Quite the Opposite of Seasickness

Yesterday's schedule had a very large gap between the morning lessons and the afternoon ones, so I had a grand time trying out a couple of new tunes on my own. I have a very heavy practice mute that I like to use on my fiddle if I'm going to be doing anything terribly repetitious (or wobbly of intonation) within earshot of innocent bystanders--yesterday I had the leisure to discover that if I used the mute and turned up the studio speakers I could play along with the mp3 of my choice and still hear the details of the recording. So, yes, I tried through Bruce MacGregor's recording of "Sitting in the Stern of a Boat" several times. I love the second part of the tune--there is such a deal of wistful sweetness in the high B's, even if they're scarcely lingered on (because they're scarcely lingered on, I should say). And the understated accompaniment in this particular rendition is the ideal complement--it makes the tune richer without distracting in the least from the fiddle part.