How to practice when you get back from vacation

This is a transcript of a phone call with Anne Sullivan. She has an abbreviated version on her blog, too.

Your first week back, don't play louder than mf. Practice as much as feels good, not burdensome.

Day 1: Play slowly. Use a beginner technique: all fingers on strings, place and hold. Don't practice.

Day 2: Refreshers again. Play quietly. Play your repertoire.

Day 3: Focus on speed, etudes, and another repertoire piece.

Day 4: Play faster, you are almost ready to start working again.

Day 5: Focus on almost everything.



This is day 2 for me, and I played through all of my repertoire, mostly quietly and mostly slowly.

Played very gently (for me) to get back into playing. Rt wrist DeQuervain's is hurting. Left tennis elbow hurting.

Would like to analyze effectiveness of the 30 Days to Done courses I've used this year.

★ 30 DtD Chaconne. Recorded it again?  Need to go back and record flavor variations.

★ 30 DtD. Giga.  Was able to play with Judy Loman's recording. Recorded.

Recorded Tambourin and Prelude 4.

Need to live with these recordings for a week.

30 DtD Chaconne. Recorded. Will listen tomorrow, ulp. Made so many mistakes as soon as i turned the recorder on.

30 DtD Giga. Did 1st part on 1st part.

Played like crap today. Still need to finish Giga. Maybe I need to slow both down.

SNOW DAY!

30 DtD Chaconne. Exhausting work. Couldn't keep my fingers on the strings.

30 DtD Giga. Skipped 1/2 the task because I didn't think I needed it.

Ran through Tambourin and Prelude 4. And 5!

And now, possibly, a nap. 

I'm behind! I really hope we have a snow day tomorrow.

30 DtD Giga. And now I can't play it fast. I think it will be ok, though. Still a lot of detail work needed.

30 DtD Chaconne. Got the last page done. Need to finish other 5.

30 DtD Chaconne

30 DtD Giga. Had a thought playing lower on the strings might help the left hand in the fiddly bits. We'll see. And I can play it with the original recording that I thought was ridiculously fast.

Worked on Bells in the Snow again. I think the multiple harmonics touch off my tennis elbow.

Still not motivated to practice, so played around with Mortari's Gagliarda and Tournier's Cloches sous la Neige.

You say potato, I say portato

Portato  - basically the opposite of ritardo. What I do with the falling notes in Zarabanda.

So not motivated to play today. Disappointing repertoire day.

Urg. Struck down with cold/allergies/general malaise.

Marathon practice session today. Got everything done, though!

★ 30 DtD Giga. Finally finished the task I'd been working on for the past couple three days.

★ 30 DtD Chaconne. Played with recordings. Other people are playing way slower than me in some parts, and way faster in others.

I have tomorrow off with Chaconne, use the space to run through Tambourin and Prelude 4.

I think taking two weeks to work on dynamics and shading with recording is a good idea, and I think I'd like to  revise or revamp the 30 Days to Done to include much more recording and analyzing.

1/2 practice of repertoire. Will finish practicing after watching first ep of Gilmore Girls!

1/2 practice of 30 DtD Giga. Got alllmost 1/2 done - 2 tasks on first part, 1 task on 2nd. Shoulder started hurting.  Another ep of GG!

★ 30 DtD Chaconne. Got halfway through, tried to come back to it, but fingers sore. Good work!

I picked up a book today and my left thumb joint was in immediate agony. It also hurt while playing, but I was playing really well, so ...?

30 DtD Chaconne. Got through 1st 2 pages.

Steam-burned my thumb today. Awesome.

★ 30 DtD Chaconne. Made notes on how I want dynamics to sound. Listening to myself practice is excruciating.

★ 30 DtD Giga. Recorded my practice today. Hopefully not as excruciating to listen as above. It's choppy, but I can get my enthusiasm to come through in parts.

Repertoire day. I can play Tambourin once before it falls apart. Or so I think. I can pay attention to the first half of Prelude 4 and make a conscious effort to play, but the 2nd half becomes note reading.

