Wednesday, December 4, 2013

I found the "new age" setting in audacity!

I didn't realize making new age music was so easy.

Let's see if blogger allows an embed:
It does! Sweet.  If not, here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/motorharp/this-will-cure-your-insomnia

It is very relaxing.  Some might say almost too relaxing.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Warmed up with Lariviere, might be good for recording.

Worked on Siciliano even though I have no plans drawn up as of yet.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The recordings from Sat still sound better after getting them home and listening on a different set-up. Using two regular mics and the rear channel from a 3rd sounds good and retro (Zabaleta from the 60s). Hopefully, this will be a long term availability.

Need to listen to Zarabanda variations (Painting A Scene) I recorded today, which I promptly forgot about, and see which I like.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

New recording space is much more promising.  Recordings sound so much better, despite me still playing like crap. Will practice more this week and play with recordings in audacity in prep for recording next week, as well.  I think I'll try Berceuse and have Chaconne as backup.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Nervously testing out a potential recording space tomorrow. Still have tender fingers from latest bout of not-playing.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Played Zarabanda a few different ways to see if it made more sense. It was fun and did make a difference, but I'd need to record it to hear it. And I'm so leery of recording right now.

Got another piece of equipment for field recording, namely latex foam to wrap around the mic holder to minimize the noise of my creaky finger joints. For a buck fifty, too.

Played with FL10 and followed a tutorial that went way too fast for me, but I was actually able to make the same sounds.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Today was the first session of field recording/writing/playing with Audacity that I set up for myself.  Here's how it went:
- Turned on recorder yesterday to find batteries dead.
- Tried to record around the house with power plug.
- Spent 1 hour of part of hour set aside for both field recording and writing going to store for batteries.
- Sat down to write and spent most of time organizing all the little bits of paper I've written stuff on into one space.
- Downloaded sounds off my microphone.

My hand was doing much better until I started knitting. :/

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

I did practice, can't remember what I did. Oh, right. Tried to record Chaconne again.  Was disappointed again. Need to find someplace free and quiet.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Tried to record again today and was successful in not having background laundry/construction noise, but my fingers hurt so much I couldn't do very much. And whatever I did to my tendon by sleeping on it however is still hurting. Very disappointed.

However, was wondering about recording on four tracks with microphone and turning up back mics to get more room sound.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Didn't get to record today because massive amounts of road construction going on right outside my building. However, that gave me time to figure out maybe why I haven't been able to play one particular part of Chaconne is because I needed to change the fingering.  It works better now, but now I have to get it in muscle memory.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Tried to record today, but a combination of cold weather, someone running water the entire time, and me not setting up the microphone properly conspired against me.  Maybe tomorrow.

Also got suggestion from friend to try local community college for rentable recording spaces. Or free.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Chaconne - played through a few times and marked dynamics. Some trouble spots disappeared on their own.  Need to, tomorrow, do dress rehearsal.

Arabesque - tried to cement what I recently learned.

Imp Cap - one more line.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

If I play Chaconne slowly, I think I'll be able to record this week after I work out more problem spots that showed up in this round of test recordings.  My scales sound incredibly even on the recording and incredibly uneven in my ear when playing.  Weird.

Tomorrow need to sit down and listen to the three take and mark another copy of the music, work through them, then pressure test.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Another good practice session, I think. 

Chaconne - another area chained. Need to see tomorrow if it held, and record again tomorrow to see where I am for recording for real next week.  My tendons are starting to hurt faintly and I realized while playing this it's because of the harmonics.  Need to find some sort of exercise to prevent tendons from hurting when my thumbs twist, or prevent my thumbs from twisting altogether.

Arabesque 2 - Drilling trills slow to fast seems to finally have paid off.  Now just need to speed up placing and I think I'll have this. 


Thursday, October 24, 2013

Really good practice today - was able to concentrate on chaining needed part of Chaconne and have success. Need to chain more tomorrow - section marked.  Stopped early because my fingers are STILL tender and I want to sew.  My fingers appear to be getting tougher, but not quickly.

