The new strings are so much easier on the hands.

Same goals as last year: Record harp solos and work on list for show.

The new strings feel amazing! Smooth surfaces, even tension, lighter tension. No more slicing of the thumb on harmonics.

I spent 3 hours replacing 75% of the strings, and that's not including the multiple tunings.

Christmas music! Blisters!

Noël nouvelet!

Exercises. Wrenched my thumb on harmonics. Everything stiff and sore.

Used a BIG chunk of change to order strings. Now I just need to find 4 consecutive hours to restring this bad boy.

I seriously need to order new strings. Like, seriously.

Hands cramping from knitting, so kinda pathetic practice today.

Trying to stick to my list, in order, therefore worked on:

Passacaille: first and last measure (on 2nd page) to ♪=144

Danses: Gavotte, Siciliana, Tango, Rumba - worked on problem spots two up one down.

Exactly what I was looking for: a table listing songs that start with different ascending and descending intervals!

The three that I'd been using - perfect 4th: Auld Lang Syne, perfect 5th: Star Wars, and major 6th: NBC jingle - were helpful only for ascending and only for those three.

Thanks, Footprints, whoever you are.

OR! You can make your own!

Rumba - quickness in getting to chords.

Passacaille - More speed in more sections

Exercises.

Working Passacaille up to ♩=69. Or ♪ =140, whichever comes first.

Rumba is almost playable at ♬=80.

I seem to be no longer able to play Clementi. I do not understand. It should be in my muscle memory from college. My fingers just collapse and flop all over the place. :(

Starting around 6:50, this made me giggle uncontrollably.

Note in the list of adjectives, "brown-noise" is not included.

Played.

Made a note in class today to look into getting a copy of "The Art of Modulating: for Harpists, Pianist, and Organists" by Carlos Salzedo & Lucile Lawrence. Because we're learning modulation! I was not aware that instigating a key change with a chord change was called modulating.

I have the book. I seem to remember being told by someone years ago to get it as it is a useful reference to have. Well, it's a useful reference if you know what modulating means.

Now that I do, the final discussion of constructing glissandi is SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING. There are two kinds: harmonic and melodic. Melodic is not discussed because they are 'the domain of composition and are unlimited in number, but,[...] they have no modulating value' and now I'm curious about those.

BUT harmonic glisses are constructed on dominant 7th and 9th chords, major tonic triads with added 2nd and 6th, diminished 7th chords, and whole tone scales. Thus facilitating key and/or chord changes. Delicious!

Practice notes: still making lots of progress on Passacaille, goal of ♪=144
Practicing goes better if I do not also do all my upper body PT exercises in the morning.
**Find another time to do them.**

Up two down one 2nd meas 2nd page passacaille up to 92.

Worked on Passacaille up two down one, arms got shaky. Tried to move on to Rumba, but got discouraged.

Managed to complete melody writing assignment. Things are starting to click in to place, but this is something that takes practice and continual practice, at that.

Blogger is so effing slow!

Tried to write music, I think I need to try something simpler.

Hmmm...

Smashed my knuckles while tuning. Bandaid was distracting. You'd think after *mumble* years I would have figured out how to tune safely.

Two up one down does work, so keep using it! Except I'm overcoming a LOT of muscle memory in Rumba. Work on smooth transitions between phrases.

Today is a day I wish I could have played 3 hours or more. :(

Up one down two seems to work well except when my brains fall out of my ears.

Exercised (didn't overdo it, yay), started Rumba, continued Gavotte, played Zarabanda.

Counting helps breathing.

Exercises made for shaky arms, but fingers warmed up. Too shaky to get any noticeable work done. Still working on chord + octave jump in Gavotte.

Gavotte felt much more comfortable in my hands, but only had 30 min to play, so not sure if I can play it up to speed.

Music theory homework - changing from dominant 7ths to a different key is interesting.

Played a little of Tango, Gavotte, Clementi stuff (still not interested), and Donkeys.

Need to practice hand position and placing in Gavotte. Almost blister stopped playing.

Scrapped the classical, can't seem to deal with it.

Polishing Gavotte.

Heater acquired, calibrating mostly completed, ideal harp-playing temperature achieved.

Feeling like I need a vacation from everything; played through Donkeys, Six Pieces, looked at Dances.

No practicing today; it is just too cold without a heater. So I guess getting one is the goal for tomorrow. Not that I need to spend time studying or anything.

