I was delighted to be a part of this year’s BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition. It came as a huge surprise to be in the semi-final and it was a great privilege to be in the final, especially after seeing the quality of musicianship in the semis. The semi-final weekend had a nice, relaxed vibe and we were lucky to get a couple of amazing workshops about promoting yourself and about earning money from royalties with Craig Corse and Duncan McCrone. The semi-final concert was in Coulter Village Hall with a very happy, enthusiastic audience but was still, up until then, the most stressful gig experience I’d had – I hadn’t been used to playing in competitions since I was young and because everyone else was a bit nervous as well the atmosphere felt pretty intense, even though it was juxtaposed with the setting being as relaxed as could be. I went into auto-pilot when I got on the stage, and can’t really remember anything about my performance, but remember being ready for a beer as soon as I came off the stage! One thing that really struck me about the weekend was the opportunity to work with Mhairi Hall and Mike Bryan, and experiencing their efficiency in arranging the 10 minutes of music we were going to perform in a half-hour rehearsal. Certainly, I couldn’t have asked for a better backing band, who were relaxed and nailing all the parts all the time.
As I said, it was a huge privilege to be selected for the finals, and in the run-up to the weekend, at Simon’s advice, I took every opportunity I could to run my 15min set, whether it was in the kitchen at home, or to any audience (using the term loosely!) that would listen (or not listen). This really helped me feel more comfortable performing the tunes and seeing which jokes worked and which didn’t.
The finals weekend itself had a slightly different feel to it and took the form of spending a bit of time with the other finalists, coupled with intensive practicing in the hotel room and two 1-hour rehearsals with the house band (Mhairi Hall, Mike Bryan and Mark Maguire), who were just as efficient and helpful as they had been in the semi-final rehearsal.
The final itself was certainly the highest-profile gig I’ve ever done as well as the most nerve-wracking. But a fantastic experience, which I’d certainly recommend to all who fancy it. It really taught me to practice the stage patter until I could recite every word on auto-pilot, and to practice the music to a high enough level that I could recover from mistakes – the plan was simply to make as few mistakes as possible. In order to do this, I made sure I played all the difficult parts with different bowings, and sought out where the mistakes were likely to arise.
Looking back on it, it was an absolutely class experience that gave me the chance to meet and play with some awesome players, the chance to really hone my technique and develop my playing. I had a great time and at the end of the day, a very worthy winner came out on top.