Also started the process of getting permission to record copyrighted pieces for an album.  First step appears to be getting a mechanical license.  Actually, first step is finding out who owns the copyright, or where pieces are registered. It's confusing.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Chaconne - worked on buzzes.

Arabesque - one more measure sped up. PLaying at speed is hit or miss.

Friday, October 18, 2013

How to get my hands to do the same thing every time.

Tomorrow work on blue - buzzes.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

In prep for recording again, going through Chaconne and concentrating on a different color for each work session. Green for tempo.Need to work on scales.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Friday, October 11, 2013

I think I gave myself 3 blisters today. One for sure because it's visible, and possibly two more that are hidden deep under the skin.

Yesterday, I made a practice schedule out through the end of September 2014. Then I read that your learning time either expands or contracts to fill the time you've allotted yourself to learn  said thing. Based on that, I'm going to revise the schedule as I go along to try to push myself to get things done more quickly.

However, like today, when pushing myself I quickly see what my limits are. And they are short. Very, very short.

I need to work on trills with rt hand 1&2 exercises for Chaconne.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Chaconne - exercises have helped, still need to do them over and over for... another week?

Arabesque - exercises have helped, still need to do them over and over. Got to check off two more measures.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

ImpCap - more lines learned

Arabesque - still need to work on second trill

Chaconne - Almost. Done.  I still need to convince myself I already know line 1 on 3rd page and then learn next line and I'm done except for polishing.

I've been listening to Zarabanda and I don't like the way it came out. :(

Saturday, September 7, 2013

So, I wasn't going to play for very long today, because of blisters, but I completely lost track of time and 1.5 hours later had another blister.

ImpCap - pg 8 line 1 needs going over again.

Arabesque 2 - need single work on 2nd 16th notes 2nd measure

Chaconne - laughable

Friday, September 6, 2013

Arabesque 2 - The 16th note exercises are working. So well that I have a blister on my thumb. I also have one on my 3rd finger of same hand, but don't know what that's from.

Chaconne - One more stubborn measure.  Chaining helped a little bit, need to do it again.

ImpCap - more random lines.  Seems to be going quickly, but I set myself low goals.


Monday, September 2, 2013

Arabesque - Played through as fast as I could. Gaps between each eighth note pair needs to go away.

ImpCap- One more line

Chaconne - one phrase worked a little faster. Need to go over it again.

Friday, August 30, 2013

One more line in ImpCap.

Chaconne - Fast chords seem to have had time to sink in. And if I concentrate.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Back from vacation

I'm so happy to be playing again. So happy that I played for 2 hours straight and noticed a lot of muscles are kept up when playing constantly.  My tensor fasciae latae, for example is used quite a bit when pedaling. My shoulder is also fatigued. And the muscles I built up in my thumb to play Arabesque 2 are atrophied.

Chaconne - I need to skip over the problem measures and go for the remaining 3 or 4. Then go back to the hard ones.

Arabesque 2 - I fudged and checked a measure off just so I'd have something to check off. It's getting disheartening.

ImpCap - Just taking it easy. 1st 2 pages checked off.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

New string in place, played until my hands got shaky.  Tendon still hurts, even after resting on vacation. Got 2nd page of ImpCap to 80.

Friday, August 16, 2013

It's really difficult to practice with a(nother) broken string.  This time it was the 2nd octave A. One of the ones I don't have, of course.  Every time I sell an album, a string breaks. Coincidence? I think not.

Friday, July 26, 2013

A little chaining done and marked on Chaconne and it worked brilliantly. Wish I had time/energy to do whole piece.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Finger is healed, string is strung.

Arabesque 2 - I think I might just have to play this super slow, maybe around ♩ =92-96.

Chaconne - Few more measures under my belt. Trills will need work. Current measure needs chaining.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sliced my finger on glass, another harp string broke. Not practicing.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Arabesque 2 - Can't figure out how to speed it up and have it still sound like I want. Maybe need to record.

