I am really enjoying experimenting with accenting patterns with Scottish reels. It really livens them up in a way that playing them just with swing & upbeat accents, or with the 3-in-a-bow pattern, or just straight, doesn't. The danger is, at least for a while, I will use my new tool exclusively, and not mix it up. But I'm sure that's only temporary. But certain of my reels are sounding a lot better, a lot like I've heard real Scottish fiddlers play them, and that's awfully exciting.

What this technique definitely requires is strong wrist muscles with a lot of endurance. I practiced fiddle for 4 hours on Sunday, an hour at a time, and by the end of the day, I couldn't pulse the bow anymore; I was just worn out.

The Irish tunes are coming along well, and the flute embrochure is definitely improving.

I've managed to practice the pipes enough to rehydrate my bag, but that won't keep up as the weather cools and the air gets drier. I think I'm going to have to keep my instrument in a closed case, with the chanters out of the bag w/ reed protectors, to keep the proper level of moisture. We'll see. I'll be paying closer attention to bag moisture issues from now on. I'm looking forward to when I send the drones off to be rebored. That will be a perfect opportunity to rehemp everything, which desperately needs doing. Along with that, the strathspey- and reel-playing is coming along incrementally. New reeds came in for band, but I wasn't at practice, and so I won't get my reed until tomorrow - meaning Thursday will be a tough night.