Take your partners

I've been enjoying more of Santa's bounty today, in the shape of Gary West's The Islay Ball. I can't remember now how I came across Gary and became aware that he is a smallpiper. He doesn't seem to have released many albums; this one is from 2001.
On one listening I'd say its's a mixed bag. There are SSP and GHB, which is good, plus a few whistles, which I don't mind. There are some cracking trad sets, including a pair of elegant border jigs, a stonking set of Irish tunes and old favourites The Mason's Apron and the Caber Feidh.  There is some nice cello, which isn't what you might expect with pipes, but works well.  On many tracks the guitars and bouzoukis are subtle.

I'm not sure of the point of the one song, which is not in a Scots style. I did listen all the way through and in future it will be my cue to hit the skip button. I'm sure it's good, but it really doesn't belong on a CD of pipe tunes. Many of the tunes are Gary's own compositions and none of them stood out on first listening... Hopefully they will grow on me. Having mentioned subtle the strings the Irish set (with the fabulously-named Hugh MacDiarmid's Haircut) has a load of strings and percussion, which adds to the fun, except the sound mix makes it sound as though they asked Gary to stand at the back and play, which doesn't seem right.

I'm working on the new tunes, adding graces. Some have appeared of their own accord, some slip in nicely, some I play over and over then when I slot the phrase back into the tune the graces vanish on the way. They may come back. I'm also still fine-tuning Women and Sleat. It's going to be a good set, when its ready. I've no idea what set pairings will come out of the new tunes as yet.

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...

Of lions and unicorns

I need a new hobby. Of course I need a new hobby, when you think how much time I have to spare. I'm not sure how compatible my new hobby will be with anything else...I've managed to stab my fingers and draw about a pint of blood, and earlier in the day, until I had the technique sorted, I managed to make my bellows elbow quite sore. Anyway, I managed to make a small lion, and I am quite pleased with him.

I am a lot less pleased with my pipes at present and cut an inch off the tubing. It still doesn't feel comfortable, but again I will stick with it for a while. I' m finding that the bellows slide about and I need to lean over and press the bellows down on my pelvis to fill them. Not good.

New tunes are good. Skyeman's Jig the worst of the bunch, not sounding like much at all at present, Peter Mackinnon will maybe be a challenge, Arthur Bignold (who gets a mention in one of my Christmas books) and Hills of Perth both shaping up nicely, at least across the first couple of parts.

Also shaping up nicely is Skippinish. It's not the fan's sort of thing, but I enjoy the simplicity - mainly just pipes (smallpipes at that, in the main!) and box, with a smattering of fiddle; no fancy arrangements to listen to, just good tunes, some new, others familiar (Loch Bee, Flett), played in unfamiliar ways.

Five things - desert islands discs

Radio Four's Desert Island Discs kindly allows castaways eight discs, although  I am never sure whether this is eight tracks or eight full LPs, as it were. Since we're not on DID I'm limiting myself to five: five CDs I could listen to forever, my five favourites. They are all very Scottish and very folky - but don't actually all include pipes.

Ossian - The Carrying Stream.
I love Ossian. I love Borders, Sealsong, St Kilda Wedding and their eponymous album. Which is five in itself, but for this list we're just considering The Carrying Stream. It has Mr MacInnes, and some serious piping sets.

Smalltalk - Smalltalk. Yes, yes, more Mr MacInnes, and to be honest I'd happily take my Iain MacInnes list instead of this. It also has some lovely Scots fiddle, and one of my favourite songs: Rosie Anderson, which I love for many reasons, including the marvellous line "I only brought her safely home, from the dangers on the way."

James Duncan Mackenzie. The more I hear this the more I love it. Plenty of traditional tunes, including the beautiful closing pibroch, and JDM himself writes a very nice tune in the traditional style.

A' Jock Tamson's Bairns - The Lasses Fashion/Jock Tamson's Bairns. I have both of these on one CD, so tend to think of them as one item. Some great pipe tunes (I do like The Hills of Perth) although, sadly, without any actual pipes. Some more nice fiddle playing. Some interesting arrangements, good mix of instruments and a general lively and upbeat air. I like Rod Paterson's voice and Lady Keith's Lament is one of my favourite songs.

Whistlebinkies - Inner Sound. Actually I could live without hearing the first track, which always seems rather muddled, and I tend to skip it. Oran Mor is worth the price of the CD alone: a slow and stately funeral march, that makes me think of a CD I have of music for the death of Queen Mary (not of Scots), and all it really needs is a muffled drum. The band clearly love it too as it also appears on Albanach, disguised as Coronach, and played on GHB. The whole album is a little slow and stately, polished and precise. The fan categorises this sort of thing as "chamber music", but I love it. It does also include pipes, albeit border pipes.

