2nd "Official" Instruction

Tonight I had my second official private lesson with Railroad Pipers Pipe Major.  I felt a bit like I was 10 again with "slow down!", "you must learn to walk before you run!", "WAY TOO FAST!"  and so many things I learned in my youth.  The lesson is universal and can be taken to all things in life.  This is not what you want to hear when you can see yourself crossing the finish line in the Boston Marathon but in reality only recently learned that shoes are, in fact, a pretty brilliant idea. Though I felt like I was going slow, I was not going slow enough.  Right now what I need to do is learn the new muscle memory and learn it right.  Practicing a thousand times doesn't mean anything if you practice it wrong.  As the Pipe Major says, "Practice with Purpose."  This is not the first time I've heard this.

We talked about the "Zen of Piping", and how important it is to become one with your pipe (I know there's a dirty joke in there somewhere...).  He talks of this when he sees me getting flustered when my fingers don't go where I plan them to go.  Evidently, I'm not his first rodeo.

He's right, and this takes time.  I'm willing to give it the time, but I'm ready to be THERE.  I know how that feels - I felt it with my flute.  I know I need to give it the time and LOVE the arpeggio's and the grace note scales.  There was a time when the mundane practice gave me so much pleasure and comfort.  After a long hard day I could just pick up my flute and drift into a happy place with nimble fingers, strong breath and a basic scale.  It was those very things that made me good and made my flute become an extension of me.

There is a part of me that wants to go into the basement and pull out my old trusty Gemeindhardt and run some scales just to feel that again.  I did this one day a few years ago and after a few minutes I could still go to that place in my mind where it was just me, my music stand and my parents basement, though the house I grew up in was sold many years ago.  Thus, my Gemeinhardt would be a taste of the forbidden fruit and probably cause much more harm than it would solve. 

Would it feel good?  Yes.  Would it be satisfying?  Hell yes.  Should I do it?  No.  It would only serve to scratch that proverbial itch, and anyone who has ever scratched an itch that has turned around to bite them in the rear can attest, it's not worth it in the long run.

So it's going to be me and my McCallum patiently abiding.

Herumphumph.