Summer Project: On Break...

The lack of an update yesterday was because I haven't learned anything new this week... :( To be fair, though, it was a particularly busy week. I'll try to maybe learn more of King of the Fairies next week, since I do love the tune to death, no matter how difficult it's being. I can skip a week... I just have to make sure I learn something next week.

Summer Project: Kesh Jig

This was not a good week for learning songs. -_- I'm still only half-way through King of the Fairies, and only learned the Kesh two days ago. I still need to work on it...a lot...but I've got the notes right, at least...mostly... I KNOW what the right notes are, but I still make mistakes on it a lot. Plus the tempo's off. *Sighs*

Today was busy and the only time I had to take the video was in the car with my phone. Sorry it's not a very good video.

An Observation

Hopefully you can't tell from my videos (although you probably can), but I have a problem with tempo. It's hard for me to stay on beat. I've been told that I should tap my foot to help with that, but it distracts me from my playing, and it's hard for me to coordinate my foot to beat in time, and for my fingers to play the melody correctly at the same time.

Today, however, I was practising with a metronome, and I was having a bit of trouble playing The Banshee to the right beat, so I tried tapping my foot... I didn't end up playing it perfectly, and my fingers were all over the place, but the issue of tempo suddenly totally vanished. With my foot moving to the metronome, the rest of me didn't have to think about it at all. I just played, and was on beat. It was a really weird feeling, like tapping my foot internalised the metronome in the most complete way. I really will have to learn how to coordinate myself better now that I see how my braid just switches off and plays when I tap my foot.

Now to just get it to not throw off my fingers... :P

I Don't Wannnnnnaaaaaaaaaa

King of the Fairies is long and confusing, and Drowsie Maggie is fast and confusing, and the tempo for Morrison's and Brian Boru is hard, and I don't wanna work on any of it. >.<

I think I'm getting lazy, spending all of my summer break so far in bed, watching The Office. I can't even be bothered to do my Irish language lessons... I think I did one since coming back, three weeks ago? One? Maybe? Ugh.

This is just me complaining, but hey, the downs are also a part of a music student's life, so...it's fair.

Summer Project: John Ryan's Polka

I first heard this tune as Hills of Connenmara by Gaelic Storm, and I've wanted to learn it for a while, so when I saw it on the list of tunes my teacher wanted me to learn, I got very excited. This is also the song from Titanic Party in Third Class, and is overall great fun to play.

This isn't the best I could do with it, and I might upload a better version later, but I hate rerecording myself every time there's a mistake, so I'm uploading the first video I got without mistakes. Well...timing's a bit off here and there, and it should be played faster, but that I can live with.

Summer Project: The Lilting Banshee

I hated learning this one. Endless problems, and I'm still not sure it's quite right. I still need to work on that high a in the b part... I'll fix that when I keep playing it in the future, but for now, I'm tired of resetting the recording every time I make a mistake, so this will have to do. Honestly, I must have spent at least a half-hour cancelling every video I started because of a little hesitation or mistake. I play so much worse when I know that I HAVE to play perfectly. When it's just for fun, making a mistake is no big deal, and, paradoxically, I don't make them... *Sighs* But I should get used to playing under pressure if I'm ever to play in sessions, so...good practice? >.<

Also, I'm ahead of time. So to summarize...
The Banshee had to be learned by April 28th
Tobin's Favourite had to be learned by May 5th
The Lilting Banshee had to be learned by May 12th

I'm a week early. And that's really good. I'm getting a little tired of hearing the whistle all the time. :P It's such a shrill instrument, and I love playing it, but there are limits to how many hours I'm willing to put into anything. So if I can get a few days off before learning my next tune, it'll be a welcome break.

Also, to brag a little, I sent my video of Tobin's Favourite off to my teacher, and she said it was great! I'm so happy to know that I'm making progress. :D Not many of my friends or family care one way or another about this hobby of mine, and that's certainly better than pelting me with rotten tomatoes whenever I play, but a little bit of praise is also appreciated. XD And all the more so when it comes from someone who actually plays the whistle, and plays it much better than I do.

Anyway, enough of all that. Here is my little Lilting Banshee.

Summer Project: Tobin's Favourite

This jig was harder to learn than I had expected, and I still need to check with my teacher to make sure I'm playing it correctly. All the same, I'm ahead of schedule, which will give me more time to learn my next song. I think I'll learn The Lilting Banshee...maybe... We'll see.