Right now, I'm downloading a H U G E file from the H2 Zoom - sounds take up a lot of room! I decided to record my practicing, to see if I could get anything useful to put up here. I think I may have one page of Prelude 1 that sounds acceptable. I just cannot keep up my concentration and focus to get it to a flawless point. And when I say flawless I mean sounds like it's flawless even if it's not perfect. Make sense?

Then after I was appropriately glassy-eyed enough, I had a quick run through of Passacaille just for s-n-g. It didn't sound half bad, but now I have evidence and can go back and listen and see if I'm right.

Recorded more today. It's cringe-inducing to listen to, but gives me a really good idea what I need to work on - everything. Sound. Dynamics. Hitting the right notes. Hitting the right notes at the right time.

I downloaded audacity today so I hope to play around with that and see what I can do with what I've recorded.

Prelude 1: Worked on getting placing cleaner and faster. Basically playing 2 and 3 groups of notes over and over. Yay. I want to record this thing, darnit.

Prelude 2: Seems like it will be easy technically, but I'm not sure I "get" it.

Passacaille: meh. And that "meh" means I just didn't feel like working on it. It actually sounded pretty good.

Experimented with recording again today. I'm borrowing a Zoom H2 microphone recorder from a friend. It's a really good tool for me to see/hear how much more work I need to do. I'm not sure, though, how accurate it is at capturing the sound I'm getting. The mid-range in my harp comes across incredibly loudly - louder than the bass and high ranges - even when I think I'm playing them p. I've experimented playing the same piece (Bochsa) with different mic configurations and the mid-range is always loud. The best set-up I've found though, is having the mic about a foot away on the right from the base strings with only the back mics on (the 120° setting), and either med or high gain.

I played (I use that term very loosely) the first couple pages of Zarabanda today and I could hear some of the dynamics I was trying to get across, despite the louder mid-range tones (and the slips and fumbles and clangy pedal changes).

I think the conclusion is that I need to practice playing to get a good sound on the recorder, and see if that translates into a good sound for performance.

Then I just played a whole bunch of stuff because I didn't feel like working. :)

Played around with recording today. The mid-range of the harp comes through so loudly. I wonder if that's what it sounds like to an audience. No way to know. It's most balanced when I play the mid-range p and everything else normally.

Also worked on trouble spots in Prelude 1. There are many, but I zipped through playing it afterward.

For music theory, I am to write a chorale as a final project. The instructor recommended if we are not good at writing lyrics to use a poem, or failing that, since a lot of poetry is not suited to music, pick a song that has lyrics we like and use that. He also mentioned that bad poetry makes good music.

I absolutely cannot stand poetry and I'm not really a 'lyrics' person, so I asked my sister, who is more of a wordsmith-y person, what she would recommend. And I got Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, anything by Judas Preist, and Shake That by Eminem. Which would all be hilarious in chorale form, but she also had some serious suggestions, as well. I am waiting for a couple books from her, one written by a friend.

At this point I'm not clear on what kind of melody and shape I'd like, so I don't have much of a frame on which to hang lyrics. I think I'd like to have it be in a major key and modulate in the middle to minor, and back to major.

Maybe if I get a first line, I can use the Bad Poetry Generator.

ETA: And end up with something like this:

Bad poetry makes good music
And, now nekked, they shiver, oh how they shiver
love is chemistry, sex is physics,
Porcupines will rule the world forever!

Prelude 2 definitions:
a piacere - At the pleasure or discretion of the performer, typically with tempo and the use of rubato with a particular passage.
Più Mosso - A directive to a performer that the music of the indicated passage should have more motion, it should move more quickly.
tornando al - returning to

Passacaille was fun to play with today. I've got it learned well enough technically that I can listen to what I'm doing dynamically. The first note of the triplets form chords, which makes it easier to hit the right notes, for some reason. The octaves in the left hand can have de- and crescendos.

Prelude 1 is coming along well enough that I may try to start #2.

You know how sometimes it takes a while to learn things. Sometimes a r e a l l y l o n g time? My metronome can be left on my extra music bench while playing so I don't have to knock it off every time I turn a page. Brilliant! Maybe I'll actually stop breaking them with regularity.

OOOOOOOOOWWWW! Harmonics yesterday killed my left thumb.

However, played through some stuff.

Feel like my fingers are raw! Drilling each movt of Pass, hopefully will be ready by Sunday. have 3 practice days left before that, plus morning of.

Still playing prelude 1 at varying speeds and working problem spots.

Pass: 2nd to last movt more solid. Knocked it out in 1/2 hour. I seem to be able to learn faster now that I have more time to practice. Or maybe I'm not stressed about finding time to practice and that's helping my learning speed. Hmm...

Had a hard time concentrating because I put down a really good book to practice.

Passacaille: need to polish for next Sunday. Try to get opening and closing sounding less messy.

