newpiper

Not tonight, Josephine

I wasn't going to post tonight - I wasn't going to play tonight. I have not had a good day and tired and grouchy pretty much covers my mood when I got home. However, after dinner and a glass of wine I started feeling more cheerful and less tired and thought perhaps I'd get the whistle out. Problem is my laptop isn't happy with the internet this evening and virtual Kirsten is all out of synch. You cannot follow a tune from someone whose fingers are half a beat behind the sound. So I fiddled about and spent money on Amazon, and decided to look for dots for the Heights of Cassino. I've been trying to get my ear back to Scottish music and so I've been listening to Smalltalk. Cassino's a lovely tune - really upbeat and light. Not played on pipes on the disk, but it's a pipe tune, of course. The Session has dots, barely legible (what do they do to their dots? This set looks as though somone left them in a the pocket of a pair of trews that went in the wash) so I've found a recording on YouTube to help me with the way the tune sounds. I'm pleased with it - recognisable, at least.
In other news, before I decided to try Cassino I warbled about and found I can play a bit of That Tune sans dots, and I know enough to know that it's not the very first bit, it's the first repeat. I know, I know, it's very small fry, but heaveans, I'm pleased about it.
Oh, Ok. Look. I'm posting That Tune, but this is NOT my definitive best shot. This is me reassuring myself that the playing I did at the weekend wasn't as dire as I thought. I have two versions of this. In the one I'm posting I make a heap of mistakes, plus I abandon not even half way through. The other version is technically more accurate but sounds as though I'm wading through treacle. This version has the tempo and the spirit of the tune more - it trips and skips along where the other version trudged and dragged its feet and whined a lot about how tired it felt.
See - and now it's bed time and I didn't get time to do the ironing. What a shame!

Highland Cathedral

Another day of struggle, although it's starting to improve again. I've decided half the problem with the connector tube is that I don't sit straight on to my music stand sometimes so I'm twisting to see it, which must put pressure on the tube.
I spent an hour just about today, interrupted by a neighbour's cat (who was surprisingly tolerant of the pipes but had a lot to say when I was done) and my sister, who needed urgent quilt-making advice.
I've been working on Atholl Highlanders especially that A moving to D grace on C. Quick whizz through Friday Harbor, and a lot of work on Nigel's tune. I've gone through Highland Cathedral. I've not played it for a while, in fact I'm not sure that I've ever played it on pipes - just chanter. It came out OK. I made three recordings. They had various faults between them. They were all hesitant and wavery. I think that's me slowly feeling my way back in - still feeling the effects of that long break. The waver is to do with relying on my stronger bellows arm rather than forcing my bag arm to do some work.
The E doubling needs to be much better - I think I'm just picking up my G finger twice instead of the G and F, and sometimes think I fail to put down one finger before I lift the next. There's a little tap between two Fs which comes out as a whole note. I'm not holding the long notes anything like long enough. The tempo varies - on one version I played the B part faster than the A part. The D strike is way too slow and clunky. Oh - and that second triplet in the B part ditto really. Look at that list of errors - and this is a tune I'm happy enough about to record. Sheesh!
I'm pondering posting recordings of Nigel's tune. I have to keep reminding myself that this blog is my space for me to hear how I am improving. To hear that I need to post the rubbish as well as the best shots. If people come looking for performance, as I've said before, they wont get it. Still, a girl has her vanities and it's difficult to make mistakes in public. I've seen the catty and unkind comments some people make on Youtube when beginners post their best shot at something. I think I'm mostly able to ignore this, but Nigel's tune is a bit different because I know that there are people out there collecting versions of the tune and I feel them hovering in the wings, somehow, and that's making me shy. (And not at all intending to suggest those collecting the tune would be unkind - in fact I'm sure they wouldn't. It's just that I feel if I post the tune it will be for them, not for me, and I want to make it as good as I can for them).
Oh - one good thing. My fan claims that I am getting a bit faster when I play (he likes fast). This is the same fan who, when I moaned about how badly it went today, said it sounded fine to him. I had to point out that as he's spent all afternoon recording he's had headphones on all the time I've been playing....

