★ Start scales week 3
★ Finger mechanics
Finish up week 1 of 30DtD with Danza and LGR and start week 2. Even though there was a rest day built in, I needed more than one, apparently.
  ★ LGR - I re-read the intro for Solos for the Harp Player, and learned (again?) that LGR was "suggested" by the Robert Louis Stevenson poem. I'm interpreting the loud part in the middle as the disruption of the water, but maybe something more profoundly darker and terrifying. Worked on smaller sections with dynamics.
  ★ Danza - Found the wiki article about Ernesto Halffter as well as a little info about the ballet (Sonatina, 1928) Danza is from. I can't find any info about Danza de la Pastora itself.  I'm going to try to make it as light as possible. Tried working on small sections, and wasn't really able to pay attention. Went back to this and worked a little harder. It's really repetitive and I managed to get some patterns in my hands.
★ Try to get to one section of Automne. Got two sections done.
★ Decide what to do with Grey Donkeys. I think I just need to set this aside for a while.
Sort through music. May need to make a list, since most everything is in one book.

I slept for 12 hours.

Goals:
★ Scales week 2. Bumped metronome up 4 clicks. Left hand had a little problem in the 6ths at the end turn around into 8ths.
★ Finger mechanics. Stretching still feels good.
☆ 30DtD LGR. Worked on one measure. I don't know why it's so difficult. I'd like to go more slowly to work on dynamics, but also want to really try to follow the schedule. Didn't get to do research in the morning, asked a ref question at work. The just isn't a lot of readily available information on Forst.
☆ 30DtD Danza. Only got to play it slowly with hands together, not separate.
Automne. I've already forgotten this. Geez.
Organize music - maybe if I hadn't started practicing an hour late, I could have gotten to this.
☆ Tried some Bear McCreary BSG music. It didn't work too well.

Ugh, just skipped today completely.

Well, did watch the next vid in the repertoire series.

And I was startled by my 3rd octave E breaking. That's harp-related.

Wiped today.

Goals:
★ Phone call
★ Scales week 2. Bumped tempo to 50. Did ok.
★ Finger mechanics. Stretchy stretchy.
☆ 30DtD LGR. Half-heartedly chained 2 beats.
_______________________________________
This was about 15 minutes. Urgh...

30DtD Danza
Grey Donkeys
Automne

Goals:
★ Scales week 2. I was having a lot of problems with the different rhythms, but then my counting and playing clicked and I kind of got it. I was able to play through the whole thing. I did sections CDE yesterday and AB today.
★ Finger mechanics. Did a couple repeats and stretched.
★ 30DtD LGR. Did this one first and it seems to be coming together. It's difficult not to do detail work, but kind of a relief at the same time.
★ 30DtD Danza. This was easier today. I played hands separately at 3/4 speed, which I had judged to be ♪=176, so 132, and was surprised by how well I did.
This all took about an hour. Not sure what I was doing the past couple days that it took 3.

Goals:
★ Speed up scales. Um... these need work.
★ Finger mechanics. I've forgotten over the years how good it feels to stretch my fingers like this. I need to do this ALL THE TIME.
★ 30DtD Danza. I think I got all the arrangements done as far as replacing the alternating 10ths. Difficult on harp, how do they even play this on the piano.
☆ 30DtD LGR. This is a really hard freakin' piece. Worked hard on two small sections and ran out of energy. Need to do this one first tomorrow!
☆ Section of Automne. Sort of got one?
_______________________________________________
This was another 3 hours! There is not enough time to do what I want. Also, my stamina was shot.

Section of Grey Donkeys. Didn't even get to this.

★ Start scales week 2. I was a little disappointed by how slowly I'm playing, however I have all week to speed up. My right thumb still gets my bicep in on the action.
★ Finger mechanics
☆ Day 3 of 30DtD with LGR. I'm not sure this is the best way of reviving this. I am getting a little more familiar with it again. It's just really hard to play this one hands apart. Although maybe it'd be a really good counting exercise. Also trying numbering my dynamics. I also have problems playing separate dynamics in each hand.
★ Day 2 of 30DtD with Danza. I did the first and last sections. Thank goodness for music that repeats.
★ Work on memorizing Automne with dynamics. I went through my chart and figured out what I need to work on. Dynamics were suspiciously easy to play around with.
☆ Work on one section of Grey Donkeys. At this point I had been practicing for almost 3 hours. And I worked on three chords instead of the six measures in that section.

All this with a headache, too.

