Complete Deconstruction

[Ashkettle]

Last week, I picked up my tinwhistle after around 5 years of not playing it. Everything came back to me rather quickly, but after my absence, I clearly saw the areas where I was sloppy.

 

The sloppiness had become a habit. It was ingrained in my muscle memory on the songs. I hadn't noticed it really and it took coming back to it after so long away to discover.

 

After that, I took a careful look at my concertina playing. My conclusion is that it's time to start over, and do it right. Fortunately for me, I don't have that far to go back to.

 

Grey Larson has a great whistle tutor (his toolbox series). I'm going to apply a lot of the advice he put into it to the Concertina. I'll start over, relearning the tunes slowly. One at a time, at 1/2 speed or so. When I feel I know the piece (not the tune, but the music you can make from it and it's variations), I'll gradually speed it up. Then I'll move on to the next one.

 

I guess I was in a big hurry for some reason. Heck, time to just start enjoying the ride.