Well I now have a new manager at work, and while I'm still full-time for the next two weeks, at least I'm full-time doing the job of one person, not two. However, I still haven't managed to practice yet this week! I spent Sunday napping, I was that exhausted (you'd think I was still anemic, but I'm not) from work.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is my day off so I am going to practice loads! Watch this space...
I've also *got* to do some fiddle practicing as I should be a lot further along by now! There is a gentleman (in Ireland) who is both a harper and a fiddler (Paul Dooley) who, every year since I *stopped* playing my fiddle in sessions turns to me husband while pointing at me and says, "Doesn't that lady play the fiddle?". Mikee then replies, "That's no lady, that's my wife!" It has become a bit of a joke these past 5 years or so and now I have promised to bring my fiddle to the session this coming summer. All I need to do is get those tunes back under my fingers again (easy, right?). Well it's 7 months on and Ireland is 5 months away....I've got a lot of practicing to do! (By the way, he never brings his harp to sessions. He plays on a wire strung harp he made himself.)
Thursday Getting a good amount of harping and fiddling in today. Working on a lot of the same harp stuff as last week, plus did a run through of Cooley's and Tailor's Twist hornpipes. My Leaving of Liverpool is sounding much much better thanks to playing along with a youtube video of an American Irish band who actually sing and play it in the same key that I do--always a plus!
Scared the cat away with my fiddling, ran through a few hornpipes, jigs, reels just to see if I still had them under my fingers. A bit of slumming as Lucy says. Went back and forth between my old fiddle and my new fiddle. The old fiddle is actually new and the new fiddle is actually old. I acquired it recently and found out it's over 150 years old!
Friday Immediately after work and a quick dinner we ran out to see the great Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill in concert! So no time to practice. Kathy, if you are reading this, during intermission I told Mike the story of Emma's reaction to "Would you like to hear Martin and Dennis come back out for another set?" and then Emma who had been patiently enjoying and enduring the concert (she was still a little girl at the time) and was fully aware of just how long a Martin and Dennis set could be, shouted "Nooooooooo!"
I love that story! Anyway, great concert of course and he played a few of my favorites including "Tell Her I Am" which I'm pretty sure I had it down as a slip jig and I think he plays it as a slip jig on his CD, but played it as a jig last night. Gotta brush up on that one! He played it with Gallagher's Frolics.
Good luck playing tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteOh how I love that story about Emma! It sounds as if you had a great practice day and that last night was marvelous.
ReplyDeleteNow, for some reason, I have stopped ever taking my harp to sessions..... once you compare the difficulty factor - harp/concertina - it makes it a way too easy choice.
Every time you write about working on Tailor's Twist I remember hearing you play it - and it makes me want to learn it. However..... no harping right now.... the rest of the family has gone out which means I scramble to play concertina! Back later!
Gosh--taking the harp to a session--not when you can play tunes on the concertina or the fiddle! Back in the day, if you remember I have taken my smaller Dusty to sessions, but then I started learning the fiddle because it was more portable (well, that was *one* reason)!
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