Prelude 1: Still getting faster. Something about it hurts my tendons, though.

Prelude 1 getting faster. How I'm doing it: I practice it faster than my goal, then when I slow it down, it's more comfortable in my hands.

But I've been ignoring Passacaille and now need to work on that again.

Fingers still tender.

Fingers sore, ran through Prelude 1 lightly.

Woohoo! Got Prelude 1 back up to 104. Callus on thumb peeled off, though. Need to do 2↑1↓ to get it solid and not sloppy.

Trying to get back into the swing of practicing. Not trying very hard, though.

Short, tired session today.

Apparently either didn't recover from my cold last week, or caught it again, or caught a different one.

Played for about an hour anyway. Prelude 1 almost to ♩=120! Still working trouble spots in Passacaille.

Unscheduled nap. Not sure what's going on. But did manage to work a little on Prelude 1. zzzzz...

Passacaille: Just need to polish it now. *grin*

Prelude 1: Unfortunately, harmonics in Pass still hurt my thumb so just did a quick run-through. At this point, can just work on getting the whole thing playable at 104.

Did practice today. Forgot what I did, though.

I did actually have a blister, it just took a while to notice it.

Prelude 1: Almost. Done.

Passacaille: Work on last 2 movt's still.

Thumb magically healed.
Prelude 1: I might actually be able to play this! Still working through and absolutely still need to work 2↑ 1↓. Do not try to skimp!

Passacaille: Play through and work on trouble spots to get everything to ♪ =144

Fingers finally have some sort of callus-like things on them, however peeling occurs around the calluses.

Bent my thumbnail back pretty significantly right before lunch, and despite icing it the requisite 10 minutes, it still felt like I smashed it with a ball peen hammer. Owie zowie.

I thought I could practice - usually with finger injuries they stop hurting after a few minutes of playing - but no such luck today.

Did NOT feel like practicing today. Or tuning again.

Prelude 1: Halfway done, will need to work on details throughout once I'm finished.

Stopped playing early - only(!) after 1.5 hours - because of gliss practice.

I need to learn not to make phone calls right after practicing. My brain doesn't work in a sequential manner. Can't. Sentence. Properly.

Passacaille might actually be close to being finished. I need to work on the endings for Var. IV, X, and XIII. And that might be it!

Prelude 1 is still coming slowly, but it is working. I vary between complete crap and flawless (I think) between one play and the next. How do I get the average to move more towards flawless?

Played through Notturno and Zarabanda. And a Bochsa.

And it all really only took 1.5 hours? I'm not sure I believe that.

Prelude 1: need to concentrate - if my attention wanders AT ALL, I miss notes. Need to concentrate on no fingernail or pedal sounds.

Prelude 1: Couldn't get fingers to work.

Passacaille: Couldn't get fingers to work.

Prelude 1: started trying to speed it up. Remember to raise. 1.5 lines at a time to catch overlap. ♩=104.

All of prelude 1 up to ♪=104.

Prelude 1: Both sections up to ♪=104. Take it in two measures at a time and work up to ♪=192. Dynamics nice. Work on clean placements and minimal pedal noise.

Prelude 1: 1st half up to ♪ =104, 2nd half ♪ =88. Tried going +3 -1 and that did not work. Need to practice jumping to chords and paying attention to dynamics. Dynamics almost there.

Passacaille: Apparently just needed proper fingerings written in for the chord inversions in order to make that section playable. Got it up to ♪ =144

Got another blister and ripped a callus off.

Prelude 1, 2nd half. work on prob spots 2+ 1-.

Vanderbilt has a replacement policy for strings that break within 2 weeks of use. Nice!

Arms too tired from brutal day at work yesterday. Blister gone already, though. Passacaille work (B E, A D, G C, F B) to get up to ♪ = 144. 3rd to the last line on last page is particularly difficult for some reason. It's inverted chords and I can't seem to get my fingers to remember the combinations.

Run through of Rumba and Sreb's Prelude 1.

Practicing may have been easier had I not been trying to do so while wearing fluffy bunny slippers. Also, I was completely wiped today. Also, it's the first day of classes. Also, I have a blister. But it sounded good!

And my 4th octave D broke at precisely 3:03 am this morning.

Passacaille is B E, A D, G C, F B. Ha.

Worked on Prelude 1 by Alojz Srebotnjak (and if anyone knows how to pronounce that, please tell me!). Got up to ♪ =88 and need to play either +2 -1 or +4 -2. Trying to play it as fast as it's written I totally get it. It's almost noodling around like I would do when I was younger - need to keep that feeling.

Passacaille cut short because of gliss blister. But working on yet another line. If I can do this from memory: A E, G D, F ... C?, no... F A.


And after seeing this guy on pbs last night, I've been obsessed:

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.