Thursday, February 17, 2011

Pipes, Concertina and Boat.

I have been back from Madrid now for 4 days and I have busy with one thing and another.

Monday i went to the boat to check on her, she was fine, the strong winds had blown off a section of tarp and i tied it down with more ropes as the strong winds are not finished yet and bailed a little water out from the bilges. I brought the seat covers home to be cleaned.

I tired busking in Carlisle from 4pm until 6pm tuesday and wednesday, but it was slow. It is a time i normally do not play, but since i was going to be in town in the evenings i thought i would give it a try, anyways it is good for practising if nothing else.

Thursday, I played some European melodies on the concertina: Galician, French and Swedish in preparation for a practise next week with the harpist. Later, I got the Border pipes out and practised for tomorrow's session in Langholm with 2 other Border pipers. The melodies are long, and I am out of practise with the runs and keeping the instrument steady, but they sounded good and relatively in tune to concert pitch "A"...amazing. I mended the strap on my bellows to make it more secure, as it has a habit of coming off in mid-tune. Played more in the evening until my ears rang!