I would love to have a Kevin MacLeod CD on this list. My Christmas stocking this year included Dorney Rock and I confidently expect it to become a favourite. Santa also brought me Gary West's The Islay Ball, the eponymous album by Skippinish, and Alasdair Gillies' Lochbroom. Maybe one of those will end up on a future DID list. They certainly need to be added to my CD shelf listing.

Jock's

I'm gearing myself up for another challenge month, probably January, although there are changes at work and while I've no idea what the impact will be I am hoping it will leave me some time and energy for the important things in life.

Where there is a challenge there needs to be new tunes. It helps to have new tunes to give variety to daily playing, and daily playing is the best way to learn new tunes. Much as I regret the trail of abandoned tunes (Kilbowie Cottage has died a death....) I seem to leave in my wake it seems to work best if I try a handful of new tunes, so that I find at least one I can stick with.

I dug out A Jock Tamson's Bairns earlier this week - the double CD that combines their eponymous album with The Lasses Fashion - and was instantly reminded what a good band they were, and what great tunes they selected. Thanks to the wonderful Ceol Sean site I have dots for Hills of Perth, Peter Mackinnon of Skeabost (which I also know from the playing of Iain MacInnes), The Skyeman's Jig and Arthur Bignold Esq of Lochresque. 

I tried out Perth and Peter yesterday. Peter is going to take some work, Perth, which I am sure in the past I have failed to find and then failed to play, came on quite nicely yesterday, first and second parts, at least. It has one of those tricky drops to low G - well, the drop isn't difficult, it's getting up again cleanly and in a dignified manner that's the real challenge. In the end I was defeated by kinks in the tubing. It's definitely time to shave a bit off and try a shorter piece for size.

I wanted to throw Mrs MacDougall into the mix, but ended up with too much choice: Ceol Sean offers a Mrs MacDougall and a Mrs McDougall, a reel, a march by D McDougall and another by Archibald Campbell. The notes, which are the weakest point of this otherwise excellent CD are no help, and as I can't tell what the tune will sound like from the dots I need to potentially print out and try 8 tunes, or pass. I think I'll be passing...

Thigh bone connected to the hip bone

I'm still trying to find a way to be comfortable and this evening nothing worked. It occurs to me that the advice I've seen and been given to wear the bellows as high as possible isn't helpful. The bellows surely need to be adjacent to your elbow, and where that sits depends on the relative length of your arms and body. Actually I see that pipe makers Richard and Anita Evans recommend having the bellows  just above your right elbow.

Wearing the bellows low I am still resting my forearm or wrist on the side, which hurts, because I press, rather than rest, the arm to get at the chanter. Looking at picture of other pipers most hold their arms well clear of the bellows. At least, small pipers do,  Uilleann pipers all seem to lay their forearms along the bellows...

The bellows also slide around my waist, but I don't think I fancy pulling the strap much tighter. However I am definitely using the bag to control air flow better when the bellows are sitting lower. And setting the bellows lower, to stop me continuing to push the outer half down, is what started this whole thing in the first place.

I'm not sure that looking at other pipers is helping. I think that everyone will hold their pipes in a way that suits the size and shape of their instrument and their own body. It's a very physically intimate instrument in some ways, being cuddled into your body on each side and the drones at the front. There is a way for the two of us to fit together, the monkey and I, without damage to either of us. We'll find it eventually.

Comparing apples and pears

I put my tablet on a higher surface this evening, which means I've got a better view of myself playing, but it makes it harder, of course, to compare with yesterday's footage.

I felt today as though the drones were sitting too low. The bellows strap was loose so my bellows kept working their way around my waist. The strap was cutting into my arm above my elbow. I also had some problems with my wrist resting on the bellows uncomfortably. The chanter was somehow in the wrong place so my fingers kept missing: it's a bit like typing with the keyboard off to one side, nothing is quite where you are expecting it to be.

On the plus side my left arm ached, and I think the reason is that I've been working the bag more than the bellows, which is good. I suppose it's also good that despite everything I managed to play tunes, shoving the bellows around, angling the chanter, hoisting bits up and pushing other bits down while I played.

I need to play like this more, try videoing myself a few more times, probably look at footage of other pipers to see where everything is sitting in relation to everything else.

I've labelled this with the now little-used label whinge, but despite the list of things that aren't right I am quite happy, and sure I'll find the perfect tube length soon.