Or, what you shouldn't do when your students 2 year old is present.

My instructor came over to my house last Saturday. She had a piping gig with some fellow Keith Highlander's at one of the local resorts.  It was an evening gig and there were no late night boats home, so she spent the night at our house.

Instead of me going to her place on Lopez Island for my regular Friday lesson we decided it would make more sense to have the lesson Saturday afternoon before her performance.

It just so happened that my wife, 2 year old daughter, my Mom and sister and our two dogs were all present during my lesson. Even if they were in the living room and Helen and I were in the kitchen, it still made for an interesting lesson.  Lots of distractions!

Timing is my hangup in piping, I see the notes and know the time value they are supposed to have but my brain and fingers go in different directions.  Once I get it though I'm pretty solid.

Tonight was no exception.  I was really having a hard time with the music. The way the tune was written also was new to me.  For example; an eighth note and a 16th note were tied, I'm use to seeing that written as a dotted eighth and so visually it was throwing me off. 

Any how, Helen grabbed a wooden spoon to beat the time and occasionally would whack me with it (to get the point across I guess).  My daughter Hannah saw her do this and got pretty upset, she came to the door and tossed her binky at Helen.  You have to be doing something pretty serious for Hannah to toss a binky at you. Well, Helen, not to be intimidated by a 2 year old, playfully kicked the binky back at Hannah. Hannah didn't know what to make of that so she got down on her knees in the doorway, started to pout and then cry.

Poor Helen... (I was laughing)

I went over and picked up Hannah and she put her head on my shoulder and cried some more, sigh. I was able to calm her down and left her on the couch with the rest of the family so I could get back to my lesson.

Needless to say the lesson was full of interruptions and distractions, but it was still good and we made great process with the new slow air I'm learning (Highland Cathedral).

Helen then started in on my pipes, getting the drone reeds adjusted and the fussing with the stocks.  I had a tap set so we threaded my drone reed seats, it was a piece of cake and now those reeds are firmly in their place.

All of the adjustments did make a big difference on the pipes, it doesn't take much effort to strike in now, before I had to punch the bag pretty hard, now it is just a light press with the finger tips.  Definitely will need to get used to that, also the bass drone comes in easier but if I shut it off I can't pop the drone top with my finger to start it, I have to let off pressure on the bag to get it come in.

It will just take some getting used to, overall I'm happy with the changes.

Oh, one last thing.  Helen came back from her piping gig with a bottle of some great Syrah (sp?) red wine.  It was like a dry Merlot, we drank the entire bottle!  Oy, my head the next morning was not happy.