Fifth Competition

The fifth competition was in McHenry Highland Festival of Mountain Maryland, a three hour trip. Left at 5:45 am with my two kids and their friend. Foggy trip in the mountains, but we made it in good time.

I was scheduled to play at 10:15 am, so I had 45 minutes of warm up time. I gave the kids money so they can go around for 30 minutes. I warmed up at the field, the weather was nice high 80's with a little humidity. The venue was nice, the judges were set up around the barns.

Once the judge, Vic Franks gave me the nod, I approached, gave a salute and told him my tune. My tune, "Prince Charles Welcome to Lochaber" for 2/4 March. Since my pipes were warmed up, after a minute of fine tuning, it locked in. Off I went, my choice of marching route was not the best, a small dip on the judges left side. It went well, on the fourth line, my chanter cut out for a second. I recovered and continued until I stepped on the dip on the ground, now this rattled me a little, when I faced the judge to finish the tune, the last three noted vacated my brain, played the two notes again and decided to tell the judge,"not today judge". His reply was, " that is too bad". I thought I was doing well, very disappointed.

I thought about the things that I did. So, after an hour, I was ready to move on. I waited for my results to see what things that needs to be improved.

A couple of items that I need to write down in a 3X5 paper.

Warm up thoroughly
Disconnect the hose leading to the chanter. For very hot days, I think the cannister will deliver less moisture to the reed(maybe the cause of the cut off).
Plan where to march, the most level ground possible

We went around after changing and checked out the stage. We did not have time to see Bonnie Rideout but manage to see the band before her. The kid's insisted to buy a Father's Day gift for me.

We had a long trip back and had an hour before going to a friend's daughter's 16th birthday. I was going to play the pipes in highland attire before dinner. Long day.

After talking with my teacher, she reminded me that the breakdown will not be the last. We talked about this a year ago, but never thought about it until it happened.