Goals:
★ Finish scales week 1
★ Finger mechanics
☆ 30 DtD on LGR - ran out of time
★ 30 DtD on Danza
Ran out of time (1 hr or practicing)                      
Automne section
Grey Donkeys section

Goals:
★ Scale mechanics
★ Finger Independence
★ 1st 30DtD exercise with LGR - not sure how much "practice" with hands apart I did. It's hard not to work on details.
★ Pick something else I don't know at all for 30DtD? or use it for Automne or Grey Donkeys? I will be working on Danza La Pastora by Hafftler. It's got a lot of repetition and I really like it.
★ Do repertoire sorting later. I sorted the "love" pile into "like" and "love" and realized I don't really ever play anymore; I practice. I also now have music all over my floor. Week 1 done.

Labeled sections of LGR per 30 Days to Done

Goals:
Weekly phone call
Scale Mechanics
Week 1 of Repertoire

Achieved:
★ Call done
★ Still going through music, may need to sort into "like" and "love" piles
★ Scales - this time rt thumb was weak again. 3rd fingers on both hands hit nail.?

Still too hot to really play.

Goals:
Eat all the strawberries. Done.
Oh right, harp stuff.
Scale mechanics week 1 (thru Thurs)
I smacked my left elbow pretty dang hard at work, so I'm just doing scales today. And it's really hot.
Read more of Sound in Motion as that doesn't require too much motion.
Plan re-recording based on previous times recorded* to learn pieces.
Look for Bear McCreary sheet music.

Achieved:

★ Scale mechanics with varying rhythms. Right thumb is fine today. Lt hand, not so much, but not surprising.
☆ The previous times I recorded were not helpful because I didn't actually put dates on them. I may try "30 days to done" (ack! which seems to be gone), OH! or the brand new "Music Repertoire Builder Challenge"!!! Or look through the Kaleidoscope practice at the sample charts.
☆ Maybe read Sound in Motion later tonight.
★ Printed out sample sheet. Looks like just BSG book exists. Ordered from Amazon in a heat-induced delirium, canceled order the next day, ordered through ILL. If it works for the harp, then I will order it.

* or noted, both bad puns, but accurate.

Today's goals:
Play one measure of LGR with dynamics*
Do scales exercise
Plot out memorization for Automne
Pick section of Grey Donkeys to work on and work on it - from practice chart

*Work on scale dynamics before getting disappointed trying to do this on LGR?

Achieved
★ Scale mechanics - right thumb is weak
☆ Worked on section of Grey Donkeys, and wore myself out, so it was nice to have the next activity to do. Try not to do too much too soon.
★ Made a practice chart for Automne, divided it up, and put dates on it. I hope I can beat those dates, since I've already done a ton of work on it.
☆ Played a few notes of LGR measure. It's hard to hear with a fan going, and today, I am not turning the fan off.

Thinking about setting up scheduled posts for daily goals and filling in the Achieved section after practicing.

★ Not sure gold stars are helping. ★☺

I finished editing what I could for my album. I now know exactly what I need to work on. Or I should say, which pieces I need to work on. There are several "what to work on"s that could be applied to each piece.

I checked out "Sound In Motion" by David McGill. It explains Tabuteau's numerical method for creating "greater musical expression". Because, dayum, my playing is pretty boring.

I tried to apply the dynamic number system to one of the pieces and realized how little control I have over my fingers - I can neither play at the volume I expect, or play the same volume with the same finger consistently.

My next goal is to apply this method... methodically to Looking Glass River.

Still working on memorizing Automne.

Still working on being able to play Grey Donkeys at all.

Also, doing the scales Monthly Mastery Theme over at myharpmastery.com. Hopefully that will help with control over my fingers, or at least point me in a good direction to achieve that.

Grey Donkeys: need to chain 120bpm eight notes.

Automne: need to re-memorize 2nd section slip-ups. Need to make a practice chart for 3rd section memorization?

Sidelined by a cold. One more phrase of Grey Donkeys learned, I think. Working on the gliss part of Automne. Need to break that down into phrases and memorize.

Prelude 2 edited.

Automne is almost all memorized, I still need to clean up the glissss ie get them more precise.

Grey Donkeys is much more difficult and much more of a workout than I remember. It is going faster than I estimated.

Another phrase done.

Out of energy today. Would rather sew. Tried to get one more phrase in Grey Donkeys learned but couldn't focus. But I'm a month ahead of schedule, so yay.