Question ..whatever. ...
Maeve
that morning for warm-up? It's my feeling that it would only create anxiety
if things weren't going well. You know it or you don't by that point, right?
Love and Light,
P/M Maeve .... (for you, Chris!)
http://people.delphi.com/terralyn
ter...@sanctum.com
authoring http://sandykeith.com
bork
piece just before the gig. You can practice anything else to warm up but
don't play that performance piece.
If, on the day _of_ the gig, you warm up with your showpiece and you screw
up even a tiny bit you have just damned yourself to extra stress and
probably to making the same mistake in the performance, ever if you'd never
made that particular mistake before.
The space you get into inside your head just before a performance is a
curious thing. The more experience you get under your kilt (er, belt) the
easier it becomes to attain that space but it doesn't take much to break
that concentration.
I think it goes without saying that by the morning of the gig practice time
is over and if you don't have it ready then extra cramming on the tune won't
save you.
$.02
-cav
On 4/4/01 12:23 PM, in article
uvKy6.27608$BC6.7...@e3500-chi1.usenetserver.com, "Maeve"
E. K. Smith
get the idea.
Once we were warmed up (and tuned up), we'd start hitting the
set/medley (whatever we were going to play in competition). We worked
it really hard, tweaking the attack, breaks, etc. 'til we were happy
with it. After a break, we did it again.
Sometimes we'd even do attack practice on the way from the warmup area
to the competition area - attack, play the first few bars of the
march, stop, repeat...
It worked for us.
Harsh as this might sound, if you need to worry about getting
disheartened because the warmup doesn't sound good, maybe the band
needs to rethink the whole idea of competing. Competition is not for
the weak of heart.
I notice from your sig that you're in contact with Sandy Keith. I
assume this is the same Sandy Keith who was P/M of the Grade 2 Erskine
Pipe Band in Ontario in the mid/late 70s. (They may have been bumped
to Grade 1, as we were.) You should be asking him these questions.
He had a terrific band. They were our greatest competition. We had
to work like Hell to beat them (which we mostly did ;-). My best to
him, btw.
FWIW,
Ken Smith
Rob&Erika
I have played with many competitions bands over the years and I currently
play with a grade 1 band...
We always play the competition stuff before the competition.
Even if the "stuff" doesnt sound great, everyone in the band knows how good
it could/should sound.....I dont believe a bad practice dooms the band for
competition in any way. In fact, I have seen it do just the opposite on more
than one occasion.
Cheers,
Rob
"bork" <bo...@doodlepig.com> wrote in message
news:B6F0C9F4.57FB%bo...@doodlepig.com...
Woober
anxiety in the bands I've competed with.Mike
Chris Eyre
The reason why we do all this blowing before a performance is:
(1) to get the pipes blown in, ie. stabilised at their normal working pitch,
(2) to get everyone psyched up, "in the groove" and settled down, (in that
order).
It should NOT be because you feel your band needs to practice the tunes. If
they don't already know the tunes backwards, upside down and sideways, it's
too late to do anything about it on the day. So you should never need to
play the full set right through on the day. I don't. All you would be doing
is tiring them out too soon.
During this blowing-in period, I go for simple melodic tunes which they play
well and enjoy and which allow them to relax and just think about
controlling their blowing and their sound. No long blowing sessions. 5-10
minutes - little break - adjust a reed or two - another five minute blow -
tune a few drones - another five minutes - tape a hole here and there, play
a few "intros", perhaps play a couple of parts which involve the change-over
from one tune to another. etc. but never the whole performance.
Doing it this way, you get all your pipes blown in without your pipers
getting tired, physically or mentally. Depending on the condition of the
reeds and the weather conditions, sometimes it may only need 30 minutes, at
other times it may take over an hour. It's rarely the same twice running.
You need to be able to judge all the variables on the day. How well you know
your pipers and their instruments is the key to knowing just how much
blowing time is needed on any particular occasion. The main job of setting
up their reeds should be done in the band hall during the weeks leading up
to the day. Ideally you should only need to blow them up to pitch on the
day. But I admit it is rarely that easy. There is always a reed here and
there that will start going astray and will need a tweak or a bit of tape.
Knowing just how much time you need, and how to spend that time, to bring
both your pipers and their pipes up to their best playing condition just
before they compete is one of the most complicated and subtle lessons a P/M
has to learn, and I think it only really comes from the experience of doing
it for yourself. It entails being as aware as possible of the condition and
playing behaviour of every reed in your band, and of the blowing behaviour
of your pipers (and this alone is worthy of a thread in itself) so that you
can make as accurate a prediction as possible as to how those reeds are
likely to behave, not just now, but in ten minutes' time.
