newpiper

Amazing Grace

I meant to play a lot this week, while I'm off work, and somehow it hasn't worked out that way. The fan is out this evening, and I'm pretty sure the neighbours are out too, so I could have a real pipefest, but I found out this afternoon that a cat who used to visit us a lot was knocked down and killed by a car on Friday. It has really upset me, and I hoped piping might cheer me up, but all my fingers will play is Amazing Grace, which is lovely, but not one for lifting you up when you're down. Dotless - from nowhere, as it were - first came to me when I was thinking about Willie. Not a great version here - denuded of grace notes (I can hear them but not play them) - muddled start, and I all but dropped the pipes at the end - but played with love.

Flett from Flotta

Not going too badly today. Flett from Flotta coming on slowly - played here with dots, but I can do chunks dotless. It's a bit slow... (the playing, not the learning. The learning seems to have speeded up. I play tunes over and over and I look at the dots and try to see patterns and break them down so I can see which sections repeat, which almost repeat).
I still find that one tune will knock another out of my head, especially where the tunes are similar in some way, or share even very short note patterns. Flett keeps knocking Bonnie Galloway for six. They both begin with E... On the other hand something suddenly caused The Rowan Tree to crawl out of the woodwork. I'd forgotten I was ever learning it, haven't played it in ages, and there it suddenly was.
I see I am still actually playing very simple tunes - the sort that you can find YouTube footage of 9 year olds playing, faster than me and altogether better than me. A while ago, when I was reading The Big Music, I got a bit distressed by one of the appendices. It shows a piping grading table, and it runs like this: complete beginner, learner, lower novice, novice. Yes - that's right - you get to the fourth stage and you're still only a novice. At the time it seemed very mean, but I suppose it actually expresses how slowly you learn (or how slowly I learn) and how much there is too learn.

Lament for a piper

I heard yesterday that the man who gave me some chanter lessons before I got my pipes has died. He took my desire to learn seriously. He pushed me to get grace notes just so. He encouraged me to think I really could play. He spoke kindly of my early attempts on the pipes, which he heard here, on my blog. He was a lovely man, and full of funny stories which he used to tell me as I struggled through doublings and taorluaths, and I will miss him. Good bye, Willie Allan, and thank you.
I wrote this yesterday, then couldn't post due to internet problems. This morning I turned on the radio, earlier than normal, and realised I was still tuned to Four Extra, and as the radio picked up the station there were the Royal Scots Dragon pipes playing Amazing Grace, courtesy of Ewan McGregor on Desert Island Discs. A moment of serendipity. I stood in the kitchen and listened to the pipes and thought of Willie.
The tune is Bonnie Galloway, dotless, of course.

Nice try...

The fan is out and I thought I’d play to make it three days in row. I have done nothing but the Barren Rocks, over and over. I’ve recorded every time on the grounds that it would held me focus on the playing and forget the recording. Each time (how many? Too many! Actually....ten) I have mucked it up. I thought that part 2 would be a bit slow, because it’s not quite there. But the first part also messes up. Oddly it’s the opening two notes – it’s E then G grace on an F, but if I miss the grace, or start on F the whole thing goes to pot and I can’t start at all.
Of course, I did manage one very good play through. Was the recorder on? Of course not. The version I have posted is not great. The speed is reasonable. I can play faster but was trying to slow down to aim for accuracy (ha, ha). I make a real hash of the B part. Annoyingly I remembered this as the best attempt and deleted some better ones. Some versions that I thought were fast actually crawled along. Interesting that in many of the recordings I managed to go round three times. It’s not that I was enjoying myself that much: more an inability to count, I think!
Still feeling like hard work, though. Still having problem with pressure: just feeling as though there is too much air in the system, and I’m pumping too much (the two problems clearly connected). Still, since I’ve been tightening the bellows strap more I’ve got rid of the issue of it rubbing my inner elbow. What I do have though is the bag rubbing up my left forearm and marking it. My starts are improving – hear the nice little taradiddle that I’ve pinched from Vicki. And the Iain MacInnes-style blip at the end, too! And not to forget that this is entirely dotless.
Mind you...I've just had a listen to an earlier version, with dots, and I feel, this is better. Isn't it?