The Atholl Highlanders' dog's dinner

Still thinking about the Atholl Highlanders. Driving home today I realised that it's a track on a CD I have of a solo piper running through the top 20 favourite pipe tunes. Not as naff as it sounds. It's a while since I've listened to GHB proper, and they are rather harsh in tone. Feeling much happier that SSP are right for me.
Anyway, I came home and ran through the tune a couple of times. It occurs to me that despite my statement when I began that this is not a performance I do actually try to practice a tune and get it half right before I post it. I have at least half an eye out there for those who I know drop in from time to time. However, nice as it is to see everyone, as it were, the point of this blog was to demonstrate to me how far (or not) I've got. So this time I've not waited until I've got the tune before recording. I ran through it perhaps half a dozen times yesterday, and a couple of times today, and then hit record. So what we have here is a bit of a dog's dinner. There are bits where I get it right, bits where I fluff notes, gracenotes or timing, and bits where I retrace mysteps and repeat a phrase I've found complicated. Hopefully I'll record a clean version in a few days and then I'll see an improvement!
The fan pointed out, just before I recorded this, that various Bs in the second phrase ought to be As. Sure enough, the version downloaded from the Session has As. Easily enough changed - and to be honest it's not the first time I've had to scribble over the Green Book where notes are wrong - but my fingers had already got into the habit of Bs. The G grace on A to D grace on C has taken some practice, as has the snap at the end of each part where the placing of the short note in the triplet is moved.
The fan says there are two more parts. More inspection of version from the Session (which is in tiny print and not easy to read) and sure enough, two more parts.
Anyway, this is a recording for me as a learner, not for you as a listener. Listen at your own risk!

10,000 hours

I read an article today that mentioned, among other things, the concept that it takes 10,000 hours to gain mastery of something. Aside from the issues around how anyone knows this, who has counted, and exactly what constitutes "mastery" this is a scarily large amount of time. It amounts to three hours a day for ten years.
Three hours a day is amazing in itself. I spend 10 hours a day travelling too and from and being at work. Take another 7 for sleeping. Then meals need to be cooked and eaten and the basics of housework done. Remove a couple more hours for distractions - the allotment, knitting, needlepoint, sewing, baking, reading. Even when I do get my pipes out time is spent blogging about it (ahem!), fiddling with batteries in the recorder, and so on. Today I got to spend a very rare and very precious 2 hours or so sitting on the sofa with my fan listening to some of the haul of CDs we brought back from Ireland (Dulahan, Hayes Senior and Junior and Floriane and Dermot). I wouldn't give that up for any amount of mastery.
So, I'm trying to get back to listening to Scottish tunes and pipes tunes, and poked about on YouTube yesterday looking at various things. Definitely want to learn the Atholl Highlanders. It's a classic pipe tune and also sounds good at sessions. At the moment my problem with it is that it needs to be played faster than I can manage. After my heavy reliance on G graces the D grace on A is proving tricky. My best shot is poor, to say the least. I will work on it. I do need to get faster at lots of tunes. I also need to get up the stamina (and repertoire) to play tunes back to back in proper sets.
The Halsway Schottische is coming on OK, although there are some notes in the B part that keep throwing me. Again, speed is an issue. Still hoping to post a version here soon.
In the meantime I managed to record Mull of the Mountains. Played it three times. This was the only one with a set of working batteries in the recorder, and naturally the only one I managed to fluff notes in. My drones aren't happy. Retuned twice in half an hour of playing and I'm still not convinced they are right. Not sure what's upset them - perhaps having been abandoned for a week they are sulking. However, I feel the tune is sustained nicely - fairly even tempo and sound. I also played both parts twice quite comfortably, without needing a lie down afterwards. It ends rather abruptly though - could have done with a sustained note at the end.

Leaving Friday Harbor

My fan listened as I played today and we talked a little about learning tunes. I feel I've moved away from learning a phrase at a time to trying to run through whole tunes, but I've also moved from learning tunes I don't know at all - just the next tune in the Green Book - to deciding to learn tunes because I've heard and like them. I tend to run through the first apart most often, because that's where I always start, and often I run over something a couple of times, and then get tired, or cross, and move on to another tune. B parts thus get practised less often, and surely B parts are harder than A parts...
Anyway, the fan says there is no need to learn phrase by phrase - just noodle along, says he, and all will drop into place. Possibly. Either way I worked at some specific phrases in Friday Harbor that were not working well. I played it once through beautifully. My fan was impressed. Was the recorder on? Of course not. Could I repeat it for the recorder? Of course not.
My fan says I'm no longer snatching at the bellows, which I did yesterday evening (but I was tired). He says my endings are better, my tone is improving. I have problems noticing these things. I notice that I am still cautious in my playing - I start off too fast, I slow right down when I'm unsure. I haven't found a way to start off that doesn't sounds as though a small group of animals is rushing through the room. The sound level seems to come and go, although I sat by the recorder. Speaking of endings, you can just here a little clunk right at the end - that's my drones dropping down on each other as I lean over to switch the recorder off.
Working on the Halsway tune. Getting there, slowly.

