New string in place, played until my hands got shaky.  Tendon still hurts, even after resting on vacation. Got 2nd page of ImpCap to 80.

It's really difficult to practice with a(nother) broken string.  This time it was the 2nd octave A. One of the ones I don't have, of course.  Every time I sell an album, a string breaks. Coincidence? I think not.

A little chaining done and marked on Chaconne and it worked brilliantly. Wish I had time/energy to do whole piece.

Finger is healed, string is strung.

Arabesque 2 - I think I might just have to play this super slow, maybe around ♩ =92-96.

Chaconne - Few more measures under my belt. Trills will need work. Current measure needs chaining.

Sliced my finger on glass, another harp string broke. Not practicing.

Arabesque 2 - Can't figure out how to speed it up and have it still sound like I want. Maybe need to record.

Chaconne - Still working on line 8.

Chaconne - This needs way more work on consistency at high speed. I need to chain and focus!

Arabesque 2 - Still can't get past the first measure, but my hands are getting slowly stronger, I think.

Going to get a mute for my violin today. :)

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.

Besides getting my muscles wrapped around playing Arabesque 2 at 100, I still need to wrap my brain around it, as well.  Did a quick 10 min practice today, just enough for hand to be fine, but forearm and shoulder to start feeling it.

Happy Birthday to the only person that reads this besides me! :)

Holy hand cramp, Batman. Arabesque 2 at 100 is... intense.

My muscle memory from high school is kicking on Chaconne providing some interesting and fun phrasing.

Blogger now seems not to require titles anymore. Maybe they got complaints.

Just played a little today.

I can certainly tell the difference in my recording of Zarabanda vs previous pieces because I pretty much know it cold (despite not being able to memorize it?) and there are so few things that need fixing.

Wobbly thumbs! I think they're getting stronger. May need to do chaining on first page btwn chord change measures. Or may need to just get even stronger.

Chaconne is coming along quickly. I think I may have tried to learn it at some point before.

I may edit some things today if I can get everyday life stuff done.

Recorded Zarabanda

Finished arabesque 2 at 60. Almost played it at 80. Hopefully it will be a short jump from there to 100.

Recorded Zarabanda. Lots of cars today, though, and no motivation to listen to it and edit, so I may need to rerecord.  I'd much rather play around with the angry wasp I recorded. Oops, play around with the RECORDING of the angry wasp. Angry wasp can go away now. I also still don't understand one section of Zarabanda.

And serious, why does blogger all of a sudden need a title? @#$&*(%

Tendons

There are two different pinch grips and one hurts my thumb. Arabesque 2 - hammered more into my head.

And now blogger apparently requires a title for all posts. :P

My album! Well, more of an EP, really.

While I've not been practicing, I've been getting stuff together for an album, and here it is!

Zarabanda - There are just a couple lines that don't make sense to me, so I'm ready to record. I need to remember to sing the latter-measure eighth notes while playing. So I guess that's what I'll practice today since the rain is making too much background noise.  After yoga, though, since I can barely sit up straight right now. :P

Recorded Zarabanda again. Slight improvement. Not enough for me to have a boost of self confidence, though.  My tone is so uneven. I think if I could control my fingers, I might be a better player. /sarcasm

Working on lettering for my album and in general.

2nd Arabesque - having problems concentrating - didn't eat enough of the right stuff after bike ride, but managed to figure out a much easier way to play measure 15 that saved me a lot of practice time.

Finished polishing Zarabanda. Now just need to take out all the jarring pauses and I think I'm good to record.

Zarabanda - 1st two pages polished. Started on 3rd.

2nd Arabesque - 1st two pages almost done.

Knocked out 2nd Arabesque. Next need to speed it up and add dynamics. I will have massive callouses after learning this.
My thumbs continue to be intermittently painful.

2nd Arabesque's slides are giving me blisters, but I'll take that any day over a painful thumb joint.

I think I'm going to try learning the other version of 1st Arabesque.

More work on Zarabanda. I think it's making sense.

More work on Arabesque 2. It's a repetitive, so I'm able to cross things off quicker, yay.

I started 2nd Arabesque. I may try 1st Arabesque as I have another version whose fingerings I'll try and see if it makes a difference with the learned bad rhythm in my hands.