Banks of Allen take 5

My goal at the moment is to play a tune twice through, dotless, and without mistakes. The Banks of Allen will be the first there, I think. My Home Town isn't that far behind. The fan has done some covert recording, which sounds okayish - but it's on his phone and there doesn't seem to be a way to transfer it t the PC in a way I can upload it here. So I've picked one of three awful attempts made at the end of today's session, when I was tired.
I've had a tune in my head these last weeks and managed to pick it out on the pipes today. It feels like a B part, because it resolves down to A at the end, and it feels like a pipe tune just because the fingering is nice and easy. But what the tune is, I know not, and neither does the fan. I sat and listened to Time and Tide as I've had that on in the car of late and can't fully concentrate on music when I'm driving, so thought perhaps I had absorbed it from there. The fan is inclined to think that either it's something I've made up, or it's a complete hash of Mr and Mrs Maclean of Snaigow. I think it's the latter. Either way, I guess it's something to be able to pick a tune out on the pipes like that.

The same old same old

I feel I’m blogging by numbers here. I could just have a list of statements and tick as appropriate each time. There would be one about my drones being out of tune/ too loud/generally annoying. Another would cover the frequency of the connector tube flipping out. I’d need one to address inability to recall a tune/ annoyance at the poor quality of grace notes. Oh, and let’s not forget the all important “It’s ages since I last played/posted/recorded”. Fling in the endless repetition of the same few tunes and it’s piper’s groundhog day around here.
Still, I may move slower than an asthmatic ant carrying some particularly heavy shopping but I am moving, and generally in the right direction. The fan (to whose encouragement I owe a lot) says I am sounding fluent, getting faster. The other day he did what I’ve always secretly wished for and recorded me without telling me. The red button nerves are a menace and recording distracts me. I wasn’t massively impressed: struggling to get the tune right with no dots (it was the Banks) and surprised at how loud it was (he was in a different room and only had his phone to record on), but actually, it wasn’t that bad.
The other thing with learning tunes is that I have moved from thinking in terms of what the note I need is called to thinking in terms of shapes and patterns of where my fingers need to be, which I think is how I used to play the recorder by heart: finger memory.
So here are those blasted banks of Allen, once again. Don’t ask me why it is that the B part is the one that goes round in my head, but is also the part I struggle with. Familiar territory, and I could sketch a map of the main landmarks, but I don’t yet know every inch blindfold, backwards, so I guess groundhog day is going to continue for a while yet.
(And updating this I see it's the fourth time I've posted this tune. I need to listen to the other versions and I need to get it right so I can move on to something else)

Banks of the Allen again

I picked up my pipes too late yesterday evening- I was already tired and crotchety and things did not go well. Following my visit to Mr Kinnear I’ve tightened the bellows strap, which means my arm is no longer being rubbed, but I do now have a lovely bruise on my hip bone: I seem to have to really bear down on the bellows to get the pressure.
I’ve also gone back to the shorter bit of tubing between bellows and bag. The connecter has been pulled out a few times, but on the whole it seems to work and improves the way things feel. I think it perhaps helps the drones rest closer to my body, maybe. I am still convinced that Morag is heavier than other pipes: I stood to play at Mr Kinnear’s, which I find too tiring with Morag.
I’ve been playing in a skirt, and find that the chanter tends to rest on the fabric and get stifled unless I hitch my skirt up. I sometimes play cross-legged, which the fan says can’t help, but I actually find it comfortable.
On the whole I feel there is too much pressure in the system, everything sounds little loud and sharp. I don’t think I’ve got my drones in tune, either, this afternoon, and the fan is at a session so I am stuck with it. I’m trying hard not to think about that little velvet, clinging monkey with its vibrant voice. If I put in an order today I’d have 8 months to wait, and even if I have them...well a great player may make much of a basic instrument, but a great instrument isn’t going to make a better player of me: only practice will do that.
In terms of tunes I am finding some new ones to try, although the fan cautions against trying to learn too many at once. I’ve found the marvellous Ceol Sean site and have the Boy’s Lament For His Dragon from there, also Joe McGann’s Fiddle and I’ve remembered I wanted to play the Heights of Casino and Troy’s Wedding. Perhaps I should stop collecting new tunes and just concentrate on the selection I have for now.
Here is the Banks of Allen, again, hopefully a little improved from before as I’ve been working on it this evening. Still struggling with gracing for some reason. It has taken way too many takes to record this: I’ve lost concentration somewhere along the line. I didn’t once manage a perfect run through and kept collapsing totally after mistakes instead of picking up and carrying on. (I’ve also lost the knack of stopping cleanly)

