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...

Tempo!

Yesterday's lesson was all about tempo.  I think, and my instructor agrees, that it's time to pay attention to little details like time signatures and playing on the beat rather than learning new songs and embellishments.  Thus, I have no new song this week, but I have to practice my repertoire with a metronome and I have to pay attention to timing.  Turns out-this will be a lot harder that it was many years ago when I played the piano because of the grace notes.  My grace notes are really, really slow and by the time I play the grace note, then the actual note, I've missed the beat.  I barely managed to play Will Ye No Come Back Again with the metronome and sorta kinda staying on beat after playing it over and over, one measure at a time, and at a very slow tempo.  The good thing is it sounded much better, and more like my instructor plays it.  I could hear where I was rushing the tempo and crowding the melody together.  I'm getting a digital recorder today so I can record my lessons and listen to the instructor play the tunes; she thinks if I do that and work on playing along with the recording, I'll improve on my timing.  This issue scares me a bit-how am I ever going to play in a band if I can't keep up?  And the PM intimidates me.  Don't get me wrong-he's a great guy, and I consider him a friend (he's the guy that sparked my interest in bagpiping).  But I also know he's a perfectionist and I wonder how tolerant he'll be of a newbie with no talent and little skill. 

Make Practice Count!

I now am adding Highland Laddie to my repetoire, a favorite tune of mine.  This one will take some time-there's some bits that seem complicated and the timing is faster; I love a challenge!  As for all my other tunes, I seem to be getting sloppy.  I have a lot of crossing noises and not very clean doublings.  I think it's time to take a step back and concentrate on playing everything really, really well instead of focusing on the melody and trying to speed up the grace notes.  So with today's practice I really thought about each note and how it should sound, not how fast the grace note should be.  I think I'll ask my instructor to not give me another tune next week, and let me just try to play my current tunes better.  I still have issues with playing for the instructor-I sound so much better at home in the comfort of my spare bedroom than I do when I'm sitting across from her and she's scrutinizing each note!  As for the bagpipes-I have a long, long way to go.  I'm overblowing the reed big time, so we uncorked the second drone and suddenly it so much harder!  I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I finally get that mighty bass drone uncorked!

I've been running again these last few weeks and it's been hard.  It's interesting to me that my 2 favorite interests have so much in common-who knew that bagpiping and running were so similar?  They both require lots of patience; when I first started running I could barely manage a 1/2 mile before I had to walk.  I was running for almost 4 years before I got the courage to attempt and complete a marathon-that would be like entering your first piping competition or playing for the first time for an audience.  And it takes stamina for both, and good lungs, and a strong body and lots of determination.  The good side to all this is my instructor thinks (and I agree) that I'm pretty strong on the pipes right from the get-go because I know how to breath properly because of running and I've got lots of lung power!

The Importance of an Instructor

I read a lot of forums on piping; it's my way of staying in contact with like-minded people and I get a lot of great advice and suggestions to make this journey easier.  One thing I've noticed is that on a fairly regular basis, someone posts a thread stating that they just bought a set of pipes, and their intention is to pick them up and teach themselves how to play.  There's usually a comment somewhere in the thread about how they play all sorts of instruments without any instruction, how they have a "really good ear", and how they don't need to waste time on a practice chanter or waste money on lessons with an instructor.  This is usually followed with a line or two where they brag about their progress-they have the chanter and drones fully and perfectly tuned and they can play STB start to finish after a week of self taught practice.

If there are indeed people out there with this amazing innate musical talent, I say God Bless and good luck.  However, I seriously doubt that they are as good as they think they are.  I listened to a piper at a rennaisance fair last year who, even to my untrained ear, was horribly out of tune and he thought he sounded pretty good-I know this because I asked him a few pointed questions about his performance and he told me it went really well when it in fact was really poor.  My point is that one of the most important benefits of an instructor is that you have someone with a trained ear who can judge your playing completely without bias and keep you on the right path to proper playing.  My instructor doesn't just teach me new grace notes and tunes, she listens to my playing and hears problems that I don't even know I have.  This keeps me from developing bad habits that I'll have to correct later.

