This week

I haven't been practicing as much this week as I should. With Easter coming up and my brother coming down, it's just been a busy week. So I will pick up practicing again next week. I'm going to start doing 1/2 hour every day again. I'm practicing, but not as much as I should. I think I have the tunes down but we will seen next week.

Practicing everyday

Hey... well, it's Thursday. I practiced every day for at least a half hour to 45 minutes and will continue through out the week. I must say it's a good break from doing nothing. Here's the routine. I wake up at around 8am. Then I do my workout at 10am, after the work out I take a shower then go right to practice. I don't really touch the computer until about 1pm, so half the day is gone by then.

I start out with Amazing Grace. Then I move on to the other tunes that I have. I'm working on Set 1 for the MRPF band. The tunes are The Minstrel Boy, Let Erin Remember, and The Wearing of the Green. I have the first two tunes almost down. I do go back to Going Home to work on some stuff that Mark and I went over in the lesson. A good point he made a while back is to stretch the fingers. Get them ready for the workout. That way it's easier to hit the grace notes and the throws and the Taorluath(which for the record have never heard of until I started playing the pipes) those are pretty tough. I work on them everyday too.

There's a pipe band competition coming up soon in North Hampton Mass on July 17th. I'm hoping to at least go and check it out. I e-mailed the MRPF band to see if they need me, but to be honest I don't think i'll be ready to be at that point yet. This year is practicing, next year is joining the band, or at least by the end of the year. We will see how that goes. I'll keep you posted on the practicing. I might even take some pics of the new pipes when they come in. Heck I'll even throw in a pic of me in a kilt. You get to see my sexy white (stop traffic in a bad way) legs, woohoo for you, lol. On another note i'm really enjoying playing and hope to grow as the years go by. Like I said before I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading. Oh and if your bored too.

If you are at home wondering what to do with your time and you're reading this. I would recommend to pick up an instrument. Not necessarily the pipes, but something that you would enjoy. Perhaps the pipes, I love the sound and the tunes of the pipes obviously. So pick something up. It's a nice break especially if you're unemployed like myself. Which by the way I hope to have a job by the end of next week,, yay! Ok well on that note, take care.

Found an interesting article on bagpipe history.

http://www.visitdunkeld.com/bagpipe-history.htm

Lesson

I had my lesson today. I got the band tunes. Going to start practicing and getting ready for next year.

Still no pipes yet or kilt. I should be getting that in soon I hope. I'm no where near ready to play them. Thanks for reading.

Nice break from computer stuff.

I tell you, practicing my chanter after a day of computer stuff is a nice break. I feel more relaxed then tense. I don't think about other things going on like a job, or like what am I going to do for the day. I just sit and relax. I can practice anywhere. Now that it's getting nice out I plan to practice outside. Maybe go to a park with my dog Malcolm (westie, yes i'm a Scottish at heart) and just hang out and play.

I was at Star Bucks just the other day and someone walked up to me and asked me what I was playing. I brought my practice chanter with me and they where glad to hear it was a bagpipe chanter. I get some cool reactions from people when I practice outside. Luckily they can't hear me when I play my electric chanter and hear how bad I actually am.

I should have my Bagpipes that I ordered from Mark soon at Pipelander.com. I'll take a pic and post them up too. It's a Nice set of Mccallum Bagpipes. I will be back later in the week to keep you updated.