Very brief 5 min practicing. Peeling cuticles are actually too painful to allow practicing! ugh.

30 DtD Giga. Research - The Giga I'm playing is from Opus 5, and it is Sonata no9. It was published in 1700 and Corelli was apparently key in developing the Sonata into the form it is today. This was a time of ornamentation in music, and there are different versions, one possibly written by Corelli himself. I have no idea what ornamentations are in the version I'm playing. I like this description from the CD description at Bridge Records: "often lavish and warm-hearted character of Corelli’s oeuvre".

 30 DtD Chaconne. Couldn't get it together today.

It was also I good thing I wrote on my calendar that today is repertoire day.  I played so much today my arms and hands are actually sore. That doesn't happen very often. Some of my repertoire needs work. Some of it sounds great.

Just worked on Giga today. Easy, but I can't focus well and plus have to stuff my face with pizza.

★ 30 DtD Chaconne. Detail work. Focused on trying to relax.

Info on Chaconne - "This is a really excellent pastiche of French 'galant' 18th c style, and is written with a light touch unusual in 19th c piano music. As such the outer sections require little or no pedal. It was dedicated to one Mlle. Hélène Montane. ----------------------------" Who was Hélène Montané?

More info about Durand at imslp.

"This example is dependent largely on the tonic and subdominant minor for its key feeling." - The Affective Character of the Major and Minor Modes in Music, Kate Hevner, The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Jan., 1935), pp. 103-118

Great job today! I pushed through being fatigued and got everything done.

★ 30 DtD Giga. The practice combo worked really well today - cleaned up some trouble spots.

★ 30 DtD Chaconne. Worked through trouble spots. This quickly coming back into my fingers.

★ Played through Tambourin and Prelude 4 well.

Need to do research on Chaconne.

Today was exhausting. As a result (I guess?) I was unable to keep my fingers on my strings. I did the prescribed review of Chaconne, but couldn't manage Giga.

Despite having massive headache, I managed to get all my practicing mostly done. Then I remembered I'm supposed to go through my repertoire once a week. Oh well.

★ Chaconne - Seems to be infusing my hands again.
☆ Giga - almost made it to the end, but ran out of steam. Practiced the things that are different in the 2nd ending in the 2nd half.

★ 30 DtD on Giga and Chaconne. Moving right along.

I think the 30 days to done is more like 45 for me. The pieces I'm trying to do are too long to get the initial stages of practicing under one practice session each. This is ok!

It definitely made more sense to split Giga into two pages. Also, I am a sloppy player. Or I was when I learned this.

Chaconne is also sloppy.

Started 30 DtD on Giga and Chaconne. Reviewed Tambourin and Prelude 4. Need to do that on a regular basis. Every other day?

Chaconne is loooong. I worked hard on it.

Not sure how to structure the practicing for Giga as I'm doing a lot of variations. Maybe I need to split it in half since it basically is two parts? Good thing I marked it in pencil. And then treat it as basically 4 parts?

Cut and pasted music today. Not a whole lot of playing. :(

★ Finished 30 Days to Done on Tambourin and Prelude 4. Not confident in how they sound, but I think they're good enough to record.

★ Repertoire day. I felt out of shape afterward.

Finger a little better, but still a light practice day.

I cut my L index finger with the vegetable peeler today. Practicing was excruciating, luckily it was a short review day.

★'s for everything.

For some reason, doing the work to make things sound good (polishing) is a struggle for me. Not the technical work, but the work I do to convince my brain this is necessary work. Today was a struggle.

★ 30 DtD. Tambourin. This actually sounded pretty good today. Something about the combo of yesterday's and today's work clicked.

★ 30 DtD Prelude 4. Really had to convince myself that I really did need to do today's assignment. It did not sound as great as I thought.

★ 30 DtD Tambourin. Really resistant to practicing, but got through it. The LH is slowly, slowly coming along. The dynamics need more work, which is coming up in larger sections, I hope.

★★ 30 DtD Prelude 4. Find an image: http://imgur.com/PnR77 Or this. The music strikes me as cold, forlorn, beautiful and a little dangerous. Or urgent. Slovenia sure is pretty! It was a huge struggle to keep going - so tired - so two stars!

