Eagle's Whistle

I wasn't intending to play today. I want to play in the mornings when I'm fresh, but that's when the fan, who is poorly, dozes on the sofa. He loves me (and Morag) a lot, but I don't think he'd be keen on a pipe rendition breaking through his dreams!

I've had the Eagle's Whistle going round and round my head today: it is one of those tunes that feels as though it could be on a permanent loop, and hearing the Sea Stallions play it has brought it to mind (I also know it from Sealbh).

I had a poke about on the Session where it appears as a slip jig and there are the usual arguments about whether retreat marches exists and what makes a polka, and the dots in G or D. Luckily it also has the information that the tune is also known as Donovan's March, and that's how I found it on Ceol Sean. So I sat with the dots and decided to have a quick go. The tune itself is very easy. It's not the same as the two recorded versions, and the timing of some other versions I found was totally different. I think in this recording I'm playing the Ian MacInnes version rather than what the dots say, timings-wise, and I am also trying to piece together how I think the tunes goes, rather than what the dots do. I need more gracing. But it's a good tune; one I think I will try to learn.

By the way - my drones sounded hideous this evening: I did the first run through with two blocked off. The fan made minor adjustments, but one drone is foul, and comes and goes. I am not sure if that is me using the bellows arm too much (still!!) or one drone having problems (I've mentioned before that one seems to waver in and out). The second recording I did, just minutes after the first, was more confident and a much better speed. I mean - I know this is a slow tune, but even so, there's a retreat and there's standing on the spot going nowhere... Annoyingly the best recording I did I managed not to hit stop at the end, so it's followed by several minutes of me flapping about and then playing again, and as I can't edit it I won't post it. So version posted has errors while I try to follow dots with variants as I think they ought to be, and includes those nasty drones.



Check this out on Chirbit

Faster?

A year or two ago the fan and I saw Bellevue Rendevous at Folk at the Oak. Lovely venue, where we've seen some really great music. Bellevue are a fab band - and very nice people who will happily let you hold a nyckelharpa or a bouzouki. (This happiness on the part of professional musicians to talk to fans about music and instruments is one of the things I love about folk music.)

Anyway, I mention them now because one of my abiding memories of that evening was Mr Marwick, during a particularly fast and furious piece (I believe he said the musical direction read "play like the devil"), turning to his fellow musicians each in turn and simply saying "faster?", and, of course, they upped the tempo. Upping the tempo is something I'm really trying to do, but not getting very far with. My fingers keep falling over themselves and the gracing goes for a burton. My other problem at the moment is that I am still relying on the bellows for my air supply (why???) and as soon as I stop pumping I lose pressure, and I need a good steady pressure to play at speed. I'm also suffering from fingers tightening up, to the extent where I start to fear that I will snap the chanter if I don't loosen up. Also, my left hand is not well-positioned and I'm not closing down on the holes cleanly. All beginner stuff, all very annoying.

I am also wondering about optimum speeds. I've been listening to another Xmas present today: the grand concert of piping from 1995. It's a bit of a shame that three of the six pipers are on GHB, only two on smallpipes and one on border pipes. Still, it's good to hear some pipers and some tunes I've not heard before. I enjoyed Mr MacDonald and Mr MacInnes most. The others, Mr Duncan in particular, seem to think that the main point is to go as fast as possible. I prefer a more sedate pace, where I can hear the tune, the grace notes, the texture of the music.

To be honest, one of my problems today is that I am concentrating more on what's going in this post than I am on actually playing..... So, recording is an example of how badly things go wrong when I try to go too fast. It's the Barren Rocks of Aden. I've started slow and speeded up, and wobbled to a bad end, with the tempo coming and going throughout. And it is bad, but it's a darn sight faster than this effort from June, and probably faster than this from September. So maybe I am getting faster....slowly.


Check this out on Chirbit

Botheration

As I added the tune for the previous post to Chirbit I listened to another version I'd done of it (earlier recording lost, which doesn't help). So the previous version is kind of OK, and the new version is...kind of OK. The newer one is dotless (which you can't hear, of course, but it's nevertheless true - but then, the other version only being earlier this month - took me a while to work out which post it belonged to - it may also be dotless), and I've got a few more gracings. I run the tune through twice in the new version, and maybe I'm a teensy bit steadier in tempo, but that's it.

