"ku zhong zhuo le" as the chinese ppl say...and dats wat i did during sat and sun...no, i didnt slack as usual...i was working...as an usher at the National Stadium for the Singapore Rugby Sevens...its too bloody tiring...imagine reporting for work early in the wee hours of 7am for the first day, onli to knock off at 10pm...with onli 1 meal dat day to boot...luckily day 2 was slightly better...10am report for work...still ending at 10 though...cuz of all the standing...my right ankle is in constant pulsating pain...*groans...
back to topic...as i was saying, creating merry while working in misery was the least we could do at help pass the time faster...so wat did we do? nothing much...try to get into the rugby enthu mood...feasting on eye candy...cursing at arrogant and egotistical bastards/bitches...and...reliving one of my fav pastimes! I GOT TO PLAY THE BAGPIPE!!!(scenes of reminiscene comes in...) scotland is playing in the rugby sevens, so wats scotland without their bagpipes, rite????
its been so long since i last touched a bagpipe...and i'm soooo damn rusty...luckily it was a easy pipe...juz to enlighten u alittle...
the main difficulty of different bagpipes lie in the reed itself, there are other issues such as greasing the bagpipe and such but wont go into details. the main idea is the harder ur reed, the harder u have to blow juz to produce a sound.
Added levels of difficulty are the drones which u can add in the stock and tenors(the 3 long sticks), by adding a drone, u get some sort of a constant bass all the time apart from the pipe sound that u hear, and becuz the drones let out more air, u have to blow even harder juz to keep up...
also, ur technic in maintaining the amount of air in the bagpipe and blowing in at the same time matters, blow too much and u'll be out of breath, blow too little and u'll hear not a bagpipe but a camel crying...u have to balance between blowing air in and using the air in the bag while catching a breath in perfect momentum so u could go on playing without the music ending at all...dats the beauty of bagpipes!
dat guy whom i borrowed the bagpipe from had a damn easy reed, had 3 drones but shut 2 of them off, leaving only 1 open...making the pipe damn easy to blow...if i had this pipe during my playing days...i could have played for easily 20 mins no prob...now 5 mins is a prob...sigh...its all abt stamina and abdominal strength...
that was on the first day...was hoping i could see the guy again on the second day, no luck, the onli ones playing were 2 boys no older than mi i bet. then i saw her...MY BAGPIPE INSTRUCTOR!!! she was the one who taught mi all dat i noe(ashamed to say i 4got alot of it)...apparently, she coached the 2 boys as well...they were good...they were way better than i ever was(so i was lousy, can?)...got my instructor's hp num...i promise myself i'm gonna pick up the bagpipe again...
might talk more abt bagpipes in next post :)
"the pay u get for working in events like these dun do u justice...but the things you see...its worth more than ur pay~"
Stinko
No comments:
Post a Comment