I'm also having problems with dominant 7ths. We were analyzing a song in theory and one of the markings was D7. Everyone seemed to know that's a G chord. wtf. It's clearly marked as a D. I asked for clarification and am still completely confused. And a C7 is actually an F chord? Because it's a dominant 7th it's automatically a V (dominant) chord? If that's so, is there an even more confusing way it could be written? And why did some people automatically know this?

Counting while playing takes practice. It's also a really good way to remember to breathe.

Need to work on cleaning up #2 (scales and placing) and working problem spots in #3.

PLayed: moved on to next Clementi.

Must get a new heater soon, cold hands do not make for easy playing.

And finally a cheesy sounding harp version of something I wrote for class:



Which google will apparently let no one see, including me. Whatever, it's late, I don't have time to play with this.

I spent a good part of the morning cleaning up a couple stacks of music that have been sitting around since last *cough*October*cough*. I got all the floating pieces of paper back in their sleeves and binders, so you could say I spent the morning arranging music, haha. Now I can at least see part of the surface of my extra harp bench. And I found a post-it with "Harp Sonata op. 68 (1943)" written on it, which I figured out must be this:


But I'm not sure why the note to myself because upon hearing it, I don't see it as something I'd particularly want to learn. Or particularly like. Hrm.

Practiced: Posture and breathing (getting better).
Played: Some of the music I arranged this morning.

Things worked on: Exercises, posture, variations.
Things played through: Clementi. Passacaille by "Haendel" (that's what I was comparing my variations to; it's simplistically brilliant)

Tried to write music today. Emphasis on tried.

Played more Sonatinas - Bach, Beethoven, Dussek, Hayden (bleh). Worked on difficult section in 3rd movement with ƒz and scale again, and am getting a blister, which seems to be under a slightly more substantial callus.

It made the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs

So I had no idea this was playable on the harp:


Had time to play through some Clementi. I think I'm going to brush up a couple other Sonatinas for backup.

Breathing makes for better playing. And brain function.

Got out some old "theme and variations" pieces because my interest was piqued in class today.

This video features the lovely Catrin Finch playing harmonics. Watch until 2:36 (but the whole video is good):


Then take a look at the first measure of Bach's Prelude in D for Cello:

Specifically the first three notes. :)

Played lots of exercises, more than was absolutely necessary. But they are necessary.

Worked on more spots in 3rd movement. I had some scales starting out with 1 2 4, and I'm not sure why, but it's equally as difficult either way. So I guess I'm relearning it with 1 2 3.

Voice warm-up.

(Mirage) scrunching rt fingers. Good bicep workout.

(Flight) will need to drill in sets of 16th notes.

Clementi need to identify problem spots in third movement and work on those, waste of time to work on whole thing.

make performance list vs. recording list

Tried to play, serious concentration problems. Looked at arpeggio etude, not enough room in higher register for my hand, have to bend fingers at first knuckle instead of second. Wrote 1st inversion harmony to melody. Finished more chord identifications.

Feeling like crap, and behind on homework, so no practicing. But did get fun new music today. Sleepy Time by J.E. Ivey, which is a lovely piece, however a little short. I'd like to arrange it, or add to it, so it's a more robust piece.

Finished 1st mouvement, started on 3rd. Working on music homework which involves identifying major, minor, augmented, and diminished chords.

Taking a break, though, and listening to a wonderful podcast from NPR. And unintentionally turning my printer on with my knitting needles.

singing and playing. not enough time in the day.

Gave fingers and back (and metabolism) a rest, but not my brain! Wrote 4 8-bar melodies at harp today. Writing music is hard.

Lots more done on Clementi. Just one more line and I'll have the first movement done. I like this whole more-practice-time thing. It doesn't matter that my arms are completely tired and next to useless now. I don't have to lift them for anything else today. Really.

And from my heightened awareness inspired by my class, I realized the first movement changes from G to D (circle of fifths!) quite smoothly, and the beginning melody line is simply the 1st and 2nd inversions of a G major chord. Pretty sneaky. And I wish I could do that! And I'm assuming I will at some point in the future.

Keep working two measures at a time. Then go back and brush up trouble spots. ~1.5 hours today, maybe take more stretch breaks. Or any.

Short, blistery session. I may be playing the wrong Sonatina.