Good times, bad times

Bad. Trying to play pipes perched on the end of the bed, twisting round to read music next to me. Couldn't see the music and the connector kept dropping out. Not a good move.
Bad. Still couldn't remember those tunes. Need to run them through again with dots.
Bad. Thought if I ran through Lochanside often enough it would sink into my brain...sadly not. I have got the tune in my head - but its Carol Anderson's version on fiddle, so maybe that's not helpful.
Bad. Couldn't decide whether to play with no grace notes, edited highlights, or the full kit and caboodle and ended up dithering and switching bar to bar, which doesn't help with memorising either.
Good. Listened to the recording a couple of hours later, and actually, it sounded...OK.
Bad. I managed not to properly transfer the files from recorder to PC and failed to check before deleting them from the recorder.
Good or bad? Thanks to a random Facebook picture I've been outed as a piper at work...
Bad. I hit "publish" and Podbean kindly logged me out and lost my post first time round.
Good. Poked around in the recycle bin and found a file! So, it doesn't sound too bad, I reckon. Begins with a good speed and some of the gracing is quite decent. It fizzles towards the end - I get a bit uncertain about gracing, timing and the general tune. I was also thinking it was going badly so dithering about whether to bail out and start a new recording. I should compare it with the earlier version - see if there is any glimmer of improvement!
Bad. Podbean did it again - luckily I'd saved the text separately this time!

Hector the Hero

No luck with Nigel's tune, mostly because although it plagues me all day it vanishes the moment I arrive home. However, I thought I should have a go at Hector the Hero. If I fiddle about on the pipes I often end up falling into a couple of bars of Hector, which mysteriously I then struggle to identify.
I've spent two evenings working on this - playing it, checking dots, playing again, checking dots again. I'm not 100% confident with it, but it's OK. The version here showing that slight lack of confidence. Some of the unevenness of sound I'm blaming on the fact that I was walking round the room as I played. My drones don't seem to be in tune. Some of the notes are a bit wavery. My timing isn't great and and my playing lacks any real feeling or lyricism.
I find when I'm not using dots I can somehow think more about the bellows and bag, and pump less and put more pressure on the bag. I feel as though I've been swinging by my arms - a definite sign I'm doing things differently today. I had a quick run through of the polska with dots, and then found I could get a half decent version without dots, so perhaps it's going to be like riding a bicycle and my brain just now knows how to memorise a tune. That would be nice!
Glad to find I can still play Dusty Pipes by heart - I was afraid the whole thing was a fluke. I did have to start with the second part as I couldn't remember how the first part began, but once I'd run through the second part I went straight into the first without any problems. My fan tells me this isn't unusual.
Small steps - still going in the right direction.