Took a repertoire day. Need to start with something more exciting.

And 3rd octave G broke.

Played through Tambourin and recorded, trying to keep dancing in mind. I think I needed to do that with separate pages. The 2nd half of the practice sched was supposed to do that but I was so tired.

☆ 30DtD Trying to find images for Tambourin. Didn't get to all of the tasks for this practice sesh.
★ 30 DtD Caught up on Prelude 4. Am now in week 4 for both.

ETA: And my brain, in it's quest to find images, later in the day settled on this. *sigh* This is serious classical music, seriously!

30 DtD Tambourin. Off day. Listened to recordings and they sound pretty good, even the part I mess up on page 2 because I kept the beat. The 3rd page needs dynamic work.

30 DtD Prelude 4. Again, too tired to practice. Got one page done.

Feeling incredibly run-down today. Like falling asleep while practicing.

★ 30 DtD Tambourin. Recorded and get to listen tomorrow, hopefully feeling more lively then.

I think I need to make Monday's my repertoire run-through day. Or maybe Fridays when I have more time.

30 DtD Tambourin. Worked hard on pg 1&2, couldn't keep going with trills because blister! LH is much better on 2nd page.

30 DtD Prelude 4. Pretty easy.

Now on staggered schedule with 30 DtD which I think might work better.

Finished up yesterday's work. Hoping to practice again later today and catch up.

★ Double practice day!

30DtD Tambourin. All except 3rd page.

Massive headache, needed to stop.

30DtD Tambourin. Left hand getting slightly better. Just need to build up muscles.

30DtD Prelude 4. on track

I almost feel I could be working on 3 pieces.

2nd octave D was broken this afternoon! Thank you, humidity.

Yesterday took a day off as scheduled, even though I had already had days off.  I just couldn't work on what I wanted to due to finger blister soreness.

★ 30 DtD Tambourin. On track. Still need to work on LH.

★★ 30 DtD Prelude 4. I had a wonderful 'aha' moment during Prelude 4 in regards to how to muffle one of the giant chords. Worth it for that alone!

30DtD Prelude 4 done with week 2.
30Dtd Tambourin have blister couldn't work on the 1 thing I needed to.

Grabbing practice time when I can - can't seem to get as much as I need. Still on week 2 of 30DtD with both pieces. Going to do 2 practice sessions today, hopefully.

Tmabourin - the left hand is actually  messing me up. Not sure of a workaround.

★ 30DtD Tambourin. Recorded. Needed to do it in different chunks - both assignments on each page, not 1st assignment on all pages, then 2nd.
★ 30DtD Prelude 4. This needs more work.

Played Prelude Intime IV.

30 DtD Tambourin. Detail work.
30 Dtd Prelude 4. Wrote ideal for piece. Ran out of steam 2/3rds through detail work.

I forgot to practice today. I guess my brain decided all the research this morning was practice. And as soon as I went outside for a walk, I started yawning like Pez dispenser. I guess I will be practicing tomorrow, if I remember, and spending the rest of the evening trying not to fall asleep.

More research on Srebotnjak:
Yugoslavia / Die neue Musik in Jugoslawien by Dragotin Cvetko from  The World of Music, Vol. 4, No. 3 (JUNE 1962), pp. 52-53: Srebotnjak used "pointillist technique"? "Serial pointillist technique"?

Music in Slovenia by Niall O'Loughlin from The Musical Times, Vol. 134, No. 1801 (Mar., 1993), pp. 130-133: He had come to London to study with Peter Racine Fricker in 1959-60. Preludes was written in 60. He also used "12 note technique". (Except in Harp Concerto where he used 8-note to facilitate pedaling.)


Contemporary Trends in Yugoslav Music by Zija Kučukalić from International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Dec., 1971), pp. 271-273: "the Slovenian folk music tradition is attached to the folk music of the Alps region and that is one of musical communication and closeness with other nations."

