15 minutes to keep limber, but hands don't seem to be working at all. Slightly looser now.

No practicing today: too tired from bike ride home through snow. Shoulders and back and sides too sore.

Still recovering from not practicing for x number of days.

Took a few days off because lt thumb increasingly painful. Made the realization at work today that I'm picking things up with my lt hand completely differently than with my rt. My rt thumb stopped hurting ages ago. When I concentrate on hold my lt thumb the same as my rt, it doesn't hurt. And the same thing goes for scales. I already altered my lt thumb position so it doesn't hurt when I play a while ago, and I realized today it is mirroring my rt thumb position more closely. Need to concentrate on that!

Hard to come back to scales after almost a week off. Or playing at all, really.

More scales. Scaly scales.

So I can play (Flight) around ♩=104, but I'm not sure because it is SO FAST. I can't hear myself with the metronome. I know it's at least over ♪=200. It is also going to take a lot of work, concentration, and strength to get the whole thing to that level. But I can do it.

Rt thumb non-existent when going up scales because of lack of pressure. Pulling with elbow to go up, but need to push to get thumb pressure?

Lt thumb is weak when going down.

Both are due to the different arm angles which exert different pressure at different times. It's all physics! Or dynamics of materials movement. Or something.

R thumb is non-existent, which is why the L hand is behind.

Visualizing playing scales at work today may have helped with actual playing of scales? Need to really focus on finger strength when playing for evenness.

Never, ever, tune harp in all ♯'s.

E V E R.

Ha! Judy Loman does not play (flight) at ♩ = 152! Ha, ha, haha, ha!

I take that as permission I do not have to, either.

Worked on right hand, as needed. Right hand is so very sloppy. Don't forget to do nerve stretches.

And relax your jaw, for cripes sake!

Left hand is apparently not uneven, the right hand is, which is making the left hand sound uneven. Left hand alone = fine. Right hand alone = no so much. I think we know what we need to work on. *nods*

Between needle felting and blister from yesterday's lengthy practice, I could only play ½ hour. *grumble* Wanted so much to play more.

Woohoo! Another 1 + hour practice. I guess I will just work on scales, give my hands a chance to heal (the right one is already 100% better yay), and not sweat it.

More work on scales. Can't manage to get the left hand even. 3rd and 4th are more dominant the faster I play. Is it because I start late or early and am rushing? Maybe need to play really loudly to strengthen fingers, then play quietly?

This is the kind of piece you really need contiguous hours to learn. Or I do.

No practicing today, either. Managed to sit directly on my thumb joint while jumping into bed last night. Also, home sick-ish.

I do not understand how I do these things.

No practicing for me as I spent the whole day cooking. Yay. And did something to my thumb in the process.

Meant to practice ½ hour, ended up playing over an hour. Thumbs hurt, but not while playing carefully, and not playing harmonics in left hand.

I guess I will continue with (flight) until my thumbs are better, then decide what other pieces to learn.

No practice.

Managed to crunch my thumb at work. Go me. But strangely, it doesn't hurt any more than it has been. Practice was ok with scales, not so much with the Clementi. I notice all my hand joints hurt when I play that. Are there alternatives? Or do I need to work up strength?

Twisted my knee while playing. I can't win.

More. Scales.

Minimal scales yesterday and today; thumbs still hurt.

If finale had a neck, I would throttle it.

Worked ½ hour on scales. (flight)

Worked more on Notturno/Finale. Whoa. Finale has a slick cross staff plug-in. I guess I don't really know what plug-ins are. A different form of macros?

Transcribing Notturno into Finale. What a program. Tried "locking" the measures to two per line, but nooOOOooo, apparently that means the measures can still move around to whatever configuration they want. And who edited the tutorials, if anyone? Hello? It's disturbing I'm able to find the mistakes in the manual and I haven't even learned the program.

Tried to play on Tuesday, did for about 30 seconds. Not at all on Wednesday. Between the pain in my jaw, ear, and hands, it was a lost cause.

If I could just send a pair of floaty hands and a set of ears to my harp...

Practiced as much as I could with blister so I could: 1) keep my fingers limber and 2) not make the blister any worse.

The blister I thought I might have is indeed a blister, so no more practicing today. Ow.

Sort of got the tricky dynamics learned? Probably will have to go through a couple more times.