What's circling the bathtub drain of my mind

Should I stop playing the two Folk Songs, which I absolutely love, yet seem to be destroying my thumb joints and start on the next piece, which is First Arabesque by Debussy, which I learned in high school WRONG and which has resisted repeated attempts by me to  unlearn and relearn properly, which would probably lead to frustration, or skip First Arabesque also and move on to the next next piece and be disappointed about it? OR, I could replace First Arabesque with Second Arabesque, which is in an entirely different book. *marge noise*

My right thumb is back to hurting just as much as it was. I guess I really can't squeeze my hand into the uncommonly tiny upper register of my harp. So good-bye to Folk Song 2, and possibly 1.

Muscles, tendons, or cysts?

My hands are better. In particular, my right thumb.  I cannot tell if it is due to:
A. Starting my physical therapy exercises back up and doing them consistently,
B. Whatever I was doing yesterday (opening a jar? I seriously can't remember) that severely torqued my thumb and made me gasp in pain, and reminded my body that that area needed some healing, or
C. Whatever I was doing yesterday possibly popped a heretofore unknown cyst in my thumb joint.

My left thumb joint has absolutely no pain, and my right thumb joint is mildly painful, and the pain is only present if I squeeze the joint hard.

So I was able to practice today a little better than I have for the past week. I've been half-heartedly playing/practicing because my head was completely not in it. I had to do the "try it for 5 minutes" trick every day, and every day I stopped after five minutes (that's five minutes in harp time, which is more like 15, due to settling in and warming up). Today was a little better, but my concentration was... laughable.

Zarabanda - I got a few phrases checked off. It's weird working in phrases because it makes so much sense and why would my brain default to doing something that made sense?

Imp Cap - one more line

Tiny harp torques thumb

I think part of the reason my rt hand is hurting is because my harp is so narrow in the upper registers I can't get my hand comfortably on the strings and end up torquing my thumb.

Therefore, I need to relearn Folk Song 2 with new hand positions.

Still resting my thumbs a bit, but they are definitely getting better.

I test recorded Zarabanda today and it is unsurprisingly messy. They bass sounds much better than I expected, though.

Harmonics are killing me!

I think I figured out what's wrong with my thumb joints: the ligaments at the base of my thumbs are slightly sprained or strained from harmonics. I have been neglecting my hand strengthening exercises, so yes, my muscles were weakened and allowed my thumbs to twist too much when plucking the harmonics in the two pieces I'm working on. And I played an exercise for kicks that was nothing but harmonics. So yeah. Need to stop that for a while.  I'm relieved, though, that they've been hurting long enough that it's time to apply heat - as opposed to the immediate 24-48 hr post injury icing that I skipped - because warm hands are such a luxury for me! And I've been doing my exercises again and they seem to be helping.

Sources:
http://black-rose227.deviantart.com/art/Anatomy-of-the-Hand-and-Wrist-270462040
http://www.overtimepainrelief.com/pain-treatment/arthritis-joint-pain/ligament-pain/

Here is a list of the reasons I didn't really practice today: I'm having an off day, I have an unusual headache, my thumb joint hurt, my harp is buzzing (A-NNOY-ING), it's too nice a day to be inside.

I started Impromptu-Caprice today. It's something I've been wanting to learn for years and kept thinking "someday". Today is someday, so I made a practice plan. It's not going to take the place of what I'm currently working on or other pieces I have planned, rather it's going to lurk in the background with much lower priority. I think it will take about a year to learn properly.

Both my thumb joints have become increasingly achy.

Checked off two more lines in Zarabanda review. One line each yesterday and today.

My entire rt hand is kind of achy now, instead of just the thumb joint. And it's traveling up into my arm, so I'm going to go slap the old heating pad on it and read.

I managed to get the 2nd piece corrected (I think) in Two Pieces for Harp.

I played Folk Song II in it's entirety, with no mistakes at half speed. This is a doozy. And I seem to be in such a funk that I wasn't even having my usual fun playing it. But it was nice to achieve the half speed.

Recorded Folk Song II to give a listen. Not bad, but need to practice with quarter notes so I can get proper beats.

Marked up and recorded 1st song in Two Pieces for Harp by Flagello. So far, it's not intriguing me too much. And there are a ton of errors in pedal markings and rhythms.

I got some good work done on Folk Song II - I just needed to focus, something which I can't always do. Trouble spots worked on and almost worked out so I can sort of play it at half speed.

