Today I worked on "Jim McBay's Welcome", the 2/4 march I'm working on for solo competition next season. Lately, I've gotten really sloppy on the last part, and I figured I'd spend this practice trying to figure out what exactly I was doing wrong and how to fix it.
There is a very tricky hold-cut-cut-hold rhythm in the second bar that goes: (g gracenote) D, F, (g gracenote) C, E that my brain just can't seem to wrap my fingers around. I can play it just fine if I omit the g gracenote before the C, but I'd get docked for that, so somehow I have to figure out how to get it in there. I've tried my tricks of slowing it way down and building it backwards from the problem spot...still, no dice.
After about 40 minutes of working on just this part, I think I finally figured out what I'm doing wrong. I think that I was still false-fingering the C a little bit when I lift to finger the E. My bottom hand was just not coming down fast enough. So I slowed it down AGAIN - so much so that the taorluaths are starting to interrupt the flow - and I think I might have worked it out. Here's the video:
Bagpipes are a humbling mistress. If you're not paying attention to them on a regular basis, they'll make sure you know they're feeling neglected. I'll let this percolate overnight and maybe tomorrow I'll put it up on pipes to see if it stuck.
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