Later today work on Clementi.

And I may have a blister.

Continued working on both Clementi. Will proceed that way until both learned (again). And hey, why not work on dynamics?

Can't decide between Sonatina op.36 nos 5 & 6 so I'm working on both. Got no.5 up to quarter=108. Needs to be around 180. Hahaha!

Didn't feel like working on Notturno, but played it through. Still need to work on a few spots, dynamics namely though.

Zarabanda is still sounding pretty good.

Got totally derailed by squeeing over Wil Wheaton's tweet and consequently was very late in getting started practicing.

But I did finally focus enough - got the left hand dynamics done-ish, right hand still need some work, in the dynamic-y section (the mfmpfmfmpmfpmfpmfp section, ha). Left out some notes top of pg 2 to prevent thumb joint strain, sounds ok?

Think I may have picked the Clementi I want to play, but it's triplets, and my left hand does not love those so much.

Short practice to give my muscles a rest. Worked on problem spots.

Ok, practicing almost 2 hours yesterday made a HUGE difference in what I played today. It was almost like I had learned the music yesterday. Things I had practiced were smoother! There were less mistakes!

I spent another 2 hours practicing today, but most of that was spent deciding which Clementi piece to polish since I just can't decide! <--That was a cry of anguish. So I don't know if I'll be able to repeat my results tomorrow.

But I need to figure out how I can do this on a regular basis. Seriously.

Played almost 2 hours. Slightly brain-dead.

Got clunks worked out of some pedals, need to drill the really difficult changes again.

Also, still really, really, really need to transcribe this thing.

Short practice time because of fantastically killer headache, but got one more measure learned. Two more until repeats!

Excellent practice, but then everything fell apart when I tried to put it all together.

And 'yay' for repetitions: I don't need to learn most of the last page, so I'm almost done!

Possibly have pedal changes.

No practice today, new volunteer meeting, plus aching thumb joints.

Talk about procrastination! It's true, if I want to do something, but don't really want to, I won't. I do prefer playing later at night, so that's probably a factor.

Did figure out the D♭7, just needs an earlier pedal change.

Because Finale is so intuitive, I need to start transcribing Notturno again, but this time put the document settings in before. No other Windoze program works this way, why this one?

Tricky pedals in meas 38.

15 minutes, w00t. But did work on a previously difficult measure and it seems to have finally sunk in to some degree.

Need to figure out alternate way to play D♭7 on pg 4.

I did practice today. I think.

Measure 31 out of 65 done. Yay.

No practicing tonight due to extremely sore finger pads, finger joints, and finger muscles from changing brake cables and trying to adjust my caliper brakes.

I did get them adjusted, just so's you know.

Need to work on moving the G pedal in general. Use the ball of your foot and aim laterally.

Finale is annoying me. Actually, my brain's lack of retaining the ability to use it is annoying me.

C♭ = B♮. Really!

More measures learned.

Re-learned measures, trying to break bad habits from sight-reading.

Played Grey Donkeys again.

Not really time enough to practice, played other stuff. I always forget how much I love the Grey Donkeys.

More measures learned, but difficult w/o pedal markings. Taking time to re-re-learn Finale so I can get the music in readable/playable format.

I don't have to play this as fast as I think I do. Maybe. Maybe dotted quarter=48?

When learning new measures, hook on last 2 notes of previous measure.

Practicing after all-day knitting session not as hard as I thought, but still not easy. Biceps and delts sore.

Did I not play yesterday? Can't remember. Aha. No.

Decide (again) how measures should flow. Hey, maybe pay attention to phrasing?

Depressed. Apparently, I still need to be on vacation.

But up and moving enough to cringe and laugh at zombies, and strangely feeling much better.

Same.

Practiced placing chords, need to keep doing that between measures.

Ok, all the measures have repeating 2,3,4 fingers for the rest of the chords in the measures. Repetition and patterns, oi.

Finally scanned music into Finale. It only recognized the first page, and what it did recognize is complete and utter crap. Thanks, Finale, I needed a good laugh.

I only wish I could post what it sounds like here.

Or I could link to it.

Too tired to hold up my arms and practice, so did this instead.

Chords on 2nd page are the same minus thumb, play rest of measure w/2,3,4?