Folk Song I is ready for recording at half speed. I kind of think I already know where the trouble spots are, though.

I stopped playing because my rt thumb joint was killing me.

I've been posting practice notes mentally, which I guess is a good thing. It shows I'm paying attention and remembering what I'm doing in my practice sessions?

Last Saturday, I sliced my thumb while washing dishes. Thankfully, it didn't go too deep due to calluses, but I took a day off.

I think I may have successfully recorded the song I wrote, plus LGR. I just need to get the mental energy to analyze and process them.

And I need to check when I started LGR here because I didn't write it down on my practice sheet. Something else to remember for next time. ETA: July 2012. So almost a year. Darn.

Recording The Drive didn't quite go as planned, due both to outside noises, and noises inside the piece that don't belong there. So it needs a skosh more work.

Looking Glass River I thought was close to being ready to record, until, that is, I tried to record it. I get so self conscious when I'm recording that everything falls apart. I've probably said before, but I guess I should record more often during my practice sessions.

Read through (Mirage) by Salzedo, just because I love some of the chords in it, and didn't feel like getting up from the harp just quite yet.

Now I can play LGR again. WTH?


Scanned and printed out some pages to avoid page turns.

One more line of Folk Song 1.

Folk Song 2 needs work to get up to 50, but I needed a break from it.

My song I wrote is to the point where I need to do a detailed trawl to make sure both hands are playing precisely together.

LGR - I think this is one of the ones I give up on, or just play it as well as I can and call it done.

Folk Song #2 - 2nd page checked off

Folk Song #1 - at this point my concentration and stamina ran out.

Um. I did stuff? I checked things off lists.

I've definitely made progress with LGR and noticeably with Folk Song 2. Oh, and the piece I wrote.

Only got in 1.5 hours today. But I consider that to be better than the 5 I told myself was the minimum.

Got some good work done, I think.

LGR - pg3 mid 80s.

Zarabanda shouldn't take too much work. FLW.

Folk Song2 needs spot work at 80.

I made notes on The Drive, which I can't remember now, but are safely written on the actual music. Something about dynamics and making sure both hands are playing at the same time. So nothing new.

I made up charts for the next two pieces so I have something to alternate with Folk Song 2 and LGR. I'm going to be starting on Folk Song 1 and Zarabanda (again).

LGR third page is better now.  Should be able to start working on it again. Maybe not tomorrow, but Sunday.

LGR - I did go back to square one, and the first page seems to be pretty solid. The second page seems to be relatively solid. But the last page is still troublesome - like I've never learned it/seen it/played it before.

Folk Song 2 is so much fun to play. It's like the abandon I had when I used to bang on the piano before I knew how to play, but is absolutely gorgeous. It's almost all up to ♩=80. It was apparently originally for flute and harp and there are three. Also, I'm not sure if I want to play it at the recommended speed, both because I don't think I can physically do some of the things in the piece and I've listened to it sped up, and I can't hear all the beautiful notes - they need to have some space.

It took me two  h o u r s  to put finger markings in my song in Finale.

I haven't been feeling the need to keep track of my progress here as I have a list next to my harp and am checking things off there.

I have one of those blisters (or something) that doesn't stop hurting with playing, so no practicing today.

LGR - Based on how far back this has slid, I think I need to start my "campaign" all over again. The other solution "Practiceopedia" recommended was to leave it alone for a while, but I think that's what the problem is - it's got challenging areas that need regular maintenance (not necessarily constant).

Berceuse - I keep wanting to type this, but I'm done with it!

Folk Song 2 - A couple more lines done. I really don't know how this is supposed to be played at ♩ =100.

The song I wrote which I will need to name at some point - How did I write something I can't play?

Trying to learn the piece I wrote, which I guess I need to name. There are some tricky turn-arounds.

LGR - Chaining last 2 lines. Got one measure done. Not sure what to do about the rest of the piece.

Folk Song 2 - two more lines learned with dynamics.

Folk Song 2 - Started speeding up and adding dynamics. I think that may be too many things at once for my poor brain. Think I should maybe only go up to 80 instead of 100. But then it's good to play fast to see where the weak points are. ???

After 2 lines at full volume (there are interesting dynamics in these Folk Songs - left hand has almost a carillon feel to it) my thumbs were almost toast, so I just played through some other pieces in the rest of the book.

