Reverie/30 Days to Done wrap up

Started: Monday 2/20/17

Finished: Monday 6/26/17
Total: 18 weeks

End result: I can play it passably, but it still needs a lot of dynamic work. And I'm trying to memorize it.

Details:
This is a five page piece, not too technically challenging. There is one very difficult section, and four moderately difficult sections.

I stopped working on this from 2/21 to 4/17 (almost 8 weeks) . Not sure why. However, I'm including that time in the learning time since I often can't predict how learning is going to go.

big section work, 2 pages one day, then 3 the next.
small section work, 1, 1, 1, 2.
small section work, 1, 4.
Week one: avg  1.875 pages per intensive work day

big section work, all
Small section work, all
Small section work, 7 days
Big section work, 3, 2.
Week two: avg 1.8 pages per intensive work day

small section work, 2, 3
small section work, all
small section work, 1.5, 2.5, 1.5
spot practice, 1, 2.5, 1.
Big section, all
Week 3: avg 2.5 pages per intensive work day

details, 2.5, 1.5, 1
big section, all
details, all
small sections, all
Week 4: avg 3.33 per intensive work day


Conclusion:
5 pages/18 weeks  = .27
1 page/4 weeks = .25

I could probably use this effectively as designed for a moderately challenging two page piece.

It's a heartening to see my learning increase as I work on the piece - I have to do less intensive work as time passes.

It would be interesting to break this down into hours, and see if I were not working full time how much lower this ratio would be.

I'm starting Sonatina Prodigio by Virgilio Mortari, and will also be interested to see if this ratio holds up. I have learned the first movement (not well) in the past. 

My hands still hurt! It's only the surface of my fingertips. Didn't really practice. Couldn't focus.

Working on practice chart similar to 30 Days to Done, but including more polishing work, as I need more of that.

Also started a survey to see how my practicing affects the quality of my playing.

Late snow day - got two practices in.

Need to figure out how much prep time I need to get recording ready.

Prelude 4. 1.5 hours Today I drilled the chords, and got about half of them attached to the octaves.
Prelude 4. 1/2 hour? worked on single notes.

But this timing may be dependent on when I do them.

Memorizing both.

another 15 min working on Tambourin. Played/practiced it 4 clicks faster so 116 feels slow. Sort of worked, would need more time.

15 min playing Chaconne and Giga.

There is a buzz in my B below middle C. 4th octave B. The whole 4th octave was buzzing earlier. :(

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.

Sos. Or, "Wow" - with my fingers on the correct keys (although SOS could be appropriate) - I didn't write here that I finished the first draft of my album, ie I got Giga recorded.

However, it's crap, and I'm going to have to re-record it. Editing is underway, which is how I know Giga is crap. Some other things are crap, too, but that may be ok because my microphone was broken during that session.

After getting my album "done", I slipped on practicing (hence the "SOS").  I found a couple resources that helped get me inspired to practice again: http://harpmastery.com/ which is a website run by Anne Sullivan who blogs helpfully and frequently about being better at the harp, and http://fiddlehed.com/ which is a website created by Jason the Fiddlehed who teaches fiddle through multitudinous youtube videos where you can find lesson plans and strategies as well as an extremely helpful daily lesson outline.  Both are extremely encouraging teachers.

Today, I'm running a little behind in my schedule, so I only got to warm up and work a little on Prelude 4.  I'm going to try going over pieces I already know in future sessions, as recommended on fiddlehed as well as an article I read about Salzedo that said he went though an entire recital repertoire once a week.

After all the technical work, Giga now sounds boring.

Options for making it more interesting:
+ Really, really exaggerate the phrasing. Like, REALLY. And record it and see if anything sounds good. (searching duckduckgo brought up a lot of "How to be interesting" articles. Pursue later. Right now, FOCUS.) (Practice these things in small chunks/phrases.)
+ Painting the scene chapter
+ Play along with the recording I really like

Add more as I think of things.

I also need to go back to exaggerating Berceuse. Need to do that and record.

And I need to do that for Prelude 2.

Oh, and I thought of some advice for myself: the whole "polishing a piece" process is new to me, so it's probably going to take the same amount of time and concentration to get that process faster as it did to figure out how to learn pieces faster, ie a LOT.

Working line by line on Fuga now. Re-vamped the typical practice plan to see if measure/line/page progression goes better.

Not sure what to do about Tambourin.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Field recording

LGR is up to a speed I can play it comfortably, the dynamics are close to being ready, and then I can start speeding it up.  I need to figure out how not to thunk the first notes in each measure in the ff section.

Berceuse still needs technical work at slow speed.

Prelude 3 - chaining seems to have worked. I now know why I couldn't play it before. It's going to be hard work to get it right, as I have to undo all the previous incorrect work I've cemented in my hands. Question is: do I want to?


I've been wanting to do field recordings and lamenting forgetting to take my microphone with me on walks and rides on several occasions.  And nowhere was that more apparent today than while stopped on my bicycle at a red light. The Greek Orthodox Church right next to me started chiming away.
So I need to find some way, pronto, to:
+ attach microphone to my bike
+ make it wind-proof
+ make it water-proof (especially today!)
+ record with small files that still sound good

Play it again, and again, and again...

After reading some tips from Practiceopedia, I was inspired to work on the problem spot in Prelude 3 again, this time using "chaining".  I learned 3 notes! It only took 20 minutes! /sarcasm. So it will take a very long time, and may not ever happen, but just doing it for sh*ts and g*ggles.

Worked on LGR dynamics.

Not enough hours in the day.

Practiceopedia

I discovered a new book at the library called "Practiceopedia" by Phillip Johnston.  It's available at the website Inside Music Teaching. It also seems to have fallen into that "out-of-print-charging-an-arm-and-a-leg-syndrome" over at amazon. $687.90? Really? Even the $125.50 used copies are a rip-off when you can order it direct from the source for a reasonable $39.95. 

Anyway, it had a wealth of practice tips - so many I couldn't get through them all in the time allotted, and I'm trying to incorporate some of them:
+ Analyzing the piece before you learn it - ie, what would you want a critic to say after hearing you perform it? You should have 4-6 descriptors.  I've never thought about that before in concrete terms, so I'm eager to see if it will make a difference in the finished product.  Before, I analyzed pieces as far as what key they're in and when it changes.
+Practice scales. IN TIME. And get them precise.
+Practice piece slowly, then add in dynamics at slow tempo, then speed up. This is very opposite what I was taught, and it's stressing me out, surprisingly. But, what can it hurt? (Besides my hands.) And I'm not getting the results I want using the old way so I need to try something different. You should be able to record the piece slowly, without fault, and use software to speed it up and have it sound exactly the way you want.

Lariviere - scales from ♩ = 50 - 200. Try (flight) instead - much more interesting.
LGR - Analyzed. Finger stabbed with scissors prevented serious work, and serious work is definitely needed.
Berceuse - Analyzed.

Difficult to stay within 1/2 hour. 

Another thing that helps with practicing - taking frequent breaks. Like, really frequent - every 10 minutes.

Thumb swelling a little more, but not in joint, so that's good?