Hard to play at speed, practice going from chord to chord.

Figured out I need to learn 4 meas/day.

Remember to keep hands rounded even after speeding up. Work from 16th =104 to ♪=150 (dotted quarter=50) Is that math right? Ungh, cooking makes me stupid.

Limited practice time due to having no food in the house and having to cook. Again.

M.M. = 50 to the dotted quarter. Really wish blogger could display the proper notes. As it is, I only have these ♪ ♫ , which are useless probably 75% of the time.

Really wish I had more time to practice.

Trying attempt #2 to scan music.

Need to figure out actual metronome marking.

Keep hands round, play like pulling taffy.

Back from vacation. Trying to scan music into a readable form and getting nowhere. I was just scanning and now my computer is happily informing me "can't find scanner!". That is my cue to quit for the evening.

Modified Original List

Changing the months:

Jul: Zarabanda - Turina : Done-ish. Sort of.
Jan: Images - Tournier : Mar
Sep: Classical - Clementi : Nov. Some of this done for the Browncoat Ball. Need to give myself some space from it so Nov is good.
Oct: Danses - Salzedo : Dec
Nov: Six Pieces - Renie : Jan
Dec: Etudes - Bochsa : Feb
Aug: Notturno - Resphigi : Oct
Feb: (flight) - prelude intimes - Chanson? - Salzedo : Apr

Am I really only 2 months off? I guess I won't be if it takes as long with all the other pieces as Zarabanda.

Need to scan in Notturno so I can get the proper pedal changes, fingerings, and enharmonics in. Luckily, I have a start thanks to Stephen Main.

Gig over, it was a lot of fun, but I'm glad to have that pressure gone.

Now back to original list!

I have crammed as much as I possibly can into my head. Fingers crossed all goes well tonight. Well, actually, fingers UNcrossed, hopefully.

I've learned as much music as I can at this point. Tomorrow's the gig!

After deciding to experiment with some chestnuts and being very VERY careful with the very very sharp knife (always manage to cut my finger before gigs), I was apparently too careful and didn't pierce the inner layer of the shell before roasting, and promptly and forcefully coated everything in my kitchen, including me and my eyeballs, with a fine layer of chestnut dust. I also burned my hand.

Thankfully, none of this affected my harp playing, so onwards and upwards.

Work on marked page.

Jasmine prob spots.

Practice again this evening.

Tinnitus less, I think I know what's happening.

Skipped ballet to practice, no big loss. >:|

Tinnitus back after PT. >:|

Page on rt.

TH!

Start on page book is open to.

Yet another reminder to stretch. >_<

Had run-through for the gig next Saturday and all I can say is: o_O

Need to really really work on problem spots. Some specifics: p.35 slides, TH melody line, Jasmine x-spots. And everything else.
Also, move harp around to different positions to get a feel for being out of my element, different lighting, play out of gig book instead of printed mat'l.

Whoa.

Playing an out-of-tune harp does not help with the jaw clenching I'm not supposed to be doing as part of TMJ treatment.

work on: sonatina op. 36 no. 3 allegro
sonatina op 36, no.5 presto trills on p50 and 51

While it is fun to just sit and play, there are still a lot of problem spots in the classical to work through.

Had to satisfy my craving and play through Notturno.

p.48 seems ok.

Top of p. 48 do not do trills for full measure.

Things shaping up.

Could tinnitus continue to be going away?

Still working on it. More later this afternoon.

Problem spot top of p. 48.

Fingers stiff. Really need to play 6 days a week.

Worked classical backwards.

Apparently I'm not practicing today, either.

I love cooking.

That was sarcasm.

Things to work on:
Op. 20, No. 1, Andante: 2nd half
Op. 55, No. 1, Allegro: FB, AE pedal changes
Op. 55, No. 2, Allegretto: Um, you want to finish practicing that?

Folk songs

FF

Sonatina p41: work on fun pedal changes.

Sonatina p 40: 88 to the eighth

Crazy day with bike-buying and balleting and no practicing.

So. Tiredzzzz...

Classical progressing. Keep working problem spots in all pieces.

Tinnitus has been noticeably less the past couple days. I hope I'm not jinxing it by saying anything.

Work on page turn for last folk song, as well as those 4ths.

Stretch!

Keep reviewing classical.