Spent all day and a good part of yesterday working on de-clipping Berceuse recording. There is still some clipping I absolutely can't get rid of. But whatever. It is now up. Oh, be careful on the volume because of the clipping.

I'm tired. Hooray.

Thanks again to dad for hosting. :)

Berceuse - actual link to music.

It's on this page.

Berceuse - almost ready for recording - just a slight dynamics issue in a couple measures. I would have recorded today, but: 1) unusual headache, and 2) weird band practicing across the street is SO LOUD, it sounds like the washer unbalanced in the next room.Seriously need a quiet space.

LGR - 1st page seems to be the holdup, otherwise it's fine. Can't record it if I can't start it. Oh, and other than the chaining needed on very last line, but as I just proved to myself, it's totally doable. Just didn't do it today (see above).


Folk song - all lines learned, 1st page played 3x times no mistakes.

Almost all of Folk Song 2 learned. At ♪=50, it is so slow I can't even speed it up in Audacity and get anything listenable. It's got some crazy dynamics, too, and I'm looking forward to that.

Berceuse - More pressure testing. It amazing to me how new and unexpected mistakes pop up out of nowhere on things that had been smooth as glass before.

LGR - at this point my pedals were flying up like crazy so I called it quits.

Folk song - one more line

Berceuse - pg 3 5x no mistakes. started pg 4, too tired.

LGR - did chaining in right hand for last two lines, need to do left.

Wrote a song in the past 3 days, forgot I would also need time to record it.

Folk song - one more line

Berceuse - smoothed over some trouble spots, but didn't get through all 5x on page 3.

Berceuse - can definitely tell I've done recording prep on only pg 1 & 2.  Need to do that with pg 3 & 4. Like I wrote down on my list!

LGR - continues to slide backward. ???

Folk song 2 - one hour to learn another measure. Granted, that measure had a chord that spanned 1.5 octaves and I've always had problems with those.

Started to get comfortable playing LGR at 100 again.

I think Berceuse is ready for recording.

First page of Folk song 2 learned. Realized I tend to be sloppy during the slow part of learning assuming I'll fix it later so I'm trying to take care learning it, lnowing what that will save me later. Basically, trying to pay attention to detail NOW.

Wrote a little bit of music. Not sure where it's going and don't know if I want to plan it or let it happen.

Analyzed Chameleons and learned I lost a lot of what I learned in music theory. And can't tell what key Monkeyland is in. Is it F# major or D# minor?

Need to go back to step 3 for LGR.

Set up sessions for Chinese Folk song 2.

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.

LGR - Apparently I need to relearn this. Everything is gone from my recuperation.

Berceuse - added clarification to "prep for recording": made test recording, now need to take notes on that, turn off heaters before recording, and work on improvements.

My thumbs are finally feeling better.

I realized I don't need to necessarily practice the cells I designed in order.

Somehow flared up my De Quervain's right before practicing.

Berceuse - still recording times to achieve goals. I have a wonky idea of how long things take, and what I can do in said times.  Still trying to play pages 1 & 2 x5 with no mistakes. Got page 1 done in the midst of that, in one hour.

LGR -page 1 x5 with no mistakes: I had to break it up into measures and play those x5 with no mistakes at varying tempos, then played page 1 faster than tempo, then at speed. Took one hour. And then I discovered I'd been reading 2 notes wrong. I think those are going to be tricky to fix since they are firmly cemented in my hands.

Short practice - too tired and fingers sore, but still managed to get everything done for today.

Started transcribing Street of Crocodiles by Leszek Jankowski.

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.

Figured out how to play last line of LGR faster, but it makes my hand cramp after working on speeding it up for 20 minutes.
Continuing to check off cells from practice chart.

I did overuse my fingers yesterday, but it's ok because I had other things to work on today based on my schedule, and got them done.  I'm surprised with the discrepancy between what I thought I could do when scheduling and what I can actually do.  I'm going to start timing myself to see how long it takes me to accomplish the cells, because I'm getting everything done in about an hour, and when my fingers are working, I can do about 3 hours of practice.

I actually started View from a Hill yesterday, not Nathan's ... whatever.  It's another beautiful, yet easy, one.

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.

Marathon transcribing of songs to get back on schedule. I finished Monkeyland, started and finished Singing Rule Brittania, and started On the Beach. Monkeyland was such a difficult song for me to figure out. I think because I deviated from my usual method and tried to get help with guitar tabs. They were not helpful at all.  I'm also learning that the songs I like the best are, disappointingly, the simplest. I egotistically thought I had sophisticated taste. Apparently not. However, I liked the more complicated songs more after I transcribed them.

