So