Music in Slovenia. In the First of Two Articles, Niall O'Loughlin Introduces the Rich Musical Heritage of One of Europe's Most Newly Independent Countries by Niall O'Loughlin from The Musical Times, Vol. 134, No. 1800 (Feb., 1993), pp. 74-77[Journal]: "Hindemith served as the model for many other younger composers in the 1950s,"

Music in Yugoslavia by Everett Helm from The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 1, Special Fiftieth Anniversary Issue: Contemporary Music in Europe: A Comprehensive Survey (Jan., 1965), pp. 215-224: Srebotnjak's early works were Expressionist.

Oxford Music Online
Among composers of his generation, Srebotnjak had the most distinctively expressionist style, despite the diversity of his techniques, which ranged from 12-note composition (Invenzione variata) and serialism (Serenata, Monologi, Šest skladb, Antifona) to aleatory works and graphic scores. He often integrated folklore elements (Slovene and Macedonian) into his works and used expanded variations of the themes of other composers (Kogoj, Osterc, Tartini, Škerjanc).

I sat down at my harp and immediately needed a nap.

★ 30DtD Prelude 4. Research - From two sources: In 1944, the Society of Slovene Composers was founded and seemed to be instrumental (HA!) in promoting Slovene composers to the greater music world. Alozj Srebotnjak is considered one of the most respected and renowned Slovene composers because of his prolificness.  In the early 60s, music in Slovenia took a huge leap forward due to citizens being allowed to travel and composers studying in other countries. Avant-garde was the style of choice for that music scene and "Over the next two decades, it thrived with a large body of high quality, adventurous music that in quantity was far more than might have been expected from such a small group of composers." Niall O’Loughlin  Srebotnjak didn't embrace the new postmodern style of the next generation of composers as much as his contemporaries, but continued as he had, incorporating ideas from folk music.  Classical compositions with nods to folk music were prevalent right after WWII.  Interesting!

☆ 30DtD Tambourin. Couldn't quite get the E pedal change. Need to practice it slowly - change on beat 2 before single note, and change back ON the chord. Only got through page 1.

★ Just exercised each finger

★ 30 DtD Tambourin. It was "play anything else" day so I played the first Prelude Intimes.
★ 30 DtD Prelude 4. Hands together whatever tempo and Hands separate at 3/4 speed - 54 and 42.

30 DtD Prelude 4.
30 DtD Tambourin. Doing research on this piece. I found out that a Tambourin is a Provençal dance, and that it imitates a drum in the left hand/bass clef and possible a flute in the right. There is a combination of tambour and galoubet or flaviol, called pipe and tabor in many other cultures, that are played at the same time by one person - the flute only having 3 holes. This piece might need a lighter touch than the f  that's marked in the music I have.

Here's Patrick Rougeot talking about the combo en français!

★ Conditioning exercises
★ 30DtD Tambourin
★ 30DtD Prelude 4. This is coming back to me, but not great yet.
It was an easy day today - only took about an hour to do everything.

★ 30DtD Tambourin. Got a blister.
★ 30 DtD Prelude 4

I'm back to working on album material after working on a couple other projects - editing a harp part and doing... whatever the music version of ADR is.

30 Days to Done page by page on Tambourin. It's going surprisingly well, although I haven't listened to a recording of myself, so that may be inaccurate.

Started 30 Days to Done on Prelude 4 and ran out of steam. It also sounded horrible, like I'd never seen the music before.

Probably not a great idea to wash and polish car and have a marathon practice sesh all in one day. I'm starting to not be able to move my fingers.

Took it "easy" today to rest my poor hands.
Goals:
☆ Play through Pachelbel.
☆ Play through Wander. My work on this paid off.
Only giving myself partial stars for both of these because I didn't just play through them, I had to stop and fix things. And I played through them several times, therefore NOT GIVING MY HANDS A REST. Was actually able to mostly keep up with recordings of both of these.

Goal:
★ Work on Roslin and Adama. It's fine! It didn't need any work.
★ I instead, played through everything, and ended up doing detail work on Satie and O'Halloran. I played for two hours, and my hands needed to be plunged into a sink of cold water afterward. Ow.