Chaconne - Still working on line 8.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Chaconne - This needs way more work on consistency at high speed. I need to chain and focus!

Arabesque 2 - Still can't get past the first measure, but my hands are getting slowly stronger, I think.

Going to get a mute for my violin today. :)

Monday, July 15, 2013

Sometimes it's nice to only have 10 minutes to practice, I end up focusing really specifically.  I need to find some way to translate that to my regular practice.

Also, drilling one specific area, then expecting to play it afterward all the way through doesn't work.  It's the same as practicing the same thing 2 days in a row, I think.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Besides getting my muscles wrapped around playing Arabesque 2 at 100, I still need to wrap my brain around it, as well.  Did a quick 10 min practice today, just enough for hand to be fine, but forearm and shoulder to start feeling it.

Happy Birthday to the only person that reads this besides me! :)

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Holy hand cramp, Batman. Arabesque 2 at 100 is... intense.

My muscle memory from high school is kicking on Chaconne providing some interesting and fun phrasing.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Blogger now seems not to require titles anymore. Maybe they got complaints.

Just played a little today.

I can certainly tell the difference in my recording of Zarabanda vs previous pieces because I pretty much know it cold (despite not being able to memorize it?) and there are so few things that need fixing.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Wobbly thumbs! I think they're getting stronger. May need to do chaining on first page btwn chord change measures. Or may need to just get even stronger.

Chaconne is coming along quickly. I think I may have tried to learn it at some point before.

I may edit some things today if I can get everyday life stuff done.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Recorded Zarabanda

Finished arabesque 2 at 60. Almost played it at 80. Hopefully it will be a short jump from there to 100.

Recorded Zarabanda. Lots of cars today, though, and no motivation to listen to it and edit, so I may need to rerecord.  I'd much rather play around with the angry wasp I recorded. Oops, play around with the RECORDING of the angry wasp. Angry wasp can go away now. I also still don't understand one section of Zarabanda.

And serious, why does blogger all of a sudden need a title? @#$&*(%

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Tendons

There are two different pinch grips and one hurts my thumb. Arabesque 2 - hammered more into my head.

And now blogger apparently requires a title for all posts. :P

Sunday, June 30, 2013

My album! Well, more of an EP, really.

While I've not been practicing, I've been getting stuff together for an album, and here it is!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Zarabanda - There are just a couple lines that don't make sense to me, so I'm ready to record. I need to remember to sing the latter-measure eighth notes while playing. So I guess that's what I'll practice today since the rain is making too much background noise.  After yoga, though, since I can barely sit up straight right now. :P


Saturday, June 22, 2013

Recorded Zarabanda again. Slight improvement. Not enough for me to have a boost of self confidence, though.  My tone is so uneven. I think if I could control my fingers, I might be a better player. /sarcasm

Working on lettering for my album and in general.

Friday, June 21, 2013

2nd Arabesque - having problems concentrating - didn't eat enough of the right stuff after bike ride, but managed to figure out a much easier way to play measure 15 that saved me a lot of practice time.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Finished polishing Zarabanda. Now just need to take out all the jarring pauses and I think I'm good to record.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Zarabanda - 1st two pages polished. Started on 3rd.

2nd Arabesque - 1st two pages almost done.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Knocked out 2nd Arabesque. Next need to speed it up and add dynamics. I will have massive callouses after learning this.
My thumbs continue to be intermittently painful.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

2nd Arabesque's slides are giving me blisters, but I'll take that any day over a painful thumb joint.

I think I'm going to try learning the other version of 1st Arabesque.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

More work on Zarabanda. I think it's making sense.

More work on Arabesque 2. It's a repetitive, so I'm able to cross things off quicker, yay.

