Uncorked!

I played Amazing Grace on the pipes for my instructor and managed the whole song, even the high A's, with only one minor cut out.  And finally-all three drones are uncorked!  I can't manage my full half hour on the pipes with all three drones playing.  I had no idea how physically exhausting this instrument is.  I can manage maybe 10 minutes, tops, of steady playing with all three drones before I have to call it quits and cork up a tenor drone.  The only way I'm going to conquer this instrument is to practice, practice, practice.  It's a marathon, not a sprint.  My new tune is Farewell to Camraw and I love it.  It's dark and dramatic and I think of it as a battle tune of sorts.  It's oddly challenging-when you look at the music, it doesn't appear terribly complicated; and yet, it isn't coming to me very easily.  I suppose it's also because I really want to play this one well.  The tune deserves my best. 

Highland Cathedral

I finally played a tune decently for my instructor-granted, it was only Sky Boat Song, but I got through it at the proper, stately pace, and I managed to hit all the grace notes competently, even the birls.  Keep in mind that my embellishments and grace notes are still slow and clumsy, but I played them all nevertheless.  And I played Scots Wha Hae on the pipes all the way through with nary a single cut out!  I was very happy with that.  So my new tune is one of my favorites-Highland Cathedral.  Once again, I took it home thinking it would take me days to untangle.  Fortunately, it's another slow tune; thus I was able to play it straight out of the box.  It still needs lots of work but at least it's recognizable.  I wish I were one of those people who can play a tune the first time round, and play it well. simply by sight reading it...

STB

No new songs for this week-we talked at length about the problems I'm having with STB.  To my slightly uneducated ear, it sounds uneven and nothing like the actual tune.  I always attributed this to my embellishments being too slow; and yet, when my instructor plays it with really slow embellishments, it still sounds like STB.  This tune is my Achilles heel of tunes.  I know it's the one everyone will want to hear, and it will suck like a Hoover if I never learn to play it competently..  So-my problem according to my instructor is that my tempo is very uneven.  I speed up on some phrases and slow down on others.  I'm going to practice it with a metronome, note by note if necessary.  Instructor says that if I can play Teribus (which I can) then there's nothing in STB that should give me problems.  I know the embellishments; it's a simple 2/4 time; I know the tune by heart and can play the notes in my sleep.  So why does my version sound so awful?

Memory

Yesterday was another productive lesson.  I was able to demonstrate that I knew some tunes by heart; I played The Minstrel Boy, Highland Laddie, and Will Ye no Come Back Again start to finish with some minor adjustments by my instructor-mostly fine tuning some of the embellishments.  I need to remember to write more notes about what needs to be corrected-I got home and realized I couldn't remember everything we talked about, in particular-which song was it that I was skipping a note?  I had to spend a lot of time today on all three songs, playing with the music in front of me, note by note, to try and find the missing D..

My new song is Teribus.  I took one look at it during my lesson and my first thought was "Oh, holy crap.  I'm never going to learn this one."  It really intimidated me, to the extent that I didn't even practice it when I got home from my lesson yesterday.  So today, I knew I had to start on it.  OK-take it one note, one embellishment at a time.  Pay attention to the timing.  Listen to instructor's recording.  Turns out-it's not as hard as it looks.  Maybe I am making progress!

The Skye Boat Song

I had a productive lesson today.  When the Battles O'er wasn't as bad as I thought it was-my instructor said it was fairly good, even the timing was close.  My new song is The Sky Boat Song-a personal favorite of mine.  I remembered this time to record her playing it for me which helps immensely when I'm fumbling through a new song.  And my new reed-a Warnock medium rocks!  For some odd reason that defied logic, I find it easier to hold a steady note on the pipes without cutting out issues with this, a supposedly harder reed.  One would think it would cut out more than a really easy reed, but that's not the case.  I was almost able to play Scots Wha Hae all the way through with no cutting out issues for my instructor-even those pesky high A notes.  And this reed is not nearly so sharp; even to my inexperienced ear it sounded flat and sure enough,we untaped my chanter and it sounded really good.  I managed the first few notes of Will Ye no Come Back Again And it would be nice to be able to play a couple of tunes for my next lesson on the pipes.  I'm hoping that very soon we'll uncork the mighty bass drone and I'll finally be playing the full Highland Bagpipes as they should be played.

One Step Back.

I thought I was really well prepared for this week's lesson-turns out, instead of getting better, in my attempt to play faster I just got sloppy.  Everything I played for my instructor was poorly done.  So-yet again-slow down.  Way down-go back to basics.  I learned this week that it is better to play slowly but well than to play quickly and poorly-lesson learned.  My new tune this week is When the Battle's Over- a nice little tune that looks deceptively easy; however, I'm having some difficulty with the timing, probably because it's 3/4 time and everything I've played up to this point has been 2/4 or 4/4.  Hopefully, I'll be able to play it well next week-slowly.

I Don't Need an Instructor-NOT!

I follow a piping forum on a pretty regular basis.  There's been a thread there that has a lot of responses; it's written by a self taught piper who has never had a lesson and he thinks he's a pretty good piper.  He posted videos of himself piping on youtube, and you guessed it-he got a lot of responses that were very critical of his piping.  So he decides that pipers are haters and he titles the forum thread "can't we just play for fun?".  As far as I can tell, this guy wants pipers to pat him on the back and say "Well done, laddie.  You're chock full of natural talent and you don't need lessons or honest critiscism.  Just continue what you're doing and we'll honor you as an outstanding piper."

My short experience with piping and pipers tells me that that ain't gonna happen.  It's not that pipers are haters-far from that.  I've found that they are an accepting, open, encouraging community.  They are also brutally honest.  If your piping sucks, a good piper is going to tell you your piping sucks.  Then he'll spend as much time as he can spare to make your piping suck less, and he'll applaud you when you learn something new that is less sucky. If you aren't interested in learning how to play better, the pipers I know won't waste their time trying to help you, but they also won't stop telling you that your piping sucks.

The only thing pipers hate is a bad piper who refuses to try and improve.  For my part, I just dont' understand why someone would take up a musical instrument without the goal of becoming the best player they can be, and utilizing every tool available to them to work toward that goal.  I would give my left pinky to have true, natural musical talent.  But if I had that talent I would still take lessons.

Finally-my feelings about this particular forum thread reminds me of my teenaged years when my passion was horses and horse shows.  I had no real talent for riding, but I loved the sport and I worked very hard at it, riding every day, taking lessons when I could afford them, and generally working my ass off so I could win a 4th place ribbon in weekend horse shows.  I had a friend who was a very gifted rider.  Combine that with a really beautiful, well trained horse and top of the line equipment, and you have someone who consistently placed first and second, time after time.  The problem was, she never practiced.  Riding was something she did because her parents wanted her to do it; she had no passion for the sport.  So she would go to the stables one or two days before a show, ride for a couple of hours, maybe take a lesson once or twice a year, and then go out in the arena on show day and beat the pants off me.  I was so freaking jealous!  I was compaining to my mother about this girl and how it was so unfair that she could beat me without even trying, time after time.  My mother commented "I wonder how good she could be if she would actually practice and take lessons.  It's a shame she doesn't even try to realize her potential to be a really great rider..".

While my mother's comment was lost on me as a teenager, I realize now that it's a complete waste of talent if you don't utilize it fully.  I think a person who has a passion for piping, who practices and takes lessons and listens to experienced pipers could become a better piper that a self taught, "I don't need lessons because I have talent" kind of piper.  At least I'll know I'm playing to the best of my abilites, however modest those abilities may be...