Going to lessons with a good instructor is the best money I can spend.  I've made huge progress even in the short time I've been taking lessons and I intend to continue with lessons as long as I can afford them and my instructor wants to keep me as a student.  Pipers who think they can play well without instruction are fooling themselves and they're selling themselves short.  My question to them would be this-if you have so much natural talent that you can play the pipes straight out of the box, why would you not want to take lessons and become a really stellar piper?

A New Song

This week's lesson went well.  I managed AG and STB with all the bits from last week corrected and AG even sounded rather good to me.  STB still doesn't sound right because I'm so slow but I played it, even the hard part.  I managed to get through We No Awa to Bide Awa without too much difficuly, and yet, once again-I'm trying to play it way to fast.  When am I going to learn to slow down?  So now I have yet another song to add to my repetoire and I like it very much.Will ye no Come Back Again.  There's no surprises there, it's a pretty simple song and I'm pretty sure I'll know it well enough to play a decent version next week.  I managed to struggle through it for my lesson this week, even though I still hate playing a new piece of music for my instructor.  I just decided I had to get over that fear-I'm going to make lots of mistakes, that's just part of the process.

As for the pipes-I'm overthinking everything involved in piping.  My arm is waving about wildly in an effort to keep the bag going and my breathing is erratic.  My instructor says to relax and just try playing a tune for fun.  She wants me to ignore the squeeks and squawks and the cutting out issues and stop thinking while I'm trying to play and just play for fun.  I'm definitely overblowing the chanter reed, but that's ok-I wondered if I should switch to a stiffer reed, but no-what will happen is when I'm finally blowing with all 3 drones the reed I have now will be just about right.  I'm just wondering if I'll actually be able to turn my brain off and just play?  Somehow my brain thinks it's in charge and refuses to be shut off. 

Progress!

This weeks lesson-as I thought, I was doing one little bit wrong on AG, and there were a few bits with a little crossing sound.  As usual, I played perfectly at home, with no crossing noises.  And I did a half way sorta kinda decent job on STB, even the hard part.  Just one correction to work on there.  So I get a new song to practice-No Awa' ta Bide Awa'.  Funny thing is, since I've always heard this played with STB, I thought it was just another stanza, didn't realize it was its own little song.  It's tough.  Almost every note has a grace note of one kind or another.  And-my instructor was impressed with my ability to play my one lonely little note on the pipes.  So while I was showing her my progress, she UNCORKED A DRONE!  This is huge-I get to play 2 notes (A and B) with one drone.  I thought I sounded kind of uneven on the chanter, but she didn't think it was too bad. 

I wish I could play as well for my instructor as I think I play at home.  I have issues about performing in front of people and that always comes into play during my lessons.  She wanted me to try No Awa' to Bide Awa'; I suggested that since it was completely new, maybe I could just take it home, practice on my own, then play it for her next week.  Teacher said "You want to go home and learn to play it perfectly before you play it for me, don't you?"  To which I responded-well, yeah.  She told me that kind of took away the whole point of taking lessons, which was to try new stuff.  So I played it for her, very poorly.  I'm going to have to get used to playing new stuff for her, even though it's really outside of my comfort zone. 

So the questions is, will I be able to overcome my anxiety about performing in front of people enough to actually play in front of an audience?  Seriously-how do people do it-how do people give speeches and sing and play musical instruments with others staring at them?  I hope that the day will come when I will just think about the music and just play.  I think the bagpipes may be the best instrument for me-they're so complicated, I'll be forced to concentrate on playing rather than on the audience.

One Note. Three Months.

Todays lesson-review STB and AG.  Turns out, somehow I started playing STB wrong-instead of playing E gracenotes I switched to G gracenotes throughout the entire song.  I now have to retrain my errant fingers to play the proper gracenotes and I'm not playing the leumlauths correctly-I kinda sorta started dropping the last little part.  And I need to slow down on AG-as in slow WAY down.  This is a HYMN-not a fast paced JIG.  Ah well-and I was so proud of my ability to play the 2 tricky parts of STB.