Day off, woohoo!

Well, from practicing.

Finally brought to tears by my ear today. I was wondering when that would happen. Tinnitus: 1 Me: zip.

All classical is fine, work slowly, work problem spots.

FF finished RT

FF: Fingerings on RT, continue to play rest to keep in fingers

Problem spots in folk songs.

I have a blister. And not the usual tiny pin-point ones I get now that I have decent callouses. This is like an old-school I-just-leaned-scales type of blister. Weird.

Finished FF TH and I, need to work on RT.

Still working on picking classical.

FF Tam: Finished problem spots in 1st 3 pages, work on last page for next time
FF other pieces: start problem spots

Continued folk songs.

Started classical. Next time decide which pieces to use.

Ear is still tinnitusing. So very, very disappointed. And so very, very tired from losing sleep because of this, and due to lack of concentration, cut my finger while slicing an apple. Which is also detrimental to the harp practicing.

Ear theoretically fixed. *crosses fingers*

Decided not to test it by practicing, will see what happens tomorrow.

Worked on prob spots in FF.

Now start focus on polishing pieces I already know.

Stretches and practice seem to help with scales, keep it up.

Harp fixed and working like a champ.

Now if I could just fix my shin splints and my ear, I'd be set.

And you may tell yourself this is not my beautiful house! How did I get here?

I at a loss without my harp. I'm wandering around having those niggling thoughts that I've forgotten something, but I don't know what it is, then I realize there's a big empty spot in my room.

I cleaned today, for cripes sake.

My legs hurt even worse today, so maybe it's a good thing I'm taking time off. I was informed by my sister that I most likely have shin splints, owie.

continue to work on folk song prob spots.

ETA: I had to Tiger Balm my legs because of all those stupid pedal changes I worked on. Sheesh! My shins are killing me!

Dussek: Work on: scales, pg 24 2nd line last measure, pedal changes.

Ear ringing less with much heat, but ringing after practice. And hurting.

Ear no worse, but certainly no better, after practicing. But it hurts now. Yays.

The F pedal may be sticking because of the new bolts, but not why I thought. The slot has changed tolerances because of new bolts are holding the base on in a different way. Maybe refelting really is all that's necessary. But doesn't explain the E and the B catching, which they've been doing for years. Whoa. Over 10 years. Has it really been that long? Maybe I'll just go ahead and get my harp regulated when it gets checked up.

Day off to test my ear. Left ear tinnitus appeared Tuesday, and gets worse after practicing. wtf?

Taking harp to technician on Monday to see if sticky pedals are fixable.

Finished 1st 4 meas, 4 more learned. 1 more hour after lunch was exhausting, but it's getting hot out, too.

Harp appt on Monday. *sigh*

4 more measures in rt hand, got left hand up to 120. Practice more after lunch.

2 lines learned.

Finding harp technician because more pedals sticking, much creaking of harp, and general not-working-well of other things. I don't think I'll be able to play gigs with it in this condition, and definitely not be able to record. I really do not want to replace it as I've had this harp since I was 14. It would be traumatic. Merely thinking about it makes me tear up a little.

More whiteout fumes. Need to put fingerings pg. 25.

F pedal sticking again, need to find harp technician in this area. =/

Harp lust!

Beautiful new Aoyama harp. *drool*

Harp rental is $250. Hrm.

Need better whiteout. Do they make the tape kind with a really fine tip?

Dussek: wrote in pedal markings on pg 24. Got rid of piano finger markings.

My finger joints hurt, which happened the last time I worked really hard on fast scales. What is going on?

Dussek: rt hand scales eighth = 160, barely. Stretches are crucial to playing scales, bump up stretches to 2x per day.

Working on problem spots does work! Keep doing it.

Call harp showroom tomorrow.

Dussek: Both hands eighths = 144, 1st page @ 144

Dussek: eigths =132 in left hand

#5 finished. Work on problem spots from now on.

Dussek: eighth = 132 in rt hand.

Start polishing FF.

1 page left of #5.

Learning line by line may not work (if only have 15 minutes). Seem to need to learn phrases. Maybe spend 15 minutes learning phrase in one hand?

Stretch break necessary and helped.

1 line learned because:
1. New day at work, home later
2. Tuning entire harp takes 10 minutes.

