybe because I'm playing fast tunes: this, Troy, Athol Highlanders, Drops of Brandy, Miss Girdle, Braemar Gathering, Alick C McGregor. Horbsurgh has gone on the pile of resting tunes.
Check this out on Chirbit
Monday, 8 December 2014
Smalls
I always feel that "girdle" is somehow a snigger-inducing word. It reminds me of adverts I used to see in the weekend papers for Miss Mary Girdles and the Playtex 18 hour girdle, featuring larger ladies being reduced to unfeasibly sylphlike proportions thanks to a swathe of heavy duty elastic. Less amusingly it's a symbol of the restrictions of women's lives: I am sure that there is an episode in The Edible Woman where woman's reluctance to wear a girdle or similar contraption is taken to be pretty much evidence of moral delinquency, if not downright insanity. These days it is more likely to conjure up the lovely, and surely girdle-free Ms Lawson, and her girdlebuster pie.
I was rather bemused, when googling these pieces of underwear to discover that you can still buy such things... The only girdle I have is Miss Girdle, and she's coming on OK. She has speeded up since the last time I recorded, perhaps become more uneven. This is a prime example of slowing up on the tricky bits and racing through the easier bits. She's also almost totally denuded, poor girl, of any but the essential gracenotes, which seems a shame.
I've mentioned before that I've a mind to pair Miss G with Horsburgh. My problem has been that I felt Horsburgh was going to be one of those tunes that somehow I never quite manage to learn. The A part I've had for ages, the B part, I felt, was eluding me. I've pushed the dots away this evening to test things out and I find that I know the whole tune, although there is one bar in the first version of the B part that gives me pause for thought, and I have a slight tendency to repeat the first version of the B part, or to run straight into the second version. But on the whole I *do* know it, and now just need to work as getting it better, with Miss G.
I've still not written about Inner Sound. This is partly down to wondering how useful it is to write about CDs - the fan (not originally, but I've forgotten where he borrowed it from) says that writing about music is like dancing about architecture...and he has a point, although generally language is our main medium for expressing thoughts on all aspects of life, so why not music? Less philosophically the CD is in the car where I have had it on permanent loop for 3 or 4 weeks, and I don't want to bring it in in case I forget to take it back out. Sometimes you are recommended to have two copies of a cookery book or gardening book: one for the kitchen/shed and one for the bedside. Inner Sound is definitely a two-copy CD: one for the car and one for indoors.
Check this out on Chirbit
I was rather bemused, when googling these pieces of underwear to discover that you can still buy such things... The only girdle I have is Miss Girdle, and she's coming on OK. She has speeded up since the last time I recorded, perhaps become more uneven. This is a prime example of slowing up on the tricky bits and racing through the easier bits. She's also almost totally denuded, poor girl, of any but the essential gracenotes, which seems a shame.
I've mentioned before that I've a mind to pair Miss G with Horsburgh. My problem has been that I felt Horsburgh was going to be one of those tunes that somehow I never quite manage to learn. The A part I've had for ages, the B part, I felt, was eluding me. I've pushed the dots away this evening to test things out and I find that I know the whole tune, although there is one bar in the first version of the B part that gives me pause for thought, and I have a slight tendency to repeat the first version of the B part, or to run straight into the second version. But on the whole I *do* know it, and now just need to work as getting it better, with Miss G.
I've still not written about Inner Sound. This is partly down to wondering how useful it is to write about CDs - the fan (not originally, but I've forgotten where he borrowed it from) says that writing about music is like dancing about architecture...and he has a point, although generally language is our main medium for expressing thoughts on all aspects of life, so why not music? Less philosophically the CD is in the car where I have had it on permanent loop for 3 or 4 weeks, and I don't want to bring it in in case I forget to take it back out. Sometimes you are recommended to have two copies of a cookery book or gardening book: one for the kitchen/shed and one for the bedside. Inner Sound is definitely a two-copy CD: one for the car and one for indoors.
Check this out on Chirbit
Saturday, 30 August 2014
Buses
You don't get any tunes for ages... I recorded three yesterday while the fan was out.
Still listening a lot to the Horsburgh Castle set. The first half is good, slow and measured. The second half is definitely a session set - the moment it kicks off I think "aha!", break into a smile start tapping my feet. I always said I only play for myself: performance has never been an aim. I pick tunes that I like to hear, that I like to play (not always the same thing). But since I play in sessions and enjoy people playing along with me, it behoves me to find tunes that folk will want to play along with.
