Sunday, October 26, 2008

Seventh Competition Richmond Third and Fourth Place

A very wet Richmond Highland and Scottish Games. Great Scottish weather which I experienced many times on a motorcycle many moons ago. I drove in early and found the venue with a few miles wasted after missing the intersection. I had to wait for cancellations and no shows because my application was late, I did not know the games was approaching fast, right.

First event, piobaireachd. The " the Little Spree " was played well in Williamsburg, first place. I had the confidence to do well again, phrasings are where they are, the embellishments edres and otros sound with a bold Low G and equal, phrase endings have heavy emphasis before going to the next. Everything went well until the second line when I thought that I sounded flat on F, now if one has not experienced this, namely moi, the tendency is to squeeze and blow harder to make it sharp. Disaster, one should leave it alone, although my playing was not altered the bass drone shut off, I continued to play my best without it. The judge told me, too bad about the bass drone, you were playing well. Off I went after thanking the judge.

To be cont.......

Monday, October 6, 2008

Sixth Competition First Place Piobaireachd




The Williamsburg Scottish Festival was a nice surprise. The venue was very nice, the judge's tents were about 30 feet from the water where a dam is located. All in the shade, so I warmed up under a tree. My first event was the piobaireachd ground, I have spent time with the "The Little Spree" with my teacher and countless hours practicing the "otros" and "edres", phrasings, bar endings, line endings, not to mention the last line of the ground, which needed a mature understanding. Although it took a long time to put it together confidently, playing it with correct phrasings, pausing at the end of each bar and holding longer at the end of the lines made the tune better from last year's second place. The tune was played slower, and the judge noted it, the phrase endings did get the time it needed to announce the beginning of the next phrase. The F was emphasized, the edres and otros were a lot cleaner with the Low G

sounding big. cont......