Goals:
★★★ Get Wander in my fingers. Practiced for 2 hours. My hand muscles huuurt. I did a really good job, though.
Maybe work on Roslin and Adama? Later!

Played along with Bear McCreary to see where work was needed. Did some detail work, then elbows started hurting, so I knocked off early. Need to relax!

★ Worked hard on Wander My Friends and put in new fingerings that will hopefully be easier. And got rid of some notes. :)

Practice performance notes:
My speed work on Satie paid off, but I still need CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
I cannot fake my way through Wander. I need to learn this inside and out.
If nothing else, practice even tone. Sheesh.
Move harp to different spots to practice?

Take strobe tuner?

Dress rehearsals are important because you need to know if your zipper unzips itself while you're playing (it does).

Do not try to eat away your feelings of nervousness. 

need to work on Satie at a faster speed.

I haven't been posting because my goals are pretty much the same for every day: play things and work on trouble spots.
Goals for later this week:
read 30 DtD
record myself and time things.

Goal:
★ Learn Wander and Scotch.
★ Run through mediums
☆ Run through easies
☆ Get dress info - maybe need two, one for hot one for cold?

Goals:
★ Time Satie. About 20-25 min.
☆ Scan music.
★ Print out calendar
Practice schedule.

Feeling bleh today. Going to hang out with friends.

Goals:
★ Run through Satie. Also played Pachelbel and Opuses.
☆ Start memorizing music
Map out practice days of alternating 30DtD. Can probably start with 3rd week with everything. Record everything asap. Also plan listening time.
☆ Scan music

Goals:

Time things? No. Not ready for that yet.

★ Went through things and marked pedals, made notes on easier alternatives. My fingers are sore. I'm going to have to build up my stamina!
Look through 30DtD and see if I can start in the middle with some pieces.

★ Email
Find other sheet music.

Goals:
Reply to email
★ Order BSG music
★ Run through Pachelbel's Canon
Plan out Roslin and Adama and Wander My Friends
★ Run through Scottish music
★ Run through Satie
Find Tir Na Nog sheet music? Doesn't seem to exist except for full scores.
☆ test other sheet music: Evanescence, Elder Scrolls, Rebecca Sugar

Goals:
★ Conditioning Exercises
★★ Goldfish. I don't know if I'm just better at memorizing in general, or this is really easy to memorize. Things seem to be clicking into place much more easily.
☆ 30DtD Tambourin. Got halfway done on the first half of today. Think I gave myself a blister, or stopped right before I got one. Need to stop this and switch over to wedding music.
Automne.
Need to do quick repertoire work on wedding music. Print it out again?

Goals:
★ Mark calendar
★ Try on dresses
Order pattern?
★ Conditioning exercises
★ Goldfish
★ Automne
☆ 30DtD Tambourin
Set Saturdays as play days?

Goals:
At least look at a calendar.
★ Listen to prog rock
★ Conditioning exercises. These are getting easier.
★ Goldfish. I've got most of this memorized. I think maybe I should try to build up my repertoire of easy songs.
Look at other Tiny Tales.
★ Do detail work on Windy Nights. It might be easier than Looking Glass River.
★ Pick next piece for 30DtD. Ugh. Tambourin is the winner.
Start 30DtD.
One of two remaining Automne sections.
Set up repertoire refresher schedule.
Do last repertoire activity.
Order Mortari's music?

Did nothing yesterday!

Played through Windy Nights by Rudolf Forst. Also entering it into Finale.

Goals:
★ Write and send 2 wedding summary/contract
Reply to recording email
★ Put clips online
★ Conditioning Exercises
★ Goldfish - played at 50 need to listen to recording. It's not bad!
☆ 30DtD LGR - Did 2nd to last day. I still seriously mess this up.
☆ Listen to LGR recording - didn't concentrate on whether there were consistent errors.
☆ 30Dtd LGR - last day. It is just a mess. Summary of 30DtD process: It's really hard to know that after all the work I put in it still sounds like crap. Working on the dynamic details was helpful - it helped get me over that hump in my normal learning process. This might have worked better doing one piece at a time.
★ Automne - finished a section and got the 1st large section to the point where I can keep playing if I mess up.
Pick days for practice perf
Read through/research Prog book

Over the past few days:
★ Did Conditioning Exercises
★ 30 DtD LGR - figured out I'm still too thumk-y in the first part. played around with making that go away. Need to record and mark spots again.
★ Automne - got more sections done. Almost done with it!
★ Booked a wedding

Yesterday was a long day and I skipped any practicing.