I was also quite proud of my new found ability to play the scale on the pipes.  Granted-that was with no drones and a lot of squawking and squeeking, and it took me forever to find low G just to start, but damn if I didn't play a few notes.  It was sort of frantic and crazy and not very pretty.  It's sort of like this-OK, fingers, play low G then A.  DON'T STOP SQUEEZING THE BAG!  AND BREATHE, DAMMIT, BREATHE!  Now, play another couple of notes.  DAMN-YOU FORGOT TO BREATH AGAIN AND YOUR BAG IS RUNNING OUT OF AIR!  AND WHY ARE YOU SUDDENLY LOCKING UP YOUR KNEES?  You get the picture.  I thought my instructor would be so proud of me, but instead she told me to stop trying to play the scale.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  I'm now only allowed to play one note-either low A or E, my choice.  No scales, no 2 notes together.  Just one lonely, sad little note for as long as I can hold it.  And I will probably be playing that one sad little note for 3 months-that's 3 STINKING MONTHS OF ONE NOTE.  And once I get proficient at that one note, guess what-I get to play one note with one drone.  Yay.

The D slur

Yesterday's lesson-a new song and the D slur.  I finally managed to play Scots Wha Hae decently for my instructor.  I forced myself to slow down, even for the end where I usually speed up just to try to get through the song and it's finally good enough that I can move on to a new song.  I asked if this meant I can set Scots Wha Hae aside and work on other things-the answer was no.  Apparantly, I won't ever set any song aside, I just keep adding to my currently modest repetoire and practicing every song I learn.  So I still have a lot of practice to do on Scotland the Brave, and I now have Amazing Grace to practice.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to practice immediately after my lesson.  So when I finally got home I couldn't remember how to do the D slur for Amazing Grace.  I went online and there's a tutuorial there but the guy plays it way to fast for me to see what he's doing.  I woke up last night at 2:00 am and couldn't sleep so there I was, practice chanter in hand, trying to listen to the online guy and see if I could figure out what he's doing by sound rather than by watching.  We'll find out this morning after my run when I'm on the pc whether I figured it out or not.

My instructor made another reference to me joining the band yesterday.  When we were going over Amazing Grace, she crossed out a lot of the doublings.  I told her I know them and I can play it with the doublings and she said "I know you can play them, but the band plays it without those doublings, so you should learn it that way."

Umm, OK-she thinks I'm going to join the band.  The pm thinks I'm joining the band and Hubby thinks I'm joining the band. 

I guess I'm joining the band.

An Introduction

Well, here I am with a new passion and a new blog.  If you know the difference between a leumlauth and a tachum then you're probably a piper.  I'm a beginning piper (and by beginning I mean I've had 2 months worth of lessons at this writing) and this blog is my humble little way of tracking my progress and recording my observations along the way to really, truly becoming a piper.

So, perhaps you would like to know a little about me.  I'm a middle aged retired lady who lives in central California-do you know where Santa Barbara is?  OK, just drive up the coast for a little over an hour and you'll find my tiny little town.  I like to run.  I like to shoot civil war era guns.  I play with sports cars, mostly the little british 4 banger kind.  And now I like to practice the bagpipes. 

I've wanted to play a musical instrument pretty much my whole life.  As a child, my parents couldn't afford an instrument or music lessons and as an adult I was too busy with work and home and life in general to take up an instrument.  When I retired I decided it was time to accomplish that goal.  I chose the bagpipes because I love the music and I have Scottish heritage.  It didn't hurt that I also had a friend who is the pm for the local pipe band who encouraged me to play.

I bought a practice chanter and a book at the Scottish games 2 years ago.  I learned the scale and a really simple version of Going Home.  I practiced for a while in earnest, then set the chanter aside, then practiced again, then set it aside again, then decided that if I was really going to do this I had to step up to the plate and start lessons.  My pm friend reccommended an instructor and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

So here I am, practice chanter in hand, taking lessons and gazing longingly at my newly purchased pipes and hoping that soon I'll be able to do more than just blow one lonely little drone.