I went through my music and planned out the practice sessions I need to do before the end of the month. If all goes according to schedule, I'll be ready to record at the end of the month. So far, knock on wood, my calluses are getting more robust. Hopefully they won't peel off.

I managed to get all the cells I had scheduled for my session today done in the hour I had left for BOTH pieces. It's mostly going to be work on the dynamics and getting up to speed.

Yeah, need to work on dynamics. Will outline that tomorrow.

LGR needs to be slowed down. It wasn't ready to be sped up to 100.

Ok, next thing to do is record same stuff across the room and see if my hands are still imbalanced.

But after 2 hours, my arms are tired. 

Plan for Su, Mu (ha, Munday): Work only for 1/2 hour on last measures of LGR.

Make copy of Berceuse so I can highlight the @#($*&^ pedal changes!

Then after recording plan rest of campaign. Or at least list steps to finish these pieces.

Tomorrow will be a planning session including recording and listening to LGR and Berceuse to see how to plan the "Campaign".

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

Rebuilding calluses... apparently.

I think I've got too much muscle-memory/cemented wrong things in my hands to get Prelude 3. Maybe someday I will see if Practiceopedia says anything about un-cementing things. I think I will put it away again.

Worked on speeding up trouble spots in Berceuse. I couldn't even play them at regular speed! So they will require more work.

Speeding up LGR will require work on the last two lines.  The dynamics don't quite make sense, either.

Warm-up with random excerpt from (Flight).

Prelude 3 - 3 more notes

LGR - time to speed up to 100.

Berceuse - tested at 50, most is easy-peasy, but ran into trouble in faster runs.

Berceuse - dynamics ok at 40 (still not sure in a few spots), few flaws to fix marked with Xs. Mostly pedal changes. Need to bring out melody more, or might be microphone placement.

LGR - sped up to 88 and it's slightly falling apart, so need to practice Xs.

Prelude 3 - 3 more notes, sort of. Very tired and I think that affected my ability to use my fingers.

Sped up LGR 4 clicks - seems ok, but run through again.

3 more notes in Prelude 3.

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

Prelude 3 - 3 more notes learned in 20 minutes. It will take 20 more days.  However, gave myself a blister and De Quervain's acted up again, so I can't set a final goal yet. Just a goal to take 20 mintues of practice time to learn 3 notes per day when I can.

Worked a teensy bit on dynamics, of LGR, but didn't want to make blister worse. Need to set goals for LGR and Berceuse, as well.

Weird, now my right thumb tendons hurt and my left hand feels fine, however that was the one that hurt during practice.

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.

Berceuse - Worked on dynamics, breaths, caesuras, and tenuto on 3rd page. Oops, excuse me. Caesurae. I think I've got it how I want it, for the most part. I think muffling completely would be too jarring.

I moved a couple pedal changes because they are right in the middle of a quiet part. 

Need to work on the A♭ G♮ pedal change - it's really loud!

Railroad tracks

Thanks to one of the lovely members of yahoo's harplist, I now know the the double slash (\\) marking in Berceuse is a caesura.
Caesura - (/siːˈʒjʊərə/ or /sɪˈʒʊrə/; alternative spellings are cæsura and cesura) is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. In musical notation, caesura denotes a brief, silent pause, during which metrical time is not counted. --from Wikipedia.

Next is to figure out if I want it to be a L.V. pause or a muffled pause.

A couple definitions I missed

Senza misura - an Italian musical term for "without meter", meaning to play without a beat, using time to measure how long it will take to play the bar. (wikipedia)
Ten. (Tenuto) - Italian, past participle of tenere, "to hold". The precise meaning of tenuto is contextual: it can mean either hold the note in question its full length (or longer, with slight rubato), or play the note slightly louder. In other words, the tenuto mark may alter either the dynamics or the duration of a note. Either way, the marking indicates that a note should receive emphasis. (Tom Gerou and Linda Lusk, Essential Dictionary of Music Notation (1996))

Berceuse - based on listening to the last page sped up, I'm adding slight pauses (denoted by commas, although I could denote with "ten." or birds eyes on the note to hold) to make the phrases stand out in what I think is a better way.

