Tuesday March Madness

Today, instead of working on piobaireachd, I worked on my 2/4 march.  I'm really hoping to compete next season in Grade IV Sr. solo.  Dan wanted me to try a few comps this season to get some experience, but my band had jobs during the weekends of both local contests.  I would drive to play, but not just a 2/4 march.  Hopefully the EUSPBA will get their heads out of their butts and figure out the Grade IV piobaireachd kerfluffle...meanwhile, I ain't driving no 4 hours to a competition to play a 3 minute march.

Anyway, as I've mentioned, I've been working on "Jim McBay's Welcome" (tune #49 in Scots Guards, Vol. 1) with Dan for awhile.  A LONG TIME.  Long enough that I should have all the bugs worked out...if I wasn't so damn lazy about it.  But band stuff has been taking up an increasing amount of my time and since the 2012 competition season is "so far away", I've been putting my solo stuff on the back burner.  Which is part of the reason for starting this blog...time is never so far away.

I tested out my drone tuning against the microphone and it's much better in this recording.  There is still a bit of a beating when I get closer to the mic - I just think that's a deficiency in the recording equipment since it gets better farther away.  The crappy rainy & cold weather wasn't helping my tuning any - it seemed like every time I took a breath, the drones would go out of tune.  Anyway, enough of my excuses.  Here is "Jim McBay's Welcome":

Note: that dumbass marching looks better in a kilt.  Just so you know.  On to critique:

1.  First part, not too bad.  I could make the D gracenotes a little more noticeable. 
2.  Second part: open up the G doublings a little.  They sound a little crushed - more F.  Flubbed the G doubling in the 6th bar, first time through.
3.  Third part: Flubbed the E doubling in the 4th bar, first time through.  Open up E doubling in pick up, second time through.  Did not get a clean taorluath in the 2nd to last bar the second time through.  Could make my D gracenotes a little bigger.  Also (and Dan is always catching me on this), I need to cut back the D's in the pick up / hold the E's just a hair longer.  I'm getting better at this, but it still needs work to get that bounce up to the 2nd E.
4.  Fourth part...ouch.  Those hold-cut-cut-hold rhythms are still lousy.  I muddied them throughout the entire part!  I thought I did okay while I was playing, but in listening, I'm thinking that I just left out the C's altogether.  The F's sound flat, which makes me think I was false fingering a C there (checking the video seems to confirm this).  Altogether, leaves a bad taste in the judge's mouth for the entire performance.  I really need to put some serious time in on this part.