Blue-Eyed Collie, The

5 Comments

• sgillis

  April 26, 2019 at 6:16 am

  In playing Blue Eyed Collie I just don’t have the strong Jig expression demonstrated here.Are there any hints as to timing which might improve the musicality for me ?

  • Jim McGillivray

    April 26, 2019 at 8:52 am

    Hard for me to say without having you sitting across the table from me with a practice chanter, but my first advice is always to slow down. Play the tune as slowly as you need to to play it the way you want to and then gradually increase the tempo over a long stretch of time. Jim

• sgillis

  April 26, 2019 at 12:53 pm

  Jim Many thanks for your advice. I’m an adult learner starting at age 23 yrs.,and for the longest time wasted so many hours of practice playing out of control…too fast.You unknowingly,are preaching to the converted ! My best regards.Stewart.

• sgillis

  April 29, 2019 at 1:50 pm

  Jim Your direction to determine HOW you want to play the tune by playing it slowly is invaluable.I tried it and found I could play the tune down tempo with the exact timing maintained as I slowly raised it closer to playing tempo.Thank you !

  • Jim McGillivray

    April 29, 2019 at 8:53 pm

    Very glad to hear. I can’t tell you how many pipers I teach whose greatest enemy is their own unwillingness to play slowly enough to improve.