Scottish fiddle practice

I've been swamped with work lately and have not been practicing (or writing) as much as I want to.

Yesterday, though, I worked at the string shop and had a few moments of downtime, so worked on my Scottish fiddle tunes from camp. I sort of learned these by ear at camp, and am now learning/memorizing them by referring to the sheet music. I brought them to my lesson this week, and my teacher noted the discrepancies between what I was playing and what was written in the sheet music. Some differences where those I had decided to make (that was the way I learned it at camp), and others I was completely oblivious of. In particular, there was a part where I felt I was rushing, and could find no way to slow down. My teacher noted that I was dropping an eighth note. Suddenly it made sense. I didn't add the note back in, but extended the previous note. [It's folk music, and, as I said to my teacher, it is my tune now. :-)] She suggested a bowing change, which was a great improvement. She recommended marking in all the bowings on the music, even though I don't use the sheet music when I play, just to clarify to myself what I am doing. Also very helpful.

There is much more I want to say about fiddling. I have had some good discussions with various people, including Seylan Baxter, a Scottish cellist who plays with harpist Cheyenne Brown. You can hear their music on their MySpace site. We've been talking about learning by ear, what octave to play in, and other interesting topics. More later, when I have a bit more time!

My brother and his wife are visiting, and I would like to wish my in-all-ways-beautiful sister-in-law Barbara a very Happy Birthday!