And away we go!

Class tonight was good.  Very good. 

Honest truth?  Today at work was grueling and driving home I couldn't imagine getting through the class awake.  Now, here I sit an hour after being home and I don't know how I'm going to fall asleep.

Most of my time was spent with the head instructor who is part puppy dog and part drill sergeant.  He reminds me constantly that there is nothing to be nervous about with this sweet smile.  Then goes into, "look at your hands!  What do you think you are doing with your pinkie?" followed by, "Don't look at your hands!  You can't see them when you are on the bagpipe, don't get used to looking at your hands!" seamlessly flowing into, "Look at your fingers!  They are pointing down and that's why you are squawking.  Look at them!  They are fingers, not claws!"  At this point I wanted to bust out laughing but I can't because he's so serious. 

On to the next exercise and half way through I paused to heave out a huge amount of unspent air and gulp in fresh.  He looked at me with a smile and sweetly said, "Yes, breath, Cate.  Very important.  You can't practice the bag pipe if you are passed out on the floor with a concussion."

Like every other piper I have met in this cult, he is a remarkably kind man with a fantastic sense of humor and his heart on his shirtsleeves.

The configuration of the class is interesting - different people from the band come to help teach and they are paired up with different sets of students at different levels of skill.  At one point the head instructor had to move to another student so I was paired with another teacher, a sweet tiny woman who was a music teacher and we talked about some questions I have from my musical past that puzzled me about the pipes.  She cleared many of them up and then pointed out the obvious: women pipers have tiny fingers compared to the men, thus we have to be twice as accurate to cover the holes.  Huh, interesting.  I'd best order my copy of Rhythmic Fingerwork sooner than planned.

Tonight's emphasis was on grace note scales, triplets and the D throw. 

The best quote of the night?  From the head instructor: "Even with where you are right now, you are 99% better than the world population on playing the pipes.  Where you are right now, each of us have been so it only gets better."

Perspective.  There ya have it.