My one competition of the year was last weekend. The week prior I made recordings of probably sets I would play. They are below. My piob ended up being Flame (thank goodness!) and my march was Major Manson’s Farewell to Clachantrushal instead of the two below. 6/8 was Angus.

Comments from all 3 judges I played for (Bob Richardson, Ian K. MacDonald, and Patrick Regan) were very helpful. Patrick even listened to my Piobaireachd from the other side of the field and offered some helpful comments (hopefully not to the detriment of who might have been playing in front of him at the time). Crunluaths, Hiharins, and pointing in 6/8s at the end of parts and before big embellishments like taorluaths all need a little work.

I don’t have any recordings of the actual contest. I got 1st in MSR and 6/8, 2nd in HJ, and dead last in Piob (which is no surprise since I resumed playing Flame and learned Battle 1.5 weeks prior to the contest).

Angus MacKinnon and Leaving Port Askaig

Newmarket House and Rakes of Kildare

Rossshire Volunteers, Susan MacLeod, Lochiel’s Awa’ to France, and Miss Proud

Arthur Bignold of Lochrosque

Flame of Wrath for Squinting Patrick

Battle of the Pass of Crieff

I was a little concerned about the D on the RJM solo chanter being flat from my initial set up of the chanter. A summary of that post has both new and broken in Husk and new Melvin reeds all giving a flat D such that I had to tape every other hole down (except high A) to match the tuning of the D. Both those reed makes being hybrid ridge cut or full ridge cut respectively, I figured I’d see if the flat D persisted into the realm of straight cut reeds. I found one of my old broken in Gilmour reeds from days past and lo and behold, I didn’t have to move a piece of tape; therefore, the D is still flat. So, I feel this particular chanter might could stand a little undercutting on D. Another RJM player has reported a perfectly fine D but another flat note, so looks like there’s a wee bit of variability. (EDIT November, 4 2012 – Roddy has reported that the flat D is unusual and would like to take a look at the chanter, you can see a pic of his personal chanter in the original post.)

I figured I was 2/3 the way to what I call the standard Gold Medalists set up, so I figured (we do a lot of that in West Texas) I’d go all in and so I have switched the bass drone reed in these Colin Kyo pipes from a low pitch Genesis Kinnaird to a Henderson Harmonic Deluxe. I prefer this combination as the bass isn’t quite as overbearing, so you get a really good blend. Since this is the combination a lot of upper echelon players use, I guess these CK pipes are a lot like all those classic Hendersons those guys play. If I recall correctly, Murray based his pipes off an old Henderson.

My fingers are still adjusting to the different chanter spacing from the Colin Kyo chanter, pardon the slips please. Mic is drones side, i.e. behind me.

Burden of Innocence and Happy Days – a tragic tune followed by a happy tune

Ewe wi the crooked horn and Rejected Suitor – still working on my strathspey phrasing, SWSW seems to work pretty well for the first part of Ewe, just need to figure out what works best for the other parts

Kantara to El Arish, Cowal Gathering, and Major Manson’s Farewell to Clachantrushal – gotta work on my 2/4s for the upcoming competition in Salado, TX