When I started this blog I had visions of seeing clear progress. I thought version (a) of a posted tune would sound like an incompetent idiot attempting the pipes, version (b) would sound like a beginner doing her best, version (c) would sound like a reasonably competent piper, and version (d) would sound like a real piper playing real music. I suppose it's partly because that my base-line is reasonably high: I spent a year on the chanter (and a lifetime on recorder, on and off), I'm fairly decent at sight-reading, and by the time I started blogging I'd had Morag for three months and got over the really painful stage. The other thing is that I only post a recording when I've got a reasonably good one: pride, perhaps, stops me from posting anything that's a real mess, with the exception of the dog's dinner I made of the Atholl Highlanders, so the really bad days are just silent on here. But it's all so slow, and sometimes I seem to go backwards, which is very discouraging.

Anyway: today a bad day. I've been trying the Rocks and the Banks, at speed, but failing to get either right. Lack of practice - or perhaps tired arms from my marathon drive yesterday - means I am pumping too much and my connector tube keeps flipping out. I did record, and maybe I ought to post a recording, but a tune that just stops doesn't show anything.

Bother.

House guest

We've been away for a day or two. That's "we" as in me and the fan: Morag stayed at home. Taking Morag away with me is a bit like taking a large, smelly dog. Everyone says that of course they don't mind, and how  lovely I brought her along for them to see, but there is a gleam in their eye that says "could you not have put her in kennels?"

No piping today, but I've been listening to Irish pipes playing Irish and Swedish music, accompanied by a nyckelharpa. It turns out to be a match made in heaven.

I wish I could fly

Two days before I finished work my back rebelled against my not very comfortable office chair and I'm suffering from stiffness and horrible twinges in my lower back. When I lifted my pipes this evening they seemed to weigh a tonne. I strapped them on, but they're not quite right. The strap makes my ribs ache, the bellowing makes my back ache, and the bellows are putting pressure on my hip bone and the bellows strap is at an odd angle, cutting off blood supply and making my fingers number.

Despite all this I haven't done too badly. I'm still fighting the barren rocks. Sometimes I get them off pat, especially the first part, and at a real lick. Sometimes my fingers go too fast and fall over themselves. Often the B part gets mucked up. Struggling to get Teribus at all today. Bonnie Galloway comes and goes.

Still wanting to play a tune twice over, followed by another tune twice over. I got half way there with the Rowan Tree and the Barren Rocks of Aden. The Rowan Tree, twice through, no problems at all, but I fell flat on my face (metaphorically speaking) about three notes in to the Rocks. I think what had happened was that I'd got into the zone with the tree, and could have gone round and round forever, but the change of tempo pulled me out of the zone and left me feeling disorientated.

The fan says I'm like a fledgling that is flapping its wings and looking as though any moment now it's going to be able to fly. Personally, I'm starting to feel like Orville: I wish I could fly, but I can't. Appropriately for all these ornithological comments, the tune is The Rowan Tree, twice through, with the same error repeated throughout...


Check this out on Chirbit

So tired

I came home late (again) from work today. The fan offered to cook dinner, so I sat down with the crossword. I suddenly realised I've got no pressing chores: Christmas cards are all written and posted, cake made and covered in marzipan (and the icing can wait until Saturday), there's room in the laundry basket and ironing pile to squeeze a few more items, no urgent baking, the kitchen is reasonably clean and tidy, Christmas knitting is completed...so I pulled Morag out.

I'm tired (it has been the longest week, the longest term, if it comes to it, and my office chair seems carefully designed to inflict maximum back pain), but I strapped myself in and set off. Way too much pumping action and not enough bag action. My hands seized up really quickly - my right hand and thumb in particular. I kept getting distracted mid tune by the dust under the sofa so turned my back and got distracted by the Christmas tree. Work-related thoughts also drifting through my brain. Still, I managed to remember all my tunes, and briefly tried the Heights of Casino (I definitely need a cleaner set of dots) and the Boy's Lament for His Dragon. I enjoyed myself for half an hour until it was time to stop for dinner.

No recording, mostly because we never seem to have batteries for the machine and I couldn't be bothered to hook it up to the laptop, but next week I will play and record and play some more. If I can stay awake, that is.

Still here...

...just very quiet. The usual Christmas stuff, visits, work, baking, and no time to play at all. I did take Morag away at the weekend and brought her out to show to people, and played a tune, almost OK, and sort of began to cobble together Auld Lang Syne.

The Christmas break starts on Friday and I can't wait and am longing to get some decent piping in there somewhere.