Anyway, the first step is always to find dots. The Session listing was useful as it gave dots for three of the six. I didn't print Braes of Mar (although I did listen to the version on Portland where it is listed as Some Say the Devil is Dead) because none of the versions leapt as out being in a useful key.
I found Horsburgh Castle by searching for the composer, Ian Hardie. He, or rather, his estate, since he died in 2012, kindly makes freely available many of his early tunes, and Horsburgh is included in that.
Glenlyon and Dalnahasaig I failed to find, but I got The Blackberry Bush twice as it is on the Session and in Donald MacLeod Book1 (I used the Session version - it looked simpler).
So here are Horsburgh Castle, The Blackberry Bush and Miss Girdle. A bit rough and ready. I played through the Castle a few times before I thought of recording. Girdle I'd done a couple of times. It went OK but I got slowly worse each time I played... The Blackberry timing very poor - triple A's really throw me, timing wise, often because I play them faster than other note combinations, and sometimes I play double A's as triples out of sheer habit.
No drones, under-graced, but a start. Not sure that they make a set themselves, and not sure that the Castle is session material. Still, I've various under-employed and lonely tunes in my repertoire looking for musical love. I shall have to start matchmaking.
Check this out on Chirbit
Check this out on Chirbit
Check this out on Chirbit
Still listening a lot to the Horsburgh Castle set. The first half is good, slow and measured. The second half is definitely a session set - the moment it kicks off I think "aha!", break into a smile start tapping my feet. I always said I only play for myself: performance has never been an aim. I pick tunes that I like to hear, that I like to play (not always the same thing). But since I play in sessions and enjoy people playing along with me, it behoves me to find tunes that folk will want to play along with.
Anyway, the first step is always to find dots. The Session listing was useful as it gave dots for three of the six. I didn't print Braes of Mar (although I did listen to the version on Portland where it is listed as Some Say the Devil is Dead) because none of the versions leapt as out being in a useful key.
I found Horsburgh Castle by searching for the composer, Ian Hardie. He, or rather, his estate, since he died in 2012, kindly makes freely available many of his early tunes, and Horsburgh is included in that.
Glenlyon and Dalnahasaig I failed to find, but I got The Blackberry Bush twice as it is on the Session and in Donald MacLeod Book1 (I used the Session version - it looked simpler).
So here are Horsburgh Castle, The Blackberry Bush and Miss Girdle. A bit rough and ready. I played through the Castle a few times before I thought of recording. Girdle I'd done a couple of times. It went OK but I got slowly worse each time I played... The Blackberry timing very poor - triple A's really throw me, timing wise, often because I play them faster than other note combinations, and sometimes I play double A's as triples out of sheer habit.
No drones, under-graced, but a start. Not sure that they make a set themselves, and not sure that the Castle is session material. Still, I've various under-employed and lonely tunes in my repertoire looking for musical love. I shall have to start matchmaking.
Check this out on Chirbit
Check this out on Chirbit
Check this out on Chirbit
Saturday, 28 June 2014
Gather round
Almost the end of my month of playing (as near as dammit) every day. I meant to do a lot of recording, but have failed miserably on that score.
I did manage something today. It's the Braemar Gathering. Not too bad. You can hear where I get those snaps backward and somehow I've lost all the D graces between my low As and Cs, although they came back as I carried on playing. Just the first three parts. Hoping to get these a little tidier before I add in the last part.
Now wondering what I can play it with. Deaf Shepherd put it with Morag MacNeil, Tangusdale, Colin Clark Carruthers (which sounds as though it ought to be a cautionary tale, possibly involving a boy who shunned pipe practice), New Hands and Donella Beaton.
Check this out on Chirbit
I did manage something today. It's the Braemar Gathering. Not too bad. You can hear where I get those snaps backward and somehow I've lost all the D graces between my low As and Cs, although they came back as I carried on playing. Just the first three parts. Hoping to get these a little tidier before I add in the last part.
Now wondering what I can play it with. Deaf Shepherd put it with Morag MacNeil, Tangusdale, Colin Clark Carruthers (which sounds as though it ought to be a cautionary tale, possibly involving a boy who shunned pipe practice), New Hands and Donella Beaton.
Check this out on Chirbit
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
The Pickled Cudgel
The fan was out this evening, and I didn't need to cook dinner until late, which gave me time to scoot to the plot and also grab the recorder and play. This recording is just as it happened: no bits taken off either end. I played better over the course of the session, as ever. I don't seem to be playing as fast today. I forgot the high A's on the B part of the Pickle first time round, and got lost with the timing of the Cudgel. Poor fingering/gracing on the repeated low A's in the Pickle and somehow fluffed the final bars of both parts of the Cudgel every time. At least I'm consistent!
