More Practice Thoughts

I seem to have been on a roll when it comes to practicing, having played the pipes nearly every day in the last week or so. Yesterday was a day off (a day off from blogging too, if you noticed), for several reasons. First, I ended up staying at school later than I usually do, which didn't leave me enough time to play before dinner. Since I was on duty last night I had to be at dinner promptly at 5:30, otherwise I would likely have skipped it. After dinner was the standard excuse, that I just didn't feel like it. It's a terrible thing, and one I'm trying to avoid, but every once in a while you have to take a day off.

I didn't take two days off though, I just finished playing for about 45 minutes. It wasn't a terribly structured practice time, more like just playing through some tunes, but the pipes were sounding pretty good. The fingers weren't working as well as they usually do though, with the top hand struggling to find its place on the chanter and my birl having gone straight to hell. I think the first problem will be fixed by more playing and getting used to playing the instrument more often, and the second by tons of birl exercises. I hate doing exercises, but I understand their importance. Here I go to work on that now... where's my practice chanter?