Tuesday 4 June 2013

Darkest before the dawn

Time played: 45  minutes. I had to time play for longer, I had the will to play for longer, but the Monkey was not happy and the chanter drone kept squealing. At one point I realised the chanter was loose, probably I'd pulled it out: thumb very tense today. Later I took the chanter off to see if I could see what was wrong, accidentally took off both parts and had a mini panic that the reed had come adrift and fallen into the bag. And breathe...

Tunes played: Barren Rocks (OK); Town (OK); Galloway (in the B part my fingers decided they didn't fancy CBC and went instead for CBG, liked it so much they did it every single time); Flett (towards the end, when things really were going badly, which meant I mucked the tune up several times, but got it OK eventually); Waterloo (this ought to be signed off as a "know by heart" but somehow I never feel I am quite there, mostly because I can never remember which part I am playing, which time round); Alick (still getting stuck on remembering those same bars. A part only today); Whaling (I do like this, and am almost there by heart, which is good).

Instrument: Monkey in A

Foot tapping: a little while playing the more foot-tapping tunes (Battle).

Recording: none. Have yet to read the manual.

Notes. Last time I did this things got worse before they got better. I think I've been over pumping, hence the squeak. Felt in real need of a teacher today: someone to step in, adjust a couple of drones, tweak this, shift that, and just get me back into the way things should be. I'll get there.

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