Last night I had my second session with my tutor. First thing was to perform all the lessons of the previous session. These went real well. With a simple arrangement of The Rowan Tree, I am now working on timing. I now exercise the scales in time to my metronome, then at the same beat High G gracenote the scale. After several rounds of this he wishes me to start working with E and D gracenotes. I also have some exercises of random sequences that require a lot of crossing, and hopefully without the crossing noises.
Andrew, us newbies are obvious by the unique circles impressed in our fingers. It takes time to build up the confidence that the chanter will stay in hand without the grip of death. I have been instructed in how to lighten up. One of my early trials saw the chanter fly to the floor after I closed the reed. It works better if you are not the blowhard that I am. Ah as in the chanter, in the chanter.
I could laugh as I was using the plastic McCallum Long. I would probably cringe if it was my Dunbar blackwood long heading for a concrete floor.