Monday, June 3, 2013

I started 2nd Arabesque. I may try 1st Arabesque as I have another version whose fingerings I'll try and see if it makes a difference with the learned bad rhythm in my hands.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

What's circling the bathtub drain of my mind

Should I stop playing the two Folk Songs, which I absolutely love, yet seem to be destroying my thumb joints and start on the next piece, which is First Arabesque by Debussy, which I learned in high school WRONG and which has resisted repeated attempts by me to  unlearn and relearn properly, which would probably lead to frustration, or skip First Arabesque also and move on to the next next piece and be disappointed about it? OR, I could replace First Arabesque with Second Arabesque, which is in an entirely different book. *marge noise*


Saturday, June 1, 2013

My right thumb is back to hurting just as much as it was. I guess I really can't squeeze my hand into the uncommonly tiny upper register of my harp. So good-bye to Folk Song 2, and possibly 1.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Muscles, tendons, or cysts?

My hands are better. In particular, my right thumb.  I cannot tell if it is due to:
A. Starting my physical therapy exercises back up and doing them consistently,
B. Whatever I was doing yesterday (opening a jar? I seriously can't remember) that severely torqued my thumb and made me gasp in pain, and reminded my body that that area needed some healing, or
C. Whatever I was doing yesterday possibly popped a heretofore unknown cyst in my thumb joint.

My left thumb joint has absolutely no pain, and my right thumb joint is mildly painful, and the pain is only present if I squeeze the joint hard.

So I was able to practice today a little better than I have for the past week. I've been half-heartedly playing/practicing because my head was completely not in it. I had to do the "try it for 5 minutes" trick every day, and every day I stopped after five minutes (that's five minutes in harp time, which is more like 15, due to settling in and warming up). Today was a little better, but my concentration was... laughable.

Zarabanda - I got a few phrases checked off. It's weird working in phrases because it makes so much sense and why would my brain default to doing something that made sense?

Imp Cap - one more line

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Tiny harp torques thumb

I think part of the reason my rt hand is hurting is because my harp is so narrow in the upper registers I can't get my hand comfortably on the strings and end up torquing my thumb.

Therefore, I need to relearn Folk Song 2 with new hand positions.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Still resting my thumbs a bit, but they are definitely getting better.

I test recorded Zarabanda today and it is unsurprisingly messy. They bass sounds much better than I expected, though.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Harmonics are killing me!

I think I figured out what's wrong with my thumb joints: the ligaments at the base of my thumbs are slightly sprained or strained from harmonics. I have been neglecting my hand strengthening exercises, so yes, my muscles were weakened and allowed my thumbs to twist too much when plucking the harmonics in the two pieces I'm working on. And I played an exercise for kicks that was nothing but harmonics. So yeah. Need to stop that for a while.  I'm relieved, though, that they've been hurting long enough that it's time to apply heat - as opposed to the immediate 24-48 hr post injury icing that I skipped - because warm hands are such a luxury for me! And I've been doing my exercises again and they seem to be helping.

Sources:
http://black-rose227.deviantart.com/art/Anatomy-of-the-Hand-and-Wrist-270462040
http://www.overtimepainrelief.com/pain-treatment/arthritis-joint-pain/ligament-pain/

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Here is a list of the reasons I didn't really practice today: I'm having an off day, I have an unusual headache, my thumb joint hurt, my harp is buzzing (A-NNOY-ING), it's too nice a day to be inside.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I started Impromptu-Caprice today. It's something I've been wanting to learn for years and kept thinking "someday". Today is someday, so I made a practice plan. It's not going to take the place of what I'm currently working on or other pieces I have planned, rather it's going to lurk in the background with much lower priority. I think it will take about a year to learn properly.

Both my thumb joints have become increasingly achy.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Checked off two more lines in Zarabanda review. One line each yesterday and today.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

My entire rt hand is kind of achy now, instead of just the thumb joint. And it's traveling up into my arm, so I'm going to go slap the old heating pad on it and read.

I managed to get the 2nd piece corrected (I think) in Two Pieces for Harp.

