The Final night of the Penrith Concert was a lot better than the previous night. The audience were more livelier, laughing and participating with the performers, also the performers were in a better mood, livelier and more energetic, I do not know why and who was influencing who?
I changed my set that night, I included 2 different melodies to the first set of tunes: Chevy Chase (a Border Ballad tune) /Mallorca / Hexham Races. These are tunes that I have played for years but they are also tunes I am sure of and are probably know to the audience.
When I play I tend to do 18th century melodies which are not very popular but I thought tonight to ‘play to the audience’ and to get used to performing on stage once more, not to compete with myself as I normally do by playing new tunes to an audience who will not recognize them. When I play on the streets it is good to play new and obscure melodies as not many are listening and I can practise these melodies, but I am there on stage to entertain others not myself, so the classics are performed, melodies they can sing a long too and recognize.
On this last night also I felt more confident with the stage and performing. I was changing the melodies and I wanted to play solo, I wanted to ‘play with the microphones’ too, to change the rhythms a little make them more lyrical and expressive.