However, I realized while practicing, if I only have 15 minutes, it's better to learn one line than either:
1. Not play at all, or
2. Not focus on practicing

I actually used 15 minutes constructively. Go me.

The Governor Hotel is GORgeous.

3 lines of #5. Watch the 1st finger in left hand on crossovers.

Hands stiff from alien attack, and back stiff from attempt to give self tramp stamp on drawer handle in bathroom while cleaning.

Need to check into harp rental.

Need to check dates.

A scale in each hand, w00t!

However, after an evening of shooting aliens at Ground Kontrol, that may be all I can manage for a while.

Today will most likely be a rest day. We'll see how it goes. Last joint in 4th finger is tired of plucking bass wires. I'm going to relax and see other people play their instruments.

I realized I'm not learning Notturno because I'm working on other stuff, der. Maybe get back on track after Oct.

Stretch breaks!

2 lines of 5th piece done.

Played what I wanted.

Aug is 1/2 over, haven't even started Notturno. What would improve learning time?

Bolts in after much fighting. Harp is still creaky, possibly less than before, but the base is now split down the center front seam.

Finished #4.

Need to re-learn pieces, not just play them slowly. Stop and work on problem spots.

One day of skipping playing from memory resulted in messed up 4ths again. I'm starting to hate Zarabanda because I'm playing it so much to try to remember it. Maybe it is not a piece I need to memorize.

And oh yeah, I'm supposed to be working on Notturno. *headdesk*

Holy cats, so tired.

2 measures left in #4.

Bolts arrived.

Rest of page of #4 learned.

Memorizing even better.

3rd piece done, 3 lines of 4th piece learned.

Play FF slowly, work up.

Work on classical.

1.5 months to polish everything.

OMG I MAY HAVE ACTUALLY LEARNED THE @#$(&^ 4THS.

Saw Trek. Again. Heh.

Practice time: ~2 hrs.

1/2 of 3rd piece done.

Keep working on 4ths.

Notturno plan: Start from end? Measures/day? Lines/day?
57 meas total. 2.5 meas/day. 2 meas/line. 1.5 meas/day?

For next time, start 3rd piece.

Rest day, or "had to go see Star Trek again" day.

Bolts ordered.

4ths are still confusing, slightly better.

Continue to play new pieces and mark problem spots.

Stretch!

Weather cooler, hands slightly better.

Played for 1.75 hours, elbow ok. Back and me tired.

Zarabanda trouble spots on 3rd page 4ths.

Finally started Notturno, yay! Need to purchase sheet music, scan, and rearrange. Thanks to Stephen Main, I'm well on my way.

Need to play everything learned everyday.

Bolts pending.

Really, really need to remember to do PT.

1st song learned.

Zarabanda slightly better today, still need to play everyday.

I took an ibuprofen last night because both my hands hurt so much, which has consequently left me lethargic and depressed today. But my hands hurt less, even after working. We will see if it was worth it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slightly better mood, but hands hurt worse. I could feel them swelling as a played. 94º is apparently still too hot for me.

Need to play Zarabanda EVERY DAY from memory.

1 hour of new music is about all I can cram into my head.

Stretch break was useful?

Thank god for repeating themes.

Incredibly frustrating harp day

These are the 3 out of 6 bolts for my harp. They are all different sizes. ::sigh::









And the remaining holes for the missing bolts don't line up with the base, which you can't really see from these pictures, and therefore getting bolts probably wouldn't be any help anyway.















Now my F pedal is randomly sticking, my rt hand hurts again, though not as bad as yesterday, and I can't remember the stupid Zarabanda. And I have only two pieces marked as ok in the other two Chinese books, so I have only about 7 pieces total. Yay.

Daniel Burton's Chinese Folk Songs. Maybe a few others?

No problem with amount of classical. Elbow hurt after .5 hour and especially after faster pieces, but calmed down with slow stuff, so can switch for bcb. However, joints in rt hand hurt tremendously. What does that mean!

Maybe... Don't forget your PT exercises?

Ok, after not having played the past 2 days, how is it I have a blister on my thumb?

Played for 1 hour, classical, no elbow problems, but felt there could have been, looks promising for bcb.

Need to work up FF, Chinese, and classical.

Keep memorizing Zarabanda, one more day!