I played Folk Song II in it's entirety, with no mistakes at half speed. This is a doozy. And I seem to be in such a funk that I wasn't even having my usual fun playing it. But it was nice to achieve the half speed.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Recorded Folk Song II to give a listen. Not bad, but need to practice with quarter notes so I can get proper beats.

Marked up and recorded 1st song in Two Pieces for Harp by Flagello. So far, it's not intriguing me too much. And there are a ton of errors in pedal markings and rhythms.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

I got some good work done on Folk Song II - I just needed to focus, something which I can't always do. Trouble spots worked on and almost worked out so I can sort of play it at half speed.

Folk Song I is ready for recording at half speed. I kind of think I already know where the trouble spots are, though.

I stopped playing because my rt thumb joint was killing me.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

I've been posting practice notes mentally, which I guess is a good thing. It shows I'm paying attention and remembering what I'm doing in my practice sessions?

Last Saturday, I sliced my thumb while washing dishes. Thankfully, it didn't go too deep due to calluses, but I took a day off.

I think I may have successfully recorded the song I wrote, plus LGR. I just need to get the mental energy to analyze and process them.

And I need to check when I started LGR here because I didn't write it down on my practice sheet. Something else to remember for next time. ETA: July 2012. So almost a year. Darn.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Recording The Drive didn't quite go as planned, due both to outside noises, and noises inside the piece that don't belong there. So it needs a skosh more work.

Looking Glass River I thought was close to being ready to record, until, that is, I tried to record it. I get so self conscious when I'm recording that everything falls apart. I've probably said before, but I guess I should record more often during my practice sessions.

Read through (Mirage) by Salzedo, just because I love some of the chords in it, and didn't feel like getting up from the harp just quite yet.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Now I can play LGR again. WTH?


Scanned and printed out some pages to avoid page turns.

One more line of Folk Song 1.

Folk Song 2 needs work to get up to 50, but I needed a break from it.

My song I wrote is to the point where I need to do a detailed trawl to make sure both hands are playing precisely together.


Saturday, April 13, 2013

LGR - I think this is one of the ones I give up on, or just play it as well as I can and call it done.

Folk Song #2 - 2nd page checked off

Folk Song #1 - at this point my concentration and stamina ran out.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Um. I did stuff? I checked things off lists.

I've definitely made progress with LGR and noticeably with Folk Song 2. Oh, and the piece I wrote.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Only got in 1.5 hours today. But I consider that to be better than the 5 I told myself was the minimum.

Got some good work done, I think.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

LGR - pg3 mid 80s.

Zarabanda shouldn't take too much work. FLW.

Folk Song2 needs spot work at 80.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

I made notes on The Drive, which I can't remember now, but are safely written on the actual music. Something about dynamics and making sure both hands are playing at the same time. So nothing new.

I made up charts for the next two pieces so I have something to alternate with Folk Song 2 and LGR. I'm going to be starting on Folk Song 1 and Zarabanda (again).

Friday, April 5, 2013

LGR third page is better now.  Should be able to start working on it again. Maybe not tomorrow, but Sunday.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

LGR - I did go back to square one, and the first page seems to be pretty solid. The second page seems to be relatively solid. But the last page is still troublesome - like I've never learned it/seen it/played it before.

Folk Song 2 is so much fun to play. It's like the abandon I had when I used to bang on the piano before I knew how to play, but is absolutely gorgeous. It's almost all up to ♩=80. It was apparently originally for flute and harp and there are three. Also, I'm not sure if I want to play it at the recommended speed, both because I don't think I can physically do some of the things in the piece and I've listened to it sped up, and I can't hear all the beautiful notes - they need to have some space.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

It took me two  h o u r s  to put finger markings in my song in Finale.

Friday, March 22, 2013

I haven't been feeling the need to keep track of my progress here as I have a list next to my harp and am checking things off there.

I have one of those blisters (or something) that doesn't stop hurting with playing, so no practicing today.

