What is your... quirk?

Tanya brought up a very good point.  As people who want to learn an instrument that can be heard for a 1/2 mile, we all likely have odd hobbies.

So what do you do when you are not piping, doing your job, searching the internet about information about piping, practicing your chanter at stop lights or trying to figure out which is the best reed for you?

To make us all feel normal, let's list off some of favorite past times. 

Mine: Quilting, reading, blogging, and working on my house.  Random dance moves in the living room when now one can hear the music.  Masters degree student.  Code writing in Visual Basic for kicks.  Gardener.  Cook for those who need a meal.  Workaholic.  Generally speaking, my hobbies are quiet, this seems to be my "HELLO WORLD, I'm here" hobby.  I'm going to do it loud and I'm going to do it proud.

What do you do when you aren't piping?

Class Starts Thursday - I need to get on this....

So in every possible way, I've let life get between me and piping. 

Some of these things were unavoidable, some of these things were decisions I made to make my life easier down the line and I am glad I took that time.  But the fact of the matter is that my classes start this week and I need to be better about the slop than I am now.  There is no "make up" in learning an instrument.  You can't do a mad dash on Sunday to make up for the lack of practice you didn't do the last week.  You simply must...

Practice with purpose and move on from there. 

Okay.  Game on.  This is turning into a fantastic game of "forgive thyself."

So I didn't practice today... or Friday.

I'm not afraid to admit that Saturday's practice wasn't all that and a bag of chips. Suffice to say it was a rough start to the weekend.

I have, however, gotten something done that has been hanging over my shoulder for a while now that I really, really didn't want to do but it simply wasn't going to do itself.  It's not done, but with a boat load of wine I have a final product that is passable if not the perfection I wish to attain.  A few more passes now that the band-aid has been ripped off and I'll get there.  But the hard part is done.  Win column. 

On the lighter side of things, I'm a piper-wanna-be, I'm a quilter and I strive to be that crazy cat lady.  One would think that those are all unilateral aspirations.  Having all three would be a rather odd brew - or so I thought until my boyfriend came to my door with the following present:

That's right.  A hand stitched pincushion he found on Etsy in the shape of a cat who is playing the Great Highland Bagpipe.  I imagine this woman sitting at her favorite sewing spot thinking, "someone is going to LOVE this.  I can't imagine WHO... but someone..."

Well, that someone would be me.

No matter how crazy I think I am, my boyfriend can make me feel completely normal.

Also understanding what I've been through the last number of days, my dear sweet Good Sir took me to the Renaissance Festival today to take me away from all my cares, my sorrows and walk down a joyful path of a great time in my life.  While there, we had the opportunity of seeing not once, but TWICE this fantastic flock of pant-free fellows:

Yep, my boys Tartanic.  Two Pipes, two drums and two lovely ladies.  Near front row seats both shows, both fantastic.  One might start to feel sorry for Good Sir, but he introduced me to the music of Tartanic and then took me to a festival where there were 150+ pipers ready and willing to teach me.  So this whole piping journey is really his fault.  These are things I probably wouldn't have experienced without him. 

Thus today I am just grateful. 

We are not alone here

This morning as I waited for a reasonable hour to begin my practice, I curled up behind my trusty laptop to find some other really great blogs on learning the bagpipes:

http://blueliner44.blogspot.com/
This is the story of a piper who started his instruction in February and has come a very long way in such a short time.  I'm a little jealous of his progress!

http://www.learningthebagpipes.blogspot.com/
This is the blog of another piper who has brilliantly recorded his early sessions to watch his progress over time.

It's good to know we're not alone in our quest to learn the pipes, and I found them to be motivational to help get me back on track after my Dental Drama.

So today I have done the very thing that Railroad Piper warned me about on day one: the more time you spend on the internet researching Piping is less time you spend practicing!  Thus I'm keeping this short to go curl up behind my practice chanter.

Practice Records

Back in Jr. High School, my instructor used to make us keep practice records signed by our parents weekly.  Part of your credit in class was filling out those silly records, having Mom or Dad sign them and then turning them in.  No matter how good you were, you could not get an "A" in band without turning them in.  I hated them.

I had no problem with practicing.  Practicing was my place to go and hide from reality.  I'd go to our basement, curl up behind my Manhasset and the next thing you know in my mind's eye I was playing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra or performing a solo in front of my own band at a concert.  I'd emerge from the basement hours later when Mom would call to inform me that dinner was ready, it was time for bed or my personal favorite, "Dad has a headache and would REALLY like you to stop for today, please!"  I suspect it was never my father who had the headache but my mother who was tired of hearing me woodshed a particular phrase.

What was particularly strange about those days is that I would lie on my practice records. I would put down 30 minutes to an hour of practice every day instead of the multiple hours I was really doing.  I would plop my practice record down at the end of the week for my mother to sign and see the 5 hours I logged for the week - not just what I did on Monday.  She would ask why.  Every week I told her, "The Director wouldn't believe me if I told the truth."  My mother would grudgingly sign it - right up until I learned how to forge her signature.  It was an ugly day when she found out that I was doing that.

Now as I return after my tooth-ridden-hiatus to the chanter, I want a practice record.  Though this isn't something I have to turn in for a grade, I want something that keeps me on task, forces consistency and asks me to explain days that I miss.  Something to prove to my own self what I am doing to accomplish this goal.  I'm still far from being a piping addict, seeing myself in kilt performing in front of Ren-Festers galore.  I'm just a girl with a practice chanter attempting to not slaughter the pass between right hand and left who needs to put the time in to get better at this.  Practicing with purpose will help me attain that goal.  I created one, in Excel, that is effectively a practice diary.

So tonight was 30 minutes of the scale - low G to high A at a 4 point note at 60 beats per minute.  Over and over and over again.  I logged my time start and logged my finish time.

Even though it was only 30 minutes I felt like I accomplished something. 

And maybe, just maybe my Jr. High School Director had a method to her madness.

Who knew?

Ha Ha!

I will see your triple root canal and raise you one iron will.

Alright Chanter....

... You've had more than a week off.  I hope you enjoyed your vacation.  I'm back.  Let's do some scales, shall we?

She wipes the dust off her chanter and says, "ok, good.  Clearly you haven't been practicing without me."

The Root of All Evil

Good news!  We found it!  It's been hiding in my molar all this time.  Who knew?

It has been safely killed and disposed of by trained professionals.  I'm planning a big party for when World Peace is achieved in the near term.  I will start preparing my speech right now.

8 days, 3 root canals (two on one very complicated tooth).

This is supposed to be a blog about piping, not a blog about dental problems. 

I miss my scales and the comforting "tick tock" of my metronome.

A Tale of Two Root Canals...

Well, my root canal last Thursday was such a resounding success that I decided to go in and have another one yesterday.  Two root canals in under a week.  Unlike my experience Friday post-root-canal, today I have been curled up on the couch gumming my way through vegetable beef stew... not with great joy but merely a need to eat.

Thus right now my chanter sits lonely on my music stand with my boyfriend having played it more in the last few days than I have.  No, this is not an evil plot to get him hooked and learning to play, too.  Though... now that I mention it....hmmm....?

This is temporary and soon I'll be back telling tales of scales and grace notes with reckless abandon.

In the meantime, I offer you this fantastic piece from Tartanic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOOukoj0AQo

I can't wait until I can play that.

Bacon

Happy international bacon day!