Ok, so it wasn’t a big session like this…. but a session it was. With *other people*! Horror. I don’t play in front of anyone other than my teacher Ruth and Mark (even then Mark is generally in a different room!) so this was a big deal. And it’s one that I’ve been putting of for the last few years. But Ruth’s persistence has finally got through and I said yes to a session at her house.
So on thursday evening I made my way over to Broughton Gifford with fear weighing heavily, admittedly tinged with a bit of excitement. I needn’t have worried. To start with it was just me, Ruth and another student of hers – Peter. We didn’t play any of the reels I’d been madly practising as Peter didn’t know any of them! So we did some jigs that I learned ages ago (which was a bit of a memory test!) We were soon joined by another student of Ruth’s – Tim – he’d been having lessons for 4 years but been playing for 40 years on and off! The speed was fairly relaxed so I didn’t have too many problems keeping up which was a relief. I also didn’t have to sit out too many tunes. Tim was a bit of a hornpipe fan too so we rattled a few of those out too, which was great!
It was a great introductory session for me. It’s boosted my confidence a bit and it’s given me a new skill – being able to drop out and back into a tune without too much trouble. Whether I’d be able to do that at full speed, I doubt, but it’s a start. The next plan is to go to a faster session (still at Ruth’s) with some of her more able fiddling friends so that will be a bit more realistic and will be a bigger test of my abilities.
I’m looking forward to it!
101 Things in 1001 days - The Sequel 