Return of the Atholl Dogs

Yes, really - two posts in one day. Ran through the usual playlist. Not doing too badly and can play chunks of the Rocks and Barra by heart. But then I got tired quickly perhaps (it's the back end of the evening and I've had a glass of wine...) but it seemed to me I was needing a lot of pressure to keep the drones going, and they were giving up the moment I eased off.
The fan notes that compared to Mr Kinnear my hands look very tense on my chanter - and I know they are because sometimes it makes my thumbs hurt. Not a problem I've ever had with whistles or recorders, although I did have it with the chanter. Perhaps it's just mental tension, as it were, or perhaps it's the weight of the chanter. (And I'm trying not to think that when I have my new pipes - and I haven't actually put in a real order as yet - all will be well)
But I thought I ought to record. I ran once through the Highlanders (parts 1-3 only) with no problems. As soon as the recorder came out I flapped. I think I immediately start thinking about my blog post and criticising my playing, so stop thinking about the tune. So here is a reasonably fast, hideously inaccurate, and frankly not very tuneful verision. Better than the previous attempts? Tunepal thought I was playing the William Tell Overture, or perhaps Atholl Brose. Somehow rather discouraging....
(And then I've deleted the bad version and posted the awful version. Re-recorded. Still bad - and this time I know I was definitely thinking about the blog and not the tune, hence the mess.)

The Banks of Allen

So it turned out not to be anything drastic and my ears are back: just an irritating cough left. It's been frustrating - I've missed playing and I've been really keen to try the Banks of the Allen that Vicki has on her blog. I've played very briefly a couple of times this week, but this is the first time I've had a chance to try the new tune.
The first thing is that I am pleased not to feel I have got badly rusty. Physically, in terms of aching arm muscles, it's clear I've had a big break. In terms of pressure, fingering and general comfort levels, it feels as though I've not been away at all.
Vicki has used a G and a strike between three notes the same. Elsewhere in the tune she's used a strike and a G, so naturally I keep getting these wrong and tend to slow right up so I can curse myself for an idiot once I've done it. The strike on to G from the B at the end is poor - very poor indeed. Not my best shot - practice needed, but the fan is quietly impressed by my sight reading skills.
Question for the day - at what point can you tell someone you're a musician? How good do you need to be before you 'fess up? Or before it stops being an idle boast and becomes some sort of fundamental truth?
Next week I will be dropping in on Mr Kinnear...

Double fault

I’ve been humming Ae Fond Kiss all day so have played that a few times this evening. In the mood for slower things so have also gone over Friday Harbor. There’s a G, B then a B,C,D triplet where the first two parts of the triplet are faster than the last (there will be a proper name for that, but I know not what). I can’t get this to work – the two Bs have to be graced to separate them and that mucks up the timing. So I’ve fiddled about and have settled on G, B and then a grip up to the C then D, and that seems to go better. It’s also making it easier to get the timing on the next bar right: normally I’m too busy thinking about how badly that bar has gone to notice what’s coming next and manage to play the long note short and the short note long.
I’m being distracted by horrible drones. My middle drone not only sounds bad it sounds very thin and seems to be kicking in and out. I think this is the drone that fell out entirely when Morag was being passed around the family, so I hope the reed isn’t damaged.
I’m still using too much right arm so that my drones come and go. Actually – scrap that. I think I’m just not easing up properly on the bag when I pump so I’m getting surges of pressure. Why? This is so basic – I feel I’m going backwards, and before I felt I was doing so well.
My other distraction is a certain Roger Federer, looking cool, calm and collected in the face of apparent disaster out on Centre Court, clawing his way back to two sets all – and I think it’s having half my concentration on the fifth set that is making the piping go so badly.
The recording is Ae Fond Kiss. Wavery, timing patchy, last note not held long enough and, pace my recent comments on sets, it sounds really odd without the fiddly twiddly bit that the band stick on the end when they play it (as an actual song). Ugh - I think it actually sounds worse than my previous effort back in February. Admittedly that time I had some backing as distraction, but there's certainly no noticable improvement of any kind.