Good thing I have a large heated shop to practice in.  I have 12' ceilings in my shop so playing the pipes there isn't so bad, it is still pretty loud though.

About 20" of snow has fallen on the islands this weekend, it is expected to get to the low 20's tonight and the chance for more snow this week is high.

If it continues to be really bad I may not get to my instructors this Friday for my lesson, which will be a big bummer because I missed last Friday's lesson.  I don't like to miss a lot of lessons in a row, in fact I don't like to miss any lessons!

My instructor was over last Sunday (the week before) for the Battlefield Band concert, we both needed to practice so she used my pipes.  The reed was a little sharp and to easy for her tastes so we put in a new reed for her to play, it sounded really good but this batch of Ross reeds I have are medium to hard in strength.

The following Monday I picked up my pipes to play and I thought I had really lost a lot of my stamina, I was pooped after about 10 minutes of practice.  I then realized we left the brand new reed in, so I popped my old reed in to finish off my practice time, but I was really wiped out regardless.

I now play the new reed for about 5 minutes then put my old "easy" reed back in, it won't be long before the new reed is playing similar to my current reed.  (it sounds a lot better but jeeze!).

Even though my shop is heated I keep my pipes in the house.  I am concerned that the lower temp in the shop (when I don't have the big heaters on) would damage my pipes, at the very least it would take a while for them to warm up.  I do have a nice spot though, fine rug on the floor, music stand and stool for practice chanter sessions.

Well, enough writing about it, time to get out there and start practicing!

Once a year we are fortunate to have the Battlefield Band come to our small town and put on a lively show.  This year was no exception!

Sean O'Donnell is a great addition to the group, his guitar, vocals and great humour are a delight.  Alasdair White played some tunes from his solo album "an Clar Geal" and as usual his playing was animated and entertaining.  The group played their latest album's title tune, "the Road of Tears" and Alan Reid's amazing vocals really give such depth and life to the soul of the tunes. As expected Mike Katz was on fire. The last tune of the first set his pipes were a little sharp but after the intermission they were locked right on and sounded so sweet.

At the end of the show I asked Mike Katz what he was playing (Helen guessed Hendersons) and he responded, "Henderson drones and a Sinclair chanter".

He commented on the altitude change from their last show, Arizona high and dry and was glad to be on an island and surrounded by "wet" and it was taking some time for the pipes to get acclimated.

I offered that he could just stay for a wee bit longer, say a week or two and he just laughed.

Helen got an autographed show poster from all the band members, it was really cool.  I had their new CD autographed and I picked up Alasdair's new CD and got that autographed as well.  It was a very memorable night.

Here are pictures from last nights show.. sorry for the blur on some of them, I wasn't using a flash.

http://www.hannahelizabethgreene.com/BattlefieldBand

OK, today my instructor and I sorted out what tunes I'm going to play for the 2007 competitive year.  This is just the WPA mini-gatherings held in Redmond WA, I don't think I'll be competing in any other events, at least that is the plan for now.

For my slow-air I'm going to play "Highland Cathedral", for my 2/4 March its "The 79th's Farewell to Gibraltar", 4/4 is "Lord Lovat's Lament" and the 6/8 will be "Leaving Port Askaig"

I like the melody and rhythm of all of these tunes, they are fairly basic tunes with exception to the 79th's Farewell, which I'm still grappling with the dot cut notation.

I definitely have my work cut out for me!  I really need to get my practice routine sorted out and get focused.  When I practise consistently I make great progress (what a concept eh?) but if I miss a few days it really shows in my fingering and in the case of playing the big pipes, stamina suffers when I don't play regularly.

I just returned from a trip to LA California last week.  The weather was great, a nice break from the constant rain we have been having up here but in reality I don't mind the rain nearly as much as I mind the traffic down there.

I didn't want to miss out on any practise time and I wasn't about to bring along my nice blackwood chanter, or even my poly one either.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to utilize my Fagerstrom Electronic Chanter.

We observed all of the TSA rules, no liquids over 3 oz, all in clear resealable plastic baggies, removed the laptop from the case, took our shoes off, PDA, Cell Phones etc...

Even our 2 year old daughter got in the spirit, although removing the jacket was a little traumatic and her outburst did elicit some "tsk tsk's" from other travellers waiting for their turn through the metal detectors.  I think that Hannah's impassioned "no, no, no... whaaa" got us the express treatment at the x-ray machine.

The return trip was a little different though LAX... 

TSA X-Ray Person:  "Sir, can you tell me what the long tube is?"...

Me: Uh, what?

TSA X-Ray Person: "its about 12" long and has wires in it"

Me: Umm, OH, that!

TSA X-Ray Person: "SIR, What IS IT?"

Me: "It is an electronic chanter"

TSA X-Ray Person: "a what?!"

Me: "I play the bag pipes, I use this to practise on when I'm travelling"

TSA X-Ray Person: "Oh", nods and the scanning proceeds.

We did have to dump out Hannah's water bottle and a 4oz lotion bottle as well. My wife asked if she could put some on her hands first but the TSA X-Ray person said she would have to leave the security area and re-enter.  Oh brother.

I did learn though that you should not leave your ear phones plugged into the chanter, even if it is off.  It will drain the batteries, and those little button batteries are not cheap. I did manage to get a little bit of practise time in.  It has been a while since I've used the fagerstrom chanter and I think I'll start using it more, probably at the office.

There are no bag pipes at Disneyland either, I looked.  However I did listen to some Pirate tunes that resembled Irish reels, the "Arrghs" gave them away though.

Today was a blustery day in the islands.  It was raining and blowing like crazy, the boat ride over to Lopez wasn't to bad, in fact it was quite mild and I was expecting it to be pretty rough.

I typically practice on the boat ride over, it takes about an hour and a half to get from Friday Harbor to Lopez, and about the same on the trip home.  Today I only practiced from Shaw to Lopez which is about 25 minutes.  I've been fighting off a cold the last couple of weeks and it really makes practicing a chore, the stuffy nose, sore throat and headaches are just amplified by trying to play a chanter, let alone the big pipes.

I did manage to get to play the pipes 3 times in the last week, which was good.  I try to play my pipes about every other day and my chanter every night except Fridays since I typically practice on the way over to Lopez, then my 1 hour lesson and on the way back.

Anyhoo, today I gave myself a break.  My instructor gave me this great little print out called "playing with control" by Bruce Gandy.  I really like the excerises in it and use them to warm up before I start practicing my tunes, so I just played this excerise for the 25 or 30 minutes before boat docked.

The tune I'm working on right now is called "The 79'ths Farewell to Gibraltar" it is a 4 parted 2/4 March and quite a challenge.  The dot cut music is new to me (well, its all pretty new) I'm making progress, albeit slowly but my practice schedule has been really sporatic the last few weeks.

Any how, I've managed to "memorize" some mistakes and now I need to fix them, I hate it when that happens but its just one of those things you have to deal with.