Hi Taylor,
Good playing Taylor! Apologies for the HotSpot wifi signal quality (and too bad there was no room at the Motel 6 in Elkhart IN re lack of that internet signal for our lesson too!) ... But our improvisation with conversation for learning SSP was good, I think ... how was it for you?
Would love to read, if you'd care to share, a highly succinct daily journal of your Scottish Small Pipes' practicing re further focusing for learning ... both regarding our meeting, as well as where you head as exploration ... and writing-wise ...
I hope my being in travel mode, and communication-wise, was newly edifying perchance, and workable. On with listening and feeling, building from playing relatively slowly, almost hypnotically or trance-like, to up to tempo intact technically and from memory :) I just heard the beginning of the lesson recording come thru successfully ( after a 20 minutes delay - so it's a resource too :)
Musical cheers,
Scott
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- Scott GK MacLeod
Founder, President, CEO & Professor
World Univ & Sch (WUaS) - PO Box 442, Canyon, CA 94516
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| Aug 5, 2021, 8:24 PM (3 days ago)
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Hi, Scott.
Thanks again for the lesson.
A journal is a pretty good idea. It'll give me a paper trail of my progress and allow me to give you a report of what gets done each practice session, not to mention keep track of my thoughts.
See you next week!
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| Sat, Aug 7, 1:45 AM (1 day ago)
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Journal Entry for Today. Let me know if this is the kind of format you had in mind:
8/6/21:
Main focus today was the Little Spree. The Urlar, Urlar Doubling, First Variation, and Taorluath Variation were all covered. I started out measuring my bag pressure steadiness on the tuner for the first few minutes. I then moved on to listening to the recording of Donald MacLeod playing The Little Spree, playing along with the recording, stopping to play without the recording, and repeating whenever the pacing didn’t seem right. I took note of MacLeod’s holding of “and” and “long” notes, as both give the tune its distinct sway, almost mirroring the walk of a clumsy drunk. The placement of these “and” and “long” notes aren’t immediately obvious in the score, making careful listening especially important in this tune. The temptation to put "snap" into some of the dotted quarter notes is strong, but the pacing doesn't call for that until the Taorluath. Getting back into Taorluaths was tricky as it had been a while since I played them in the context of a piobaireachd variation; slow, deliberate playing may be necessary until I can get up to the proper tempo.
The last few minutes focused on The Cameronian Rant, largely listening to Neil Clark's rendition on the practice chanter on youtube and very slowly playing the music, careful to note placement of dotted notes.
Next practice session will include a review of the above and explore the Crunluath variation in The Little Spree and additional practice of The Cameronian Rant.
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Super, Taylor!
This is great, thank you!
Perhaps a further focus on #s 2&3 from -
At first on Thursday I wondered if you might want to blog about this - and even re somehow sharing inspiration in the charting of Scottish Small Piping learning goals (
blogger.com) ... Re writing too ... Or focusing your inspirational ideas about this
And further listening and feeling come to mind too from Stuart (and his second video recording).
Pretty open-ended ... And re what might be fun for you in developing a learning conversation with your Scottish Small Piping
:)
Cheers, Scott
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The journaling gives me structure and helps make my goals clearer for sure.
Today I explored the crunluath variations on top of the previous variations, repeating the learning techniques from the previous practice regarding listening and playing along with Donald MacLeod. I practiced slowly; hopefully I’ll be able to speed up the crunluaths to give it a better sway eventually. I find it interesting that MacLeod doesn’t (won’t?) play the A Mach; he doesn’t elaborate on why that is. I plan to try the A Mach sometime before the next lesson.
More slow deliberate playing was done today with the Cameronian Rant too with a heavy focus on sight reading. I may use a metronome next time and see if I can keep up with a steady rhythm.
Taylor
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Taylor,
Great!
How best to bring tunes to memory (for mastery learning even) - to skip the 'thinking' aspect of reading music (per Stuart) - and for listening and feeling and playing expressively anew ? Both The Little Spree and The Cameronian Rant ? ... and per charting goals re a practicing-journal ... (creative edifying notebook of an artist-musician some years out too?) ... And extraordinary Piobaireachd playing may be an open horizon playing feeling and listening-wsie compared with Stuart LIddell's extraordinary (for) playing of Light Music ... (learning Piobaireachd directly from John D Burgess's playing - extraordinarily for me - may be a precursor building block ... re The Desperate Battle and his other Piobaireachd online:)
I think I heard from Ian Whitelaw too (in addition to Donald MacLeod) that the A Mach isn't played in The Little Spree ... glad you're going to try exploratority.
The Little Spree
PM Donald MacLeod (tutorial) -
Got my small pipes out as I woke up from camping by the side of the road near the Eldridge Road exit 251 in North Dakota ... exploring bringing The Cameronia Rant further to memory ... and with 'bite' ... like working with a horse (Stuart's metaphor)??? ... quite a new feeling and listening exploration (re my own journal, and Yoga modeling ... bringing it 'in' re memorizing to play it expressively and newly - and with expressive freedom, ... and Yoga A&V's too is much about freedom:) .. and regarding Stuart Liddell's Ceol Beag amazing playing inspiration!
Is one thing to play a lot with goals - of freedom even? :)
Ceol Mor regards,
Scott
--
- Scott GK MacLeod
Founder, President, CEO & Professor
World Univ & Sch (WUaS) - PO Box 442, Canyon, CA 94516
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Assynt
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