This evening, after over 15 years of playing the piece I'm now polishing, I just noticed, for the first time, a C♯. WTF! Where did that come from?!? It changes the whole sound of the passage!

Fumbling through 2 more measures - seems to be helping, though?

Broke Clementi down into two measure chunks. We'll see today if that worked. Remember to breathe! Focus on getting scales even and full use of fingers.

Uurrrrgh. Did not feel like playing. Too tired. Exercises. Decided to transpose Cloches to A♭ and worked on that a little.

Vocal exercises, a bit excruciating to listen to and perform.

Played through Clementi.

strengthening, getting clementi at one speed.

Only had time for strengthening exercises as I had to finish my homework!

Picked a classical piece (probably again). Need to work on speed and dynamics, probably in 2 measure increments. Practice dampening D octave and getting back on beginning G chord quickly - maybe the octave needs to be played open?

Trying to pick a classical piece. I think I'll go with the one that doesn't hurt to play.

Worked on homework (!)(music homework is awesome homework to have, btw) singing solfège to three simple tunes, then transposing them to a different key. Movable d'oh!

Playing Notturno, working on problem spots and trying to get nice phrasing with melody in thumbs, is apparently bad for my bad tendons. I will lay off that and work on other things.

Then played through more pieces in Solos, ending with a really relaxing run through of Zarabanda.

Life is good. :)

Tried to do detail work on Zarabanda, but just ended up playing through most of Solos for the Harp Player.

Finally found a version of Zarabanda.

My hands never really warmed up today. I guess it really is fall. *sigh* I took several passes on all fingers of Lariviere.

Then worked on chords and cleaning up Zarabanda.

Tried to play Notturno at speed. Bit of a mind-twister as the marking is quarter instead of eighths. I could just multiply it by two, though, duh.

Azure Blue by Laika & The Cosmonauts from The Amazing Colossal Band.

Here Comes the Flood by Peter Gabriel, version on hard drive.

Night Prayers located: harp/Night Prayers.txt

Les Cloches du Monastere Op.54a by V. Lefébure-Wély arranged in style of Music Box Xmas.

Various melodies arranged in 17th, 18th, 19th century styles.

Street of Crocodiles.

Avengers/Doctor Who/BBC sound library from the 60s.

How the heck to play the sƒz in Zarabanda.

Read through some of the list stuff. Can't wait to start work on them!

Re-modded modified list

Here's the list just in order. I will be working on these with my new schedule so they do not have months attached since I do not know how much time each will require.

1: Zarabanda - Turina : Done-ish. Sort of.
2: Notturno - Resphigi : Done-ish.
3: (flight) - Salzedo : uuuurggh
4: Classical - Clementi : possibly ouchy
5: Images - Tournier
6: Danses - Salzedo
7: Six Pieces - Renie
8: Etudes - Bochsa
9: prelude intimes - Chanson? - Salzedo

All my harp strings are now back in the right place. Nameless exercises and Bochsa.

Conditioning exercise.

Someone moved all my harp strings down my harp one step. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Lariviere and Conditioning. Tried to start learning IV in Poetical studies by doing one line per page to see if that would keep my interest. It didn't. What's going on with my motivation?

Still not in the mood to play anything, but did some good exercise work with Lariviere and Conditioning. Stretching feels good!

Conditioning Exercises led into Tiersen. More than I wanted but felt good.

Finished reading through O'Carolan. What to do next? Not sure, can't think, too hot.

More O'Carolan.

Got some music in the mail (yay!) so played a few O'Carolan tunes before my neck/head ache screamed at me to stop.

Not really feeling like playing, but did a little anyway. Not feeling motivated? Inspired?

Itchy cranky swelly. I hope this is the last hot spell for a while. Hard to hold hand position when hands are swollen.

Played various stuff, more Satie (better this evening, and even tried to pay attention to dynamics and directions - "with surprise"? Not sure what that's supposed to sound like.) Still paying attention to hands and that seems to be a good thing.

Played slow stuff tonight to keep relaxing jaw. I managed to blunder my way through Medieval to Modern and completely murder Satie, but I was paying attention to my hands!

Played instead of practiced. But concentrated on hand positions as I realized I've been lazy about that lately.

Split Donkeys into small sections of 2-4 meas. Requires more concentration than I think.

Playing (flight) in sections of 4 16th notes, both hands. Great one click before goal tempo, at goal tempo, kablooey.

