2009 Competition Thoughts

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!

Will Maxville happen????

Maxville, Ontario is the home of the Glengarry Highland Games, which in turn are the home of the North American Pipe Band Championship contest.  It's without a doubt the biggest games I've seen on this side of the pond, and pipe bands come from all over Canada and the U.S.  It's huge and well-attended, and the beer tent is famous for the amount of revelry involved.  Normally civilized pipers turn into uncivilized hooligans, but that's a different discussion altogether.  It's interesting to see some tens of thousands of pipers, drummers, dancers, athletes, fiddlers, harpists, vendors, and spectators descend on this otherwise small and quiet little town in eastern Ontario, population about 3,000. 


Now I'll step out for a minute to say that the title of the post is misleading.  Maxville will happen.  There's no doubt of that, it will happen rain or shine. 

The real question is whether Maxville will happen for the Keydetpiper.  I registered for the solo piping competitions, and now that the order of play has been posted on the PPBSO's website, it does not contain my name.  I'm not certain that my registration arrived before the deadline.  It was mailed two days prior, but I have no experience with Canada Post, so I can make no guesses. 

Actually this isn't entirely true either; Maxville will happen for the Keydetpiper, since I have obligated myself to play for my friend's drumming competition.  So the Keydetpiper will surely be going to Maxville, but the real real question is whether competitions at Maxville will happen for the Keydetpiper. 

I'll keep you posted.

One of those practice sessions

This morning I walked over to the science building to play my pipes for a while; it's raining outside and there are other musicians in the dorm so I went to my classroom to be a courteous neighbor. It was one of those awesome practice sessions where everything just felt right.

I played for I think about 90 minutes (I didn't have a watch with me and had only a vague idea of what time I started), and things just went right. I played for ten minutes and retuned the drones, then didn't touch them again. The fingers weren't perfect, but they were working pretty well. The pipes were comfortable to play and felt like I've had them under my arm for my whole life.

Part of that I'll credit to my new bag cover, made by TrueFit. This is only the third time I've played with it and I'll tell you, it's great. The idea is that if the bag cover fits the pipe bag exactly, it won't affect the position of the pipes, and the bag won't slip as you play. The top of the cover is made of a Spandex-like material that conforms to the bag, and the rear is made of a fabric not unlike denim that will keep the bag from sliding. The cover I was using before tends to constrict the drones so they fall in a real natural spot, but the TrueFit is great. I highly recommend it for anyone.

Ken "The Captain" Eller is a well-known and respected instructor and judge, and I heard him say at a workshop that there's a difference between practice and playing. Playing is when you just play through tunes, maybe a second time, but don't pay much attention to what's wrong and you play a lot of different tunes. It's not practice until you concentrate on what's wrong and think about fixing it, and it's not fun. Playing is a great time, but practice is not enjoyable: it makes you tired, sweaty, frustrated, and just want to quit.

What I played this morning was practice, not just playing. I played pretty much only my competition tunes, several times through each, going back to hammer out rough spots and making notes of things to work on with the practice chanter. I also recorded a few tunes so I could hear from a different perspective, and actually practiced both of my piobaireachds instead of just playing through each once.

So is practice enjoyable? Ken, I know what you're saying, about the difference between playing and practicing, but I demonstrated this morning that even productive practice can be fun.

Videos

Over the weekend I posted a few videos on You Tube of me playing the practice chanter and pipes. Fun stuff, no serious competition tunes, just playing some good tunes.

First on the practice chanter, a hornpipe and jig: The Man from Skye and Alex MacDonald


And now on pipes, three jigs: Duncan the Gauger, Alex MacDonald, and The Braes of Melinish.

Landmark!

A landmark day of the year. Today was the first day this spring I played outside! It was a gorgeous spring day, clear and sunny, no wind, and enough grass for me to walk around on. The pipes were sounding ok, not great but I hadn't played them for a few days so I shouldn't complain too much. It makes it feel like spring is really here!