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Scotland Calling

Highland Perthshire

What is Scottish Dancing?

On Sunday I had partaken in some early afternoon vodka drinking in the TV room with Rob and various other hostel vagrants. Somehow in my not too sober state I got convinced to go to the Walkabout (big sweaty cheaps drinks "Aussie" pub) and spent the time preceding running round like a maniac with Renae trying to help me pack my stuff for the week. I even needed help from someone to zip the bag up I was in such a flurry.

Well we made it to the Walkabout alright, and I stayed there for about an hour or so when Rob convinced me it would be a good idea to go home. So at nearly 3am on about 3 or 4 hours fitful sleep I trundled off to get the night bus.

When Rob was walking me to the bus stop the guys at the front desk of the hostel asked me if I was leaving for good, and I said 'no, I'll be back in a week'. So that was that. Then while we were waiting the two guys came up to us and were saying 'you don't owe us any rent do you' and asking for my room number and name and stuff... and I was telling them to piss off because I didn't think they could be serious! Then one of them punched Rob!! I just couldn't believe it .. he hadn't even done anything to him... luckily it was a piss weak punch .. but I was suprised Rob was controlled enough not to punch him back. I was just so shocked though... I mean we've been there 6 months and these stupid £%$^! don't even know that we always pay our rent on time and all that... grrrr..... so even when I was on the bus I couldn't sleep or anything because I was just too worked up about that.

THEN! the bloody coach broke down on the way to the airport and we had to wait for another one to come along. I would have been an hour early if the coach had been on time but I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole way and I only just made the final check in time. Och what a stress! I was absolutely knackered by the time I got there let me tell you!

FLUTE STUFF! Ok now onto the actual flute school!! For one week about 25 of us lived in an isolated boarding school called Strathallan School in the Forgandenny Hills in Perthshire, Scotland. This is about an hour and a half drive from Glasgow. Our first evening was spent getting to learn each others names through various games as well as some icebreaking improvisation games.

On arrival being totally wired from my extensive bus trips, I discovered that I was to play first thing the next morning. The first class of the whole course... thanks Ruth!! (in hindsight I actually mean that, it was good to get the first performance out of the way!). I first played to Peter Lloyd which went reasonably well considering how nervous I was. He talked, amongst other things, about improving my breathing, and reducing my tenseness by breathing in right to the bottom of my stomach and expanding my rib cage, rather than using shallow chest breathing. He also talked about the musical aspects of the piece (2nd mvt Prokofiev Sonata) such as the coldness of the middle section and the need to keep the support strong and airstream constant for soft playing to project.

The people attending the course were a varied and interesting bunch. From adult teachers/performers to student prodigies and current or recently graduated tertiary music students there was a good variety of standards and outlooks. I met some really great people during the week, and I think that everyone felt comfortable enough to have a chat with everyone on the course. By the end of the week, of course we were all great mates, aided by the bottles of wine available for our evening recreation, and just living together for a week in general!

My second performance in class was not until Friday morning (again at 10am!) to Wissam Boustany. I played the Gaubert Fantasie, and at first I was even more nervous than I was when I played to Peter... I think I was flushed bright red by the end of the piece! However by the end of the masterclass, i was feeling so much more confident about my playing and in control of what I wanted to do with the piece. Wissam is such a lovely person too, so genuinely interested and caring about the people he meets .. it's amazing how people seem to be drawn to him.

I think the really great thing about the course on the musical side of things, was that the two teachers, although they have similar view points, their approaches are both very different, but complimentary at the same time. Peter gives a more of a 'how to' approach to what you need to improve in your music making, where as Wissam's approach is more often from evoking images and feelings from inside. Both teacher's are greatly in favour of memorizing music to free yourself from being tied to the page.

The week was great for me because it was the first flutey thing I had really done (apart from practice in the hostel and annoy the b****s next door) since arriving in the UK. It was great to meet some more musicians and I had great fun.

Some of the social highlights included: The Karaoke video that some of us kept the building up all night listening to our over enthusiastic singing and dancing; the Celidh band on the final night - this was so much fun! Traditional Scottish/Celtic music and we made some very enthusiastic attempts to do the dances (similar to the ones we aussies would have learnt in PE classes). Unfortunately the floor was a bit slippery and one girl fell and banged her head quite hard, so our course organizer (or coarse organizer.. ;) Ruth had to spend her evening in the casualty ward to make sure she was alright. The rest of us got to party on... some of us a little too hard. A select few of us got to stay up all night with someone who was *very* ill...

...and thus my week at the flute school ended in a similar vein to it's beginning. Sleep deprived, slightly hungover and desperately trying to pack my clothes up in time to get on the train. Well I was meant to leave at 8:30am but that didn't exactly happen (I got woken up at 8:30am and Ruth helped pack the remainder of my things while I got dressed). On the way to town I realised I'd forgotten my purse so we had to go back... thank goodness because I'd also left my passport in my drawer!! Eeeek!!! So I got to have breakfast even though I was too tired to eat and then second time lucky I got onto the bus to Glasgow and was on my way to my new home in North London. The journey of course took longer than expected ... flight delays blah blah blah ... but I made it home safe and sound and tired but happy!

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