Urgh. Too hot. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was nice and cool.

Detail work on lt and rt hand (Flight) bottom pg 2. Need to practice matching them up.

More read through of Tiersen to boost confidence. Easier to play completely opposite things in opposite hands. :)

Checked out Yann Tiersen's v.2 to read through (again) and take a break from detail work I feel is getting me nowhere. The last time I checked it out, I could barely play any of the pieces and stopped after the first few measures. Tonight I could play them with barely any problem. Nice to know I'm still improving and that that's possible.

Probably have to keep up detail work on (Flight) until even playing is habit. Maybe 2 wks? 30 days? How long does it take to form good habits vs. bad? Also, my harp does not have enough room for my hand in higher registers, which is causing my hand to bounce of soundboard and miss notes. >:|

Donkeys is ok until I start working on it. I just do NOT want to play the higher chords in the rt hand, what is going on?

Sat back the past couple days and listened to someone else play the harp for a change. Joanna Newsom was spectacular and I feel lucky I was able to go both nights.

Also chewed my cuticles (bad!) and played much less tonight due to swollen and painful finger.

AAAAND helped a friend who locked herself out back into her place by taking her front door off its hinges, which cut into my practice time. A girl's gotta help her friends, though, ya know? Priorities!

Took an unexpected nap that cut into practice time which left me groggy enough that I walked full tilt into my sewing table afterward, leading with my hand. I cannot type with the ice pack balanced on my hand.

Brain is clogged. Detail work on (Flight) was going fine, then fell apart.

Tournier was undoable.

More detail work on (Flight) seems to be helping.

Lt hand on Donkeys is falling apart. Why, also, can I not remember the higher rt hand chords?

Detail work on (Flight) 2nd page. Need to do this several times so that clean playing becomes habit, not the fast sloppy current habit.

Donkeys slowly getting better. Keep working up to ♩=108.

Read a little of (Poem)

Itchy and sore from moving stuff, surprisingly distracting.

45 min?

Still working on (Flight) to ♩=104. It's becoming memorized, but at the slower speed.

Donkeys fell apart, but the memorization is coming back to me quickly. Didn't realized I had memorized it.

Poem looks like another good one, left hand is already getting used to tricky interval changes.

Played through various things I've never learned, trying to remind myself of my goals. Not sure it worked.

Played various things. Lt 3rd finger may or may not have cyst in knuckle, yay something else that hurts. It just recently started hurting when I play. Waiting to hear about x-rays. Didn't feel like targeting any specific work today.

Urghhh... Too hot. Hands swollen along with the rest of me. And so tired. My rt thumb tendon really achy today, I think from sewing a sweater together. :(

Reading "Outliers" by what's-'s-butt...Malcolm Gladwell. Very thought-provoking. I find the observation that the most "talented" people are the ones that have put in 10000 hours worth of work completely believable. It meshes with my feeling that I need to be playing 3-6 hours a day. However, I also believe I'm past any shot at greatness. But I do want to be much, much better than I am.

Started with Lariviere to warm up.

(Flight) and almost got 2nd pg 1st 2 lines to 104, to work rt hand.

Les Anesses Grises almost getting it to 108 (AS MARKED!!!), to work lt hand.

15 minutes of Les Anesses Grises, I think this won't be too difficult to work up (except for the first page!) and it's a good break for (Flight).
Continue trying to get (Flight) all at 104.

Looked over goals, worked on Les Anesses grises based on original idea. My muscles need to be so much stronger. Hopefully, I'll have more time in the near future to build them up. Getting excited!

Left hand needs to be faster. Both hands need to be faster and even. Practice fingers 1-4 of scales separately and extremely quickly.

A9... mmmm...

Hit my other hand in the same spot, but had to do it twice just to make sure. It's surprisingly bruised--for once--but doesn't show up in photos, so I have no proof. THIS IS WHY I HAVE PROBLEMS PLAYING THE HARP.

Rt thumb still doing twisty things on high scales. Stopped when I focused, but still not sure what I'm doing when I'm not concentrating on it.

That is all.

Rt wrist still wants to twist to help thumb. Rt tendon now hurts. 40 min.

Goals?

Hard to focus. Need to review goals.

15 minutes: ran into the corner of my sewing table with my hand. I think I hit a tendon. Here we go again.

Tried to practice but too tired to overcome the tiredness and having to wear earplugs when practicing.

2 seconds.