Friday, March 15, 2013

LGR - Based on how far back this has slid, I think I need to start my "campaign" all over again. The other solution "Practiceopedia" recommended was to leave it alone for a while, but I think that's what the problem is - it's got challenging areas that need regular maintenance (not necessarily constant).

Berceuse - I keep wanting to type this, but I'm done with it!

Folk Song 2 - A couple more lines done. I really don't know how this is supposed to be played at ♩ =100.

The song I wrote which I will need to name at some point - How did I write something I can't play?

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Trying to learn the piece I wrote, which I guess I need to name. There are some tricky turn-arounds.

LGR - Chaining last 2 lines. Got one measure done. Not sure what to do about the rest of the piece.

Folk Song 2 - two more lines learned with dynamics.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Folk Song 2 - Started speeding up and adding dynamics. I think that may be too many things at once for my poor brain. Think I should maybe only go up to 80 instead of 100. But then it's good to play fast to see where the weak points are. ???

After 2 lines at full volume (there are interesting dynamics in these Folk Songs - left hand has almost a carillon feel to it) my thumbs were almost toast, so I just played through some other pieces in the rest of the book.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Spent all day and a good part of yesterday working on de-clipping Berceuse recording. There is still some clipping I absolutely can't get rid of. But whatever. It is now up. Oh, be careful on the volume because of the clipping.

I'm tired. Hooray.

Thanks again to dad for hosting. :)

Berceuse - actual link to music.

It's on this page.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Berceuse - almost ready for recording - just a slight dynamics issue in a couple measures. I would have recorded today, but: 1) unusual headache, and 2) weird band practicing across the street is SO LOUD, it sounds like the washer unbalanced in the next room.Seriously need a quiet space.

LGR - 1st page seems to be the holdup, otherwise it's fine. Can't record it if I can't start it. Oh, and other than the chaining needed on very last line, but as I just proved to myself, it's totally doable. Just didn't do it today (see above).


Folk song - all lines learned, 1st page played 3x times no mistakes.




Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Almost all of Folk Song 2 learned. At ♪=50, it is so slow I can't even speed it up in Audacity and get anything listenable. It's got some crazy dynamics, too, and I'm looking forward to that.

Berceuse - More pressure testing. It amazing to me how new and unexpected mistakes pop up out of nowhere on things that had been smooth as glass before.

LGR - at this point my pedals were flying up like crazy so I called it quits.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Folk song - one more line

Berceuse - pg 3 5x no mistakes. started pg 4, too tired.

LGR - did chaining in right hand for last two lines, need to do left.

Wrote a song in the past 3 days, forgot I would also need time to record it.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Folk song - one more line

Berceuse - smoothed over some trouble spots, but didn't get through all 5x on page 3.


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Berceuse - can definitely tell I've done recording prep on only pg 1 & 2.  Need to do that with pg 3 & 4. Like I wrote down on my list!

LGR - continues to slide backward. ???

Folk song 2 - one hour to learn another measure. Granted, that measure had a chord that spanned 1.5 octaves and I've always had problems with those.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Started to get comfortable playing LGR at 100 again.

I think Berceuse is ready for recording.

First page of Folk song 2 learned. Realized I tend to be sloppy during the slow part of learning assuming I'll fix it later so I'm trying to take care learning it, lnowing what that will save me later. Basically, trying to pay attention to detail NOW.

Wrote a little bit of music. Not sure where it's going and don't know if I want to plan it or let it happen.

Analyzed Chameleons and learned I lost a lot of what I learned in music theory. And can't tell what key Monkeyland is in. Is it F# major or D# minor?

Friday, February 15, 2013

Need to go back to step 3 for LGR.

Set up sessions for Chinese Folk song 2.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Listened to Berceuse and cleaned up the left hand (sloppy!) and switched to less squeaky shoes and now need to polish up pedal changes - again.  Then go through and play all 5x without mistakes. 