Wish I could play for hours more, but am limited by my endurance. :(

Warmup with (Flight).
LGR - Left hand is flowing and has dynamic separate from right hand. sounds good sped up.
Everything aches.

Some definitions

As I'm working on dynamics, I'm playing much louder and consequently gotten the skin on the pads of my fingers to that really squeaky point that comes just as blisters are forming.  Here's proof. Ow.

I forgot yesterday when I analyzed my pieces that I didn't know what the composer was asking for. So here is a vocabulary list:
Maestoso - ma·es·to·so  (mäs-ts, -z) adv. & adj. Music In a majestic and stately manner. Used chiefly as a direction. [Italian, from maestà, majesty, greatness]
Poco accel. (poco accelerando) - go faster little by little
Sempre - sem·pre  (smpr)adv. Music In the same manner throughout. Used chiefly as a direction.[Italian, always, from Latin semper]
Conto - a monetary unit in Portugese? Ah. Lento. Italian for WRITE LEGIBLY.
Cantando - Singing style. ?
Più moto - more motion.
Più agitato - more agitated, with implied quickness.
Velocissiomo - very fast, very quick, very speedy.
There are also some commas and double slashes (\\) at the ends of some measures. Commas denote a breath mark for singers. Double slash = ?

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.

LGR sort of up to ♩=100 - worked problem spots to 100, but then couldn't play it all together.
Berceuse shakily at ♩=40.

Finally got Prelude 5 edited to the best of my ability. Let's see if I successfully uploaded it and spelled the link correctly.

Figured I'd just go ahead and commit to (re)learning Folk Song 1 since I was kind of already doing that. Got the first 2 lines to ♪=80 in order to play at d=40.

Berceuse - watch out for low E's, otherwise good to start speeding up.

LGR - quick run-through.

Have some sort of mental block against getting the rest of Prelude 5 edited. Probably because it's crap. :P

Sort of got LGR to 90. Sort of got Berceuse to 50. Played Folk Song #1 at ♪=50.

I'm writing this entry with my Bamboo tablet! My hand muscles were fatigued for some reason and didn't get any better the more I played and I didn't really feel like practicing today so just did some Bochsa etudes. To change things up l tried playing Major exercises in minor as I was as playing. My technique went to sh*t as I was figuring out if I was playing in natural minor, harmonic minor, or melodic minor. Ie. no sharps, 1# on the way up and down, or 2 sharps on the way up and none  on the way down. Also, key changes threw me for a loop because the circle of 5ths really does jack for me. I have to do the "it's the key that's a minor 3rd above" thing. It sounded more interesting, at least, and kept me more mentally engaged.

A couple of quick run-throughs today.

Got some work done on Berceuse - had to dial it back to 35, though.  I was working on the glisses and my fingers felt blistery so I stopped before going on to LGR.  But then started working on Chou Wen-Chung's Folk Songs.

Also, I've gotten page 1 of Prelude 5 finished in Audacity, however, when I sat down to start working on it again, I somehow got sucked into figuring out what Jay Z and Kanye sampled in No Church In The Wild and if I could do the same thing in Audacity. Oh, right, I was transcribing more of Real Life by Tones on Tail and got hooked by that bassline in the second half of the song, and my mind made a connection to that "Dodge commercial with the cool song".  It turns out the "bass" hook in NCITW is actually a guitar riff slowed down by about 30%.  And I figured that out after about an hour of trying to configure my computer to record itself, when the only thing I needed to do was shut down and reopen audacity after changing my settings. Urgh.

I am completely addicted to this:


My fingers are itching to learn it!

The other Flagello (Berceuse) I skipped today.

LGR - got it up to 80 mostly except for one pedal change.

little bit of LGR 1st page to 80.

Berceuse - Page 2 & 3 huge chords need more work.

Whittled 14 takes of Prelude 5 down to 5.

I have been practicing, just not posting every day. LGR - pushing up to 80. Berceuse - trying to get to 40. Work on tempo changes.

Today working on getting Prelude 5 files onto my computer and re-assessing quality and useable parts.

Re-upholstering my couch and my hands have been bothering me from the staple gun, so I've been grabbing minimal practice time here and there when I get a chance.

Today I was able to really practice and am completely wobbly on LGR and Berceuse. Sort of sped them both up LGR to ♩ =72 and Berceuse to ♩= 40.