Swings and roundabouts

Yesterday I went to my first session on my own. I’ve been to a few with my fan, but only to tag along with him and listen to other people play. We went to the Scandi session back in November when I had literally only had my pipes for about a week. We didn’t do much Scandi stuff, and I didn’t really play.
There is a clear learning aspect to the Scandi session, so not knowing the tunes, and being new to an instrument (mostly nickelharpas) is fine. Use of dots (as I’ve learned to call sheet music) is not frowned upon. So far so good. I did play a small number of tunes. It was really exciting and uplifting. Me! Playing real tunes! With other people! Especially the bit that was me, playing a tune, with Vicki and Jonny!! I was really pleased that I was able to play along, and even to pick myself up and carry on where I fluffed bits.
The downside is that even with Vicki sitting next to me I really struggled to hear her or anyone else over my pipes. I was also very aware that it’s not like sitting back with a fiddle and just touching the strings so that the sound is only audible to the player: everyone in the room heard loud and clear every single time I hit a wrong note, tripped over the timing or otherwise did something idiotic.
I’m aware that I’m not good at picking up tunes as other people play them. Pipes simply don’t help with this because they drown up the person you’re supposed to be listening to. I was offered whistles and recorders, but although I’ve been playing both on and off since I was about six I’m very rusty and not ready to do so in front of others. Apart from a spell when I learned trumpet and was in a brass band I haven’t played with other people since I was at primary school learning the recorder, which we did in groups.
So after the elation I had a bit of a slump. I only play one instrument, I don’t play it very well, I can’t pick up tunes just by listening to them, I rely too much on dots, I can’t play very fast…so much I can’t do. And then I thought what a fool I was to take pipes in A (for awkward) to a Scandi session, where A is not the order of the day. I could buy Swedish pipes, but I think I really need to learn to play smallpipes first.
Swings and roundabouts, then. On the whole I think I’m pleased I went, if only because it made my fan so pleased, to think I am taking music seriously and branching out without him and forging my own musical identity.
I wrote the above earlier in the day, and then I got my pipes out and...played Dusty Pipes with no dots!! Yes, there's a fluff in the middle (as naturally the one perfect run through was the one where I'd not hit record) but I'm really playing a whole tune without recourse to the music. Just like that, as they say. I had problems with pressure (too high), drones (too loud), connector popping out, bellows rubbing the crook of my elbow raw - but I played a tune with no dots. After my post-session come down I suddenly feel this might really happen - I might really become a piper.

International Bagpipe Day

I was slightly bemused to receive two unexpected phone calls this morning from people who had spotted bagpipe things happening and thought of me. The mystery was solved at Slack Folk where I discovered it was International Bagpipe Day.
So when I got home I had to get the pipes out and I spent a relatively happy hour playing through various bits. Mostly Dusty Pipes and The Golden Birch, some scales, then for fun I ran through a few old chanter tunes: the Skye Boat Song, Auld Lang Syne and Amazing Grace. They sounded rather good, although I think a lot of that was due to a change in playing venue. As the cat was out (he does not like pipes!) I played in the sitting room instead of the bedroom. The acoustics are such that the pipes, especially the drones, really sang. At least - they did from where I was sitting!
I continue to struggle with the octupus. Last time I played I had a good attempt at dislocating my thumb: I find I'm tensing the thumb of my right hand against the chanter. I don't know why, and I didn't do it today, and I hadn't done it for a while. It's not good, if only because it hurts. Today I felt utterly cramped by the bellows strap, which made my back ache. I always use the same hole in the strap, so it's inexplicable. I've had a couple of sessions where the drones have really rather irritated me, literally droning on in my ear. I've asked my fan to check the tuning, but that's been fine. Once I blocked them off, they were so distracting and irritating, but the last session they were fine, and today, as I said, they sang.
Today's tune, in a nod to the International aspect of the day, is Swedish: it's Poslka efter Carl Magnusson. Played much faster, and more Swedishly, on Swedish pipes here.
Happy International Bagpipe day!

Danger - pipe on the hob

I practised at the weekend without either recording or writing anything here. I don't want to feel that I must always blog when I've practised - or even that I can only blog when I practice. It's not how my other notebooks work.
Piping takes a little time to set up. With the chanter I could be in the kitchen, have half and eye on something on the hob, and run through a tune. I feel that pipes in a kitchen are probably a health and safety hazard. Recording and blogging takes up more good piping time.
I'm starting to note a tendency to feel that I haven't got time to play, or I am too tired to play. This evening I found just 20 minutes, but it was 20 good minutes. I felt comfortable, I enjoyed the tunes, I enjoyed the sound of the pipes, and I came away feeling very upbeat.
I’m also finding that it’s useful to have a pattern to my playing. I start with a scale or two (and I’ll probably talk more about exercises another day), I play a tune or two that I feel reasonably comfortable with, I try a new tune (currently Leaving Friday Harbor). If the new tune doesn’t go well I feel I’ve had a “bad” session, so I find coming back to a tune I know and playing that through means I end on a high note (not literally, obviously).
I don’t want to keep learning new tunes until I’ve got the hang of the old ones, and I don’t think I‘ve improved enough to make it worth reposting tunes. I thought I’d recorded a new tune this evening, but turns out I didn’t...so here are some scales. Enjoy!