Comfort Zone

I was putting my pipes on this evening when I suddenly realised how comfortable it all feels. I don’t really need to think about where the bellows sit, or how the bag goes under my arm, or what to do with the drones. The first time I was strapped in I felt as though someone had handed me a goose, a cat and a small piglet, all of which were eager to be away – an armful of squirm, fidget, squeak and cackle, that poked and prodded and nipped. There seems to be a general wisdom that it takes two to four months to get the hang of pipes. Of course, I’ve stupidly been interpreting this as “it takes two to four months to become a really good piper”, which isn’t what is meant. What they mean is this comfort – this feeling that picking up pipes is the right thing to do. I didn’t practice for long this evening, and I just noodled around. I did playing random notes that sound nice, which gives me time to concentrate on how the bag feels and the pressure levels and to relax my bellows arm. Then I tried playing some tunes that I suddenly realised I know. They are on Iain MacInnes’s Tryst, but after seeing Anna Murray on a very interesting BBC Alba programme on piping I listened to some clips of her CDs recognised some tunes, and of course, they are on Tryst. So tunes are starting to sink in. This is one such tune – Dr McInnes’ Fancy. I’ve tried just to pick a random recording, rather than trying to go for a performance standard. This is just my private notebook, after all (says she, waving to the friends and family who drop by here!) Learning point for today – being down the allotment putting together a raised bed and doing a spot of weeding, uses muscles that hurt when you later try to use them for piping.