Saturday, February 8, 2014

Practicing my bagpipes tunes

Set #2 and #3
So, in piping we refer to our music as tunes, not songs. Apparently it's been decided that songs are sung while tunes are played.I've been having a hard time memorizing the music so I have to make the extra effort to learn it.

Our band, The Southern Indiana Pipes and Drums, has tunes arranged into sets that we play at performances. I have several tunes playable for the most part, not always by memory (and not all of the embellishments), but I have yet to cobble together the same tunes that make up one of our sets. I know, it's odd.

So, I've been hitting Set #1 today on the practice chanter (you practice tunes on the practice chanter until you have them going well, then you get them on the bagpipes). Set #1 is: Wings, Rowan Tree, and Bonnie Galloway. I have Wings down pretty well (not all of the embellishments yet) and can crank it on the pipes as well. I can usually get through Rowan Tree if I don't psych myself out. Bonnie Galloway is a crash and burn. So today was Set #1 day.

Friday, February 7, 2014

A bit of an overhaul

So I took a long, hard look at this blog and compared it to where I am in life at the moment and where I want to go. So, the blog has been ventilated (at least in description) to be more inclusive of my interests.

This blog post was the catalyst.

Let's see how that goes.