Monday 3 December 2012

Stage Fright

First posted Nov 11th, 2012 by newpiper

So yesterday I was brave and took my pipes along to a session. It was a new session, very large, and I only knew the organiser. I got the pipes out, strapped on the bellows and sat the rest on my lap, partly to show that I wasn't an interloper, and partly stop me chickening out. You need to be quick off the mark to get a word in at a session when you're not joining in (everything else was either too English, or too Irish, and too darned fast). I knew the person running the session and she gave me the nod...and my musical memory deserted me and I made a horrible pig's ear of the Rowan Tree and the Barren Rocks. I knew it was wrong and couldn't quite salvage it - neither tune being in my head.

Still, I managed it, although it felt like one of those nightmares wherein you are about to sit an important test but have no idea what it's for. I was horribly embarrassed. The fan assures me I didn't disgrace myself entirely, and one kind person stopped me as we struggled out to say how nice the pipes sounded. I don't know who he was, but I like that man.

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