Not a performance

First posted Feb 1st, 2012 by newpiper

I'm a notebook keeper. I keep a diary, I keep a notebook of projects, I keep a notebook of reading. These are all on paper and all very private. I could start another notebook for piping. Certainly I can moan about all the few things I seem to have learned and the very many things I seem to be getting wrong - but checking progress is harder.

I've been urged by my one fan to consider how far I've come since I bought a chanter in Edinburgh in August 2010 and could barely get two consecutive notes out before feeling faint. He even says I've improved since I bought the pipes in November 2011. Perhaps I have - but all I can hear is all the things that I am still doing wrong.

So this is my private notebook (yes - I do appreciate the irony of that on the world's most public platform), where I will post clips of my playing in the hope that one day I'll be able to look back and see how far I've come instead of concentrating on how very far I still have to go.

Learning point for today. The moment you hit the record button your fingers disconnect from your brain. I have no idea why this is. I wanted to start with Lochanside, but frankly the clips I recorded were pathetic. I managed to cobble together an attempt at Mull of the Mountain. It isn't a whole lot better, but as I've said, this isn't a performance, it's a journey. Step one.

Mull of the Mountain - recording lost