Goal:
Figure out how much work I'd have to do to have another practice performance, then schedule it.

Still having weird memory problems today. We'll see how this goes.
Goals:
★ Scales are done!!!
★ Finger mechanics - break out Conditioning Exercises?
★ Work on memorizing Goldfish? Need to set up a practice chart like 30DtD
★ 30DtD LGR (final week!) - record, listen and mark. That was a lot of work. First take was awful. In general the 1st section needs to be smoother like the 3rd section. It sounds thumpy. The waveforms are also smoother in the 3rd section than the 1st. In the middle, the right hand needs to be brought out more. Also, really emphasis dynamics. There are a lot of gasps that need to be smoothed out by more confidence.
30DtD Danza? Not sure I want to continue with this.
★ Automne - got a few more sections sort of memorized
☆ Look through wedding music
Set up another practice performance
1. Set list
2. Practice set list - memorized

Rest day! Sort of!
★ Wort music. Or sort it. Yeah. Made lists. Need to enter them into spreadsheets. Made mini set lists. Played a couple and it was about an hour. And my playing was complete crap. Very very off day.
Do I want to do anything else? Not really.

Goals:
★ Listen to Marcel Tabuteau's Lessons. Listened partway through 3B. I'm having a hard time hearing the differences. I also think voice lessons may help my playing.
Sort music.
Read Sound in Motion
★ Scales
★ Finger mechanics
★ 30DtD LGR. I made notes in my head and now have forgotten them.
30DtD Danza
Another section of Automne

Goal:
★ Read more Sound in Motion
Listen to a couple Marcel Tabuteau's Lessons

Goals:
★ Scales. Yep.
★ Finger mechanics. Yep.
★ 30DtD Danza. Worked on small sections. Section that still needs work: the 4-bar 8th notes. There are some jumps that will take some more work. Also, it's hard not to play this loud.
30DtD LGR. Holy crap my fingers still hurt. I better be building excellent calluses.

Goals:
Get as much done before going out to see Suuns!
Scales. Emphasized different beats - very difficult. Probably should try this at different speeds before the week is up.
Finger mechanics. Yes.
30DtD LGR. Worked on small sections, with dynamics, slowly, and I think it was a big help. Didn't play through with hands apart, because 1) Suuns, and 2) I don't see the benefit since this is a lot of switching between hands, and 3) my fingers were killing me at this point.
30DtD Danza. See above re: fingers killing me. And going out.

Goals:
★ Go through music. I made a spreadsheet. I may add or take away things.
★ Scales week 3. It's hard emphasizing off beats.
★ finger Mechanic. I think my fingers are gradually getting more flexible and independent.
★ 30DtD LGR. This seems to be surprisingly coming together. I need to listen to my recording and mark spots.
☆ 30DtD Danza. I'm not sure what dynamics I want. And I still need to figure out exactly what I'm doing with the left hand.
★ Automne. The parts I'm comfortable with sound great. Got another section marked off.

★ 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.

Part of Automne is memorized to the point I can play with it, not just play it. This is the good stuff.

Need to make a chart for Grey Donkeys.

I have the 1st section of Automne memorized with the exception of one measure, most of the 2nd section and most of the 3rd section.

I have most of Grey Donkeys memorized, but at a very slow speed.

I would like to look into what else might be easily memorized. (Rigaudon is almost there.)

Had fun yesterday trying to work Grey Donkeys back to performance level.  I was surprised and pleased at how easy it was to get it up to speed after a few minutes of intensive work (chaining). I hadn't been able to play it that fast before.