Ideally, you want to have everyone walking up to the start-line feeling
refreshed, tingling with excitement, calm and confident, and thoroughly
enjoying what they are about to do. In your post you mention the word
"anxiety". My thoughts are that if you have a piper going up to the line
feeling "anxious" then either he should not be there because he is not up
to what you are asking of him or because he has not prepared properly, or
you have not done your job properly, and by that I mean that you
have wound them up on the day to a point where they are not going to give
you their best. This is a fault I have seen in many P/M's in the past. My
motto is: Do all the hard work, correcting faults, telling people off,
urging them to do better, picking out who's up to the job and who isn't,
etc, in the band hall. When you get out there on the field, treat your
players like valued companions who deserve to be there. On the start line
they need to know that you expect them to give you their best, but that if
they screw up, you're not going to condemn them. If you've taught them
right, they won't need you to tell them what they did wrong.
Chris Eyre
"Maeve" <ter...@sanctum.com> wrote in message
news:uvKy6.27608$BC6.7...@e3500-chi1.usenetserver.com...
Chris Hamilton
wrote:
>On the day of the competition, is it best NOT to play the competition set
>that morning for warm-up? It's my feeling that it would only create anxiety
>if things weren't going well. You know it or you don't by that point, right?
I'm a big believer in that theory ... you don't PRACTICE at the games
park. If you don't know it by then, you ought not to be there.
What I do for solos is simply use the time to blow in and settle the
pipe to its optimal pitch and stability, then maintain it at that
level with short bursts of playing in between rests.
Most of this time I'm playing 4/4's, 3/4's, and little bits and pieces
of my competition selections .. maybe breaks and other little
passages.
For the band, something similar ... tuning and blowing in the pipes
with the easy stuff ... maybe a once-over run-through on the
selection.
Relaxation is the name of the game, and playing 4/4s with a humming
bagpipe ... well what better way is there to get settled than that?
Chris (the other one)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christopher Hamilton -- ToneCzar Inc.
ch...@toneczar.com -- www.toneczar.com
BGRAHAM001
times as the pipes are coming in and being fine tuned right before we go out. I
actually like it as I'm one who worrys that if I havent played it in the last
24 hrs.I probably forgot everything I ever knew. Anyway it works for us. Bob
Maeve
news:3acb82db...@news.wwnet.net...
> I notice from your sig that you're in contact with Sandy Keith. I
> assume this is the same Sandy Keith who was P/M of the Grade 2 Erskine
> Pipe Band in Ontario in the mid/late 70s.
Yep ... the one and very same. He's probably my best friend in life .... but
he is also running the games, the tattoo last week, and numerous other
adventures. He doesn't have the time so I have to depend on all of you :) :)
:) Not a bad trade-off :) :) :)Thanks for the advice. Keep it coming .....
Love and Light,
Maeve
Chris Hamilton
K. Smith) wrote:
>I notice from your sig that you're in contact with Sandy Keith. I
>assume this is the same Sandy Keith who was P/M of the Grade 2 Erskine
>Pipe Band in Ontario in the mid/late 70s. (They may have been bumped
>to Grade 1, as we were.) You should be asking him these questions.
>He had a terrific band. They were our greatest competition. We had
>to work like Hell to beat them (which we mostly did ;-).
Erskine was promoted to Grade 1 in 1975, and played there on the
Ontario circuit until 1979. The were inactive in 1980 due to the loss
of the entire drum corps, but were able to assemble a pickup drum
corps for one last run at glory ... Santa Rosa 1980.
I'm proud to have been a part of their pipe corps at their final
contest, where we held our own against the reigning 5th in the worlds
Triumph Street Pipe Band (sound clip of TS is at
http://www.toneczar.com/sound_clips.html ... I promise I'll get the
Erskine clip up there too one of these days.
Some of the folks I remember from the band ...
Sandy Keith, John Recknagel, Davey Moore (tragically died in a freak
accident while returning from Santa Rosa the following season), Kelly
Buckley, Chris Johnson, Jimmy Stewart, Jim Agnew, Tim Murphy, Rob (or
was it Steve?) Hill, Bill Hilbert, Lori Crawford, George Forgan. And
others whose names escape me!
Sandy, by the way, was a MASTER at setting up the pipe sound. As Yogi
Berra would say, I observed a lot just by watching.
Chris
Maeve
news:5nmoctshkhj5eoemi...@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 04 Apr 2001 20:48:58 GMT,
> Sandy, by the way, was a MASTER at setting up the pipe sound. As Yogi
> Berra would say, I observed a lot just by watching.
