Friday 30 November 2012

The Atholl Highlanders' Dog's Dinner

First posted Apr 12th, 2012 by newpiper


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 my steps 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!

Recording - Atholl Highlanders - lost.

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