Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Band Practice

I attended band practice last night (a break in the hockey schedule). Being the off season we're working through a lot of our parade sets and reviewing some of the tunes we haven't played as a band for a long time. We spend about half the time on practice chanters which I think is a big help.

It is obvious to me that I'm not spending enough time practicing on the great pipes and too much focus on the small pipes. I need to play more on the pipes to keep my wind up.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Status in the band.

I had a good talk with my wife the other night about staying in the band. I loved it when she and my son were going with me to band, but she quit and my son is wanting to quit so it's not as much fun any more.

The fall and winter are busy for me with football (photographs) and hockey (coaching) and I don't have as much time for band practice. The problem is that if I quit the band I'll not practice as much and could easily loose what I've worked hard to gain.

I've talked to the PM about not coming to practices the next few months. He still wants me to play in the Barclay Memorial competition in November with the band. We'll see how it goes for the concert, but I doubt I'll be playing in that.