Last night's fun
Went to the Earl of Beaconsfield last night for the session and had a good time. I took my pipes for the first time in ages - my fingers suffered rather from not playing whilst in Antarctica. It's taken me up to now to feel sufficiently confident that I can take them out without (a) embarassing myself and (b) getting on the wick of everyone else, although the Beaconsfield session is a pretty good place for that due to the laid=back atmosphere.
It was a good night - we had a good few people and a good balance of instruments. Whilst the music wasn't the best it's ever been, it was fun. Reed troubles meant I switched to fiddle halfway through; I'm having problems at the lower end of the chanter at the mo and it's a compromise between rushing it sufficiently to get the E in tune, particularly in the upper octave, and not making the bottom D too flat. I can fiddle at home and get it sounding OK, but the humidity/temperature in the pub meant that it required tweaking, which rather upset the delicate balance I'd achieved.
It was a good night - we had a good few people and a good balance of instruments. Whilst the music wasn't the best it's ever been, it was fun. Reed troubles meant I switched to fiddle halfway through; I'm having problems at the lower end of the chanter at the mo and it's a compromise between rushing it sufficiently to get the E in tune, particularly in the upper octave, and not making the bottom D too flat. I can fiddle at home and get it sounding OK, but the humidity/temperature in the pub meant that it required tweaking, which rather upset the delicate balance I'd achieved.