IS a MASTER, Chris!!!!! IS!!!!! And I watch him like a hawk anytime he
touches Angus!!
Love and Light,
Maeve
Chris Hamilton
wrote:
>"Chris Hamilton" <ch...@toneczar.com> wrote in message
>news:5nmoctshkhj5eoemi...@4ax.com...
>> On Wed, 04 Apr 2001 20:48:58 GMT,
>
>> Sandy, by the way, was a MASTER at setting up the pipe sound. As Yogi
>> Berra would say, I observed a lot just by watching.
>
>IS a MASTER, Chris!!!!! IS!!!!! And I watch him like a hawk anytime he
>touches Angus!!
How true, I stand corrected! He's still very much active.
Lori Wilson-Gaudet
if anyone needs to be cut from the set or medleys if I don't hear them that
day? They might play our warm up tunes grand, but when under the stress of
the impending competition, they screw up every attack or repeat of the 4th
part of the strathspey that they play.....
Also.......there is a heightened awareness on the day of a competition with
a lot of people giving you a listen...(esp your competition) Sometimes the
comp pieces are alot "better" than they have been in practice because of
this alone........
I'm of the school that there is never too much practice!! even on the day!!
I assume most serious competing P/Ms would feel the exact same way!
My two cents worth
Lori Wilson-Gaudet
Rob&Erika wrote in message ...
Royce Lerwick
wrote:
>Some of the folks I remember from the band ...
>Sandy Keith, John Recknagel, Davey Moore (tragically died in a freak
>accident while returning from Santa Rosa the following season), \\
Yes, we (Utah Pipe Band) drove back to find out that had happened
during a layover at SLC International.
Royce
Phantom Pipe Band:
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/118/sfu.html
Digital Warrior:
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/83/royce_lerwick.html
Zetland Tunebook, PM's Handbook:
shetlandpiper.com
Zetland Pipes:
www.royceworld.com
Chris Hamilton
Lerwick) wrote:
>On Thu, 05 Apr 2001 11:50:28 GMT, Chris Hamilton <ch...@toneczar.com>
>wrote:
>
>>Some of the folks I remember from the band ...
>>Sandy Keith, John Recknagel, Davey Moore (tragically died in a freak
>>accident while returning from Santa Rosa the following season), \\
>
>Yes, we (Utah Pipe Band) drove back to find out that had happened
>during a layover at SLC International.
It happened in 1981, when Davey was with Clan MacFarlane ... they were
scheduled to come to Ligonier the following weekend, and of course
that didn't happen. I heard the news at the games. Can't even imagine
the devastation the Clan felt about it.
Calum
their sets several times just as a warm up ; IVB may not play more than
a few bits, attacks and breaks and cut-offs, and maybe play it through
once or twice.
You do need a feel for how your players play in competition : there are
those who play rock solid till competition day then blow out as they
cross the line. There is nothing you can do here except know that he'll
probably do it next time. Knowing how your players cope is an art you
can't acquire before your first competition - it'll take a season or
more before you have the confidence to send your pipers out into the
circle with flat pipes secure in the knowledge it'll work.
And on the day of the competition, there's always one muppet who hasn't
practiced for a week or two, who needs to play it over with the band.
All in all, I would ; if it goes badly in practice it would have gone no
better in competition.
John Mitchell
Calum <u3...@abdn.ac.uk> wrote in message
> You do need a feel for how your players play in competition : there are
> those who play rock solid till competition day then blow out as they
> cross the line.
This is evidently caused by non-confidence which is why players need to
practice at home. It's no good to just go thru the music at band practice.
The princes of summer are found in the practice halls of winter! :-)
cheers
JM
Calum
It's just not hearing the changes in your blowing when you're in a
genuinely stressful situation. More practice on your own will help, but
the best place to learn to blow in tune with the band is with the band.
The only place to learn to deal with nerves is on the competition field.
Maeve
news:VUSC6.20132$E63.3...@news1.onlynews.com...
Welcome back, my long, lost husband!!!! Geez, just about the time I was
going to divorce you too ;) :) :) I think Calum is right here .... our band
did GREAT standing in a circle, next to the tent, in the shade, before the
competition! Never missed a note, drones sounding good, chanters good ....
and then we stepped into the circle ..... and I can't begin to tell you how
bad it was! And it was all because the band was experiencing "NERVES" for
the first time! They now know what to expect so we should be able to combat
SOME of that!!
Love and Light,
Maeve