Getting more comfortable playing it.  I guess I really do better when I take breaks between practice sessions.  Which means I could probably be learning 2 or 3 things at a time.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

LGR - Apparently I need to relearn this. Everything is gone from my recuperation.

Berceuse - added clarification to "prep for recording": made test recording, now need to take notes on that, turn off heaters before recording, and work on improvements.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

My thumbs are finally feeling better.

I realized I don't need to necessarily practice the cells I designed in order.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Somehow flared up my De Quervain's right before practicing.

Berceuse - still recording times to achieve goals. I have a wonky idea of how long things take, and what I can do in said times.  Still trying to play pages 1 & 2 x5 with no mistakes. Got page 1 done in the midst of that, in one hour.

LGR -page 1 x5 with no mistakes: I had to break it up into measures and play those x5 with no mistakes at varying tempos, then played page 1 faster than tempo, then at speed. Took one hour. And then I discovered I'd been reading 2 notes wrong. I think those are going to be tricky to fix since they are firmly cemented in my hands.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Short practice - too tired and fingers sore, but still managed to get everything done for today.

Started transcribing Street of Crocodiles by Leszek Jankowski.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Checking more things off my list. It's nice to know I'm accomplishing things and don't need to keep track of what I have to do next. And rotating what I learn seems to be beneficial for my hands as well as brain.

I've transcribed all the Chameleons stuff I wanted. I do not understand the key changes at all. I think if I played guitar it would make more sense.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Figured out how to play last line of LGR faster, but it makes my hand cramp after working on speeding it up for 20 minutes.
Continuing to check off cells from practice chart.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

I did overuse my fingers yesterday, but it's ok because I had other things to work on today based on my schedule, and got them done.  I'm surprised with the discrepancy between what I thought I could do when scheduling and what I can actually do.  I'm going to start timing myself to see how long it takes me to accomplish the cells, because I'm getting everything done in about an hour, and when my fingers are working, I can do about 3 hours of practice.

I actually started View from a Hill yesterday, not Nathan's ... whatever.  It's another beautiful, yet easy, one.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Wow, planning out my practice sessions is so much more efficient. I could almost have done more today, were it not for both LGR and Berceuse being really hard on my left 2.   I will be curious to see how much time planning out my next piece saves me. Or if I can learn more than 2 pieces at a time.

Transcribed On the Beach and started Nathan's Phase. Ahead of schedule, thank you very much.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Marathon transcribing of songs to get back on schedule. I finished Monkeyland, started and finished Singing Rule Brittania, and started On the Beach. Monkeyland was such a difficult song for me to figure out. I think because I deviated from my usual method and tried to get help with guitar tabs. They were not helpful at all.  I'm also learning that the songs I like the best are, disappointingly, the simplest. I egotistically thought I had sophisticated taste. Apparently not. However, I liked the more complicated songs more after I transcribed them.

I went through my music and planned out the practice sessions I need to do before the end of the month. If all goes according to schedule, I'll be ready to record at the end of the month. So far, knock on wood, my calluses are getting more robust. Hopefully they won't peel off.

I managed to get all the cells I had scheduled for my session today done in the hour I had left for BOTH pieces. It's mostly going to be work on the dynamics and getting up to speed.




Monday, January 14, 2013

Yeah, need to work on dynamics. Will outline that tomorrow.

LGR needs to be slowed down. It wasn't ready to be sped up to 100.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Ok, next thing to do is record same stuff across the room and see if my hands are still imbalanced.

But after 2 hours, my arms are tired. 

Plan for Su, Mu (ha, Munday): Work only for 1/2 hour on last measures of LGR.

Make copy of Berceuse so I can highlight the @#($*&^ pedal changes!

Then after recording plan rest of campaign. Or at least list steps to finish these pieces.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Tomorrow will be a planning session including recording and listening to LGR and Berceuse to see how to plan the "Campaign".

Saturday, January 5, 2013


Reading about how to set up practice goals and steps and levels and I need to digest it all now.

Friday, January 4, 2013