No drones as no fan to tune them.
The fan will be on his annual trip next week so expect to see more of me here, hopefully with more recordings, unless I get distracted, of course.
Check this out on Chirbit
No drones as no fan to tune them.
The fan will be on his annual trip next week so expect to see more of me here, hopefully with more recordings, unless I get distracted, of course.
Check this out on Chirbit
Saturday, 3 May 2014
Blue Bonnets
I've played quite bit today, and it has gone well, although I managed to get through an hour without using my drones as all, and I also realise it's a while since I played in A. I've swapped chanters so next time I'll be encouraged to at least start with A.
Recording is All the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border. Suffering from a bit of red-button-itis today. Speed doesn't sound how it feels, although I think I slowed down for this because the faster versions were more likely to hit the skids. It's particularly lacking the rather joyous "here we come!" opening that Seudan manage.
I'm finding the timing for the end of the final bar and back to the very beginning difficult to manage, unless playing very slowly. (There's only one run through on the recording as I was getting fed up with it and cutting my losses.) The birl on the first low A and various repeats was there but faded out over successive playings today, and I cannot persuade my fingers to double the B's anywhere.
I'm also reminded that it's easier to throw on D when playing in A. My fingers have a tendency to curl a little on the chanter on D. I wonder if a doubling and strike would work better?
As ever, wondering what it would go with to make a set. As a four parter it could perhaps have just one other tune: maybe one of those shorts I have: Gaelic Club, Murray, Highland Lassie...?
Check this out on Chirbit
Recording is All the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border. Suffering from a bit of red-button-itis today. Speed doesn't sound how it feels, although I think I slowed down for this because the faster versions were more likely to hit the skids. It's particularly lacking the rather joyous "here we come!" opening that Seudan manage.
I'm finding the timing for the end of the final bar and back to the very beginning difficult to manage, unless playing very slowly. (There's only one run through on the recording as I was getting fed up with it and cutting my losses.) The birl on the first low A and various repeats was there but faded out over successive playings today, and I cannot persuade my fingers to double the B's anywhere.
I'm also reminded that it's easier to throw on D when playing in A. My fingers have a tendency to curl a little on the chanter on D. I wonder if a doubling and strike would work better?
As ever, wondering what it would go with to make a set. As a four parter it could perhaps have just one other tune: maybe one of those shorts I have: Gaelic Club, Murray, Highland Lassie...?
Check this out on Chirbit
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Tunes for us
I've played a few times over the last few days, partly because I’ve had some days off, but mostly because we’ve been given some tunes of our very own! The fiddler in the fan’s band sent a tune for us (the plural covers me and my pipes, BTW) out of the blue. We tried it out – it’s in D – and it went OK, but there were a few notes out of range. We mentioned this, rather shyly, and back came another tune!
The odd thing is that I learned the reading of dots for pipes in A, and all my music is set for A. As with a whistle if I change to D I play the same fingering, it’s just that different notes come out. So when the tune sent was in D, even though I was fully intending to play it on the D chanter, I had to transpose it to A so that I knew which notes to play, or at least, which fingers to put where. Although my handwriting is, I think, reasonably clear, my writing of notes is so scruffy that I can’t read my own score so I was thankful for one of the fan’s bits of kit that allows me to type music.
The other interesting thing is how differently a non-piper thinks, in terms of dots. I expect this happens with any instrument, so admire anyone who writes for a whole orchestra. Some of the note sequences sound rather odd to my ear. Some of the sequences put together notes that really aren’t easy to play one after another, partly because my fingers have an expectation of certain note patterns. A tremolo was called for on a high G, which must be one of the hardest notes to add an interesting grace to. But it’s nice to think differently about the pipes and what they can play and how they can sound, especially as I am aware that I very much play them as miniature GHB.
Speaking of which, the recording is of two standard pipe tunes and a Scottish song: The Georgia Whaling Song, Flett from Flotta and the Shores of Loch Bee. I am hoping these work as a set. I think I've got the wrong number of repeats in Whaling. All tunes have the odd garbled moment where I miss a note in my rush. I race too fast into Bee, and then have a sort of a pause while I listen and wonder if I really am playing Bee or just Flett again, only faster. Drones a little wavery, perhaps: that's what comes of using bellows rather than bag. Otherwise, I think it sounds OK.
Check this out on Chirbit
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