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The 2008 competition season has been over for barely a month, but I'm already gearing up for 2009. I've decided to make 2009 my big push to try to get up to grade 1, which means in general a winter full of piping. I've been rocking the practice chanter quite a bit and have already learned some new competition tunes, but I've only played the actual bagpipes once since my last competition. They need a break and a bit of maintenance, and I'll be firing them up again shortly after Thanksgiving.
My goal is to have four tunes of each category ready to play for every competition, so I'll be practicing quite a bit more than I have been just to keep the tunes fresh. I've learned a new MSR, and will have another on the way between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I was tooling around on my practice chanter last night and recorded the new MSR. Through the magic of YouTube, you can enjoy it too. The tunes are the march Mrs. John MacColl, the strathspey The Shepherd's Crook, and the reel Major David Manson.
This is the first time I've actually heard myself play, and it sounds better when I'm actually playing it! The big thing I notice in the march is my doublings are a bit clunky, and playing Mrs. John MacColl they need to be much more refined to keep the tune from losing flow. That's one winter project. I also need to clean up the strathspey and get the phrasing more consistent. The reel is pretty good but I need to clean up the fourth part; it kind of loses the flow. These are all really challenging tunes, and I'm impressed with myself for playing them this well so soon after learning them.
So, four tunes in each category. Here are my selections, with tunes yet to be learned marked *.
2/4 March
- Major Manson at Clachanstrushal
- Mrs. John MacColl
- Millbank Cottage
Strathspey
- The Shepherd's Crook
- Maggie Cameron
- Cabar Feidh*
- Tulloch Castle
Reel
- Major David Manson
- Thompson's Dirk
- Dr. MacPhail's Reel*
- The Rejected Suitor
Piobaireachd
- The MacFarlane's Gathering
- Black Donald's March
- The Massacre of Glencoe
- Sir James MacDonald of the Isles' Lament
6/8 March
- The Dundee City Police Pipers
- Cameron MacFadyen
- John D. Burgess*
- P/M Donald MacLean of Lewis
Jig
- Alex MacDonald
- Donella Beaton
- The Curlew
- Duncan the Gauger
Hornpipe
- The Man From Skye
- Duncan Johnstone
- Bobbie Cuthbertson*
- TBA
I have a lot a work ahead of me!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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3 comments:
On that fourth part, if I remember correctly, Chris told me if I'm going to do the hold and then cut up to the high A thing, it's got to match what I'm doing in the first line also. So, if you're going to hold the low A in the second line and do the dumm e-da-dee instead of dum-ee da dee, hold the E in the first line as well. Or something like that... I know he yelled at me for playing the both versions of the tune mix-ed-ly. But I could be completely forgetting exactly what he had told me to do if I wanted to play the version that you're playing with the echo-y thing.
Angus MacColl, second tune. Second line matches the first line in the fourth part:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEh6xX3aLs&feature=related
I'm going by the version of Mrs. John that I got from PipeTunes.ca, so if anyone asks about it I'll blame in on McGillivray.
Ha! Fair enough source, then! :)
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