Interesting wardrobe choice for today's practice, hee.

Harp practicing preempted by Sonic Youth at the Roseland last night, which was NOT air-conditioned, despite what the website says. They lie! They lie like a pack of lying... things that... lie for a living! >:|

And harp practicing was preempted this morning by the necessity of buying a decent fan.

Mental functions decreasing rapidly due to heat and lack of practicing.

Too hot by far again. Worked on more memorization. It's amazing how fast my brain un-memorizes things. There is a weird problem spot 2nd line on 3rd page.

Aha! moment: the chords before the 4ths are the same as for the 4ths. Go figure!

Slight schedule change: asked to play 1st weekend in Oct, will need to work on appropriate music for one week to judge condition of elbow. Will call back Monday.

Heard back from L&H, need to take photo of bolts and measure. Will move harp when not so hot. Jeezy creezy.

Too hot, didn't practice, sung to the tune of "People Mover".

Kidding aside, I got about 10 min work on problem memorization spots before my arms refused to do any more.

Now to go lounge on my un-air-conditioned couch with a watermelon mint popsicle.

It takes 5 minutes to tune when the top half is out of tune.

Taking a stretch break seems to help, 1.5 hours today.

I have 2.5 pages solidly memorized, last 1.5 should be pretty easy, a few spots need work.

ETA: I just realized I played for 1.5 hours today! 1.5 hours and my elbow didn't bother me at all!

On to memorizing.

Back to the old bench, but adding pillow, to see if my foot stops hurting.

Definite "yes" on playing octaves w/rt hand.

Every single one of the joints in my hands hurts from work, so it's a rest day.

I cannot form complete sentences, or spell, to save my life after practicing. I always have to edit these posts the next day so I can actually practice the right things.

First X, play entire measure w/ rt hand?

My gods, getsomecontinuity!

Tried to record on my phone. Now I know what it sounds like when I play Happy Birthday over the phone and I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE to everyone who has ever gotten one of those phone calls.

Too hot to play decently.

Same items for next time:
X's, octaves, and that stupid last harmonic. 4ths are still ok.

Test voice note.

And remember PT, both neck and elbow.

Ugh! Sweaty feet.

X marks the spot, all of them, LOOK FOR THEM.

How will you pay attention to get consistency?

Call L&H to find out how to order bolts.

Short attention span day, sheesh!

Good job on the 4ths and the harmonics, although the one on the last page still needs work. You know which one.

The legs on my new harp bench unscrew themselves.

Also, it is a little to high for me to sit comfortably (it cuts into my hamstrings) and I think it's maybe causing the pain in my foot. I tried my old bench, but it now feels too low because I feel like I have to hold my arms up too high. It's an old bench, so it was probably made when all the ladies wore high heels, so I'm going to try practicing with heels (Ugh! (even though I love my shoes, again I say UGH!)), which means I need to relearn all my pedals. Ahyup.

Oh, and sorry to Ms. Spider, you can uncurl from your scared cringy ball now as I'm done being frustrated at having to tune every. single. day. Thanks, weather.

Pedal changes at page turn, before and after.

No head-tilty thing!

Sound quality on 4ths.

Apparently, I can only pay attention for 45 minutes at a time when learning/practicing. Try going out for a walk/stretching/?-ing for 10 minutes then playing again. Yes, this will indeed suck when it starts raining again/is dark early/when it's HOT AS FUCK like this week.

Good thing Ms. Crankypants got her practicing done early today.

Octaves in 2nd to last measure of line 2 on last page are 2 distinct octaves. Is it the same for 2nd to last measure, 2nd to last line on 2nd page?

Pecs needed for loud chords in left hand, keep wrist in.

Dynamics then consistency of theme THEN memorization.

If a measure has the first chord marked sfz, are the subsequent notes f until marked otherwise?

Original List

Jul: Zarabanda - Turina
Jan: Images - Tournier
Sep: Classical - Clementi
Oct: Danses - Salzedo
Nov: Six Pieces - Renie
Dec: Etudes - Bochsa
Aug: Notturno - Resphigi
Feb: (flight) - prelude intimes - Chanson? - Salzedo

Arrange pieces that need polishing only closer to end.

Any spare time gets devoted to Solos for the Harp Player and Peter Gabriel.