You always remember your first time, right? I know I’ll certainly remember mine.

I am no longer a piper who hasn’t performed in public.

Yesterday’s concert/recital went very well. The weather was fantastic, the crowd was large and quite appreciative of our student efforts, my rattled nerves weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they’d be, and in the end, I lived to pipe another day.

I played a mini-set of “Mist-Covered Mountains” (the slow air that was played at President Kennedy’s funeral) and the upbeat march “Teribus,” which I made even more upbeat (and sadly less musical) by playing it somewhere around the speed of light.

I came dangerously close to losing things completely several times, once in each tune, when the fairly short blowstick on the Fireside Pipes slipped out of my mouth. That ticked me off a bit, because I had actually thought about that possibility and had considered adding my flexible blowstick extender, but ultimately decided not to. I hadn’t used the extender with the smallpipes before and didn’t want to deal with any new distractions. So instead I distracted myself by losing my grip on the stick. Fortunately, I was able to get the stick back in my mouth and the tunes back under control without too much damage.

I was also pleased to learn afterwards that the Negaunee Bandshell did a good job of amplifying and projecting the relatively quiet sound of the Firesides, eliminating my concern that I’d be playing my heart out for an audience that couldn’t hear a thing.

Looking back from the safety of the morning after, I am absolutely glad I did it. I’m glad my instructor and my family talked me into it. I’m glad I didn’t listen to my whiny internal reasoning and decide to wait until I was more comfortable or relaxed or experienced or any of the other dozens of things my brain told me to wait for.

All in all, it was a very good day. I conquered a fear and learned a lot. And I had loads of fun. What else can you ask for on a Sunday afternoon?