Payson Games

We had camped just 5 miles out of Payson near the Maple Dell Scout Camp in order to be able to get to the games in time. But, I forgot my meds, so HH graciously said he would drive back for them. He did, bless him. But the sleeping accomodations were so uncomfortable that I didn't sleep much and was pretty shaky come morning, so I blew off the parade and slept in the car until 10. By then, HH had gotten the boys up (we took Small Son and his Favorite Friend) and fed them blueberry waffles and bacon. He fed me that, too, and we cleaned up and packed up and drove to town.

The minimum pipers for a band to compete is 6. That is all we had: Dave, Andrew, Jack, Pete, Grant and me (Sande's playing bass drum this season. Yay, Sande!). So if anybody didn't show, we wouldn't be able to compete. I was afraid they would have cancelled by the time I got there, so I found Sean right away and apologized for being late and asked if we were still competing. He said yes. I also blew off my solos, as it was time to play as I arrived and I'd had no time to tune up or warm up. So I sat in the shade with my bottles of Gatorade and watched the world go by.

Then it was time to warm up for band competition. It was very crowded, so we had to circle up half on the kids playground and half on the sidewalk and go through our Quick March Medley (QMM) several times. We also went through the march in and march off several times (Thank you, Sean!) and then it was time. We circled up just off the line where you line up to start your march in, and Sean gave Last Minute Instructions: keep your blowing up cuz somebody said they could hear our drones wavering on the slow march. So I did.

And I squeaked twice.

But I didn't make ANY other mistakes. Somebody's chanter cut in early, but not mine.

We tied for 2nd place! Then they broke the tie by looking at the ensemble score (there are three judges and 3 scores: one for piping, one for drumming, and one for ensemble, or how we all play together), and White Peaks got one point higher than we did on that, so they got 2nd and we GOT THIRD!!! Yay! This is the first time the band has ever won anything since I've been playing.

Right after the competition, both Sean and Jason sat down next to me and discussed how to stop my squeaking. Jason thinks it's due to overblowing, and Sean thinks it's due to fingering. I did follow Sean's Last Minute Instructions to keep my blowing up, so it could be overblowing. I've tried to duplicate the error here at home, but can't make it squeak, no matter what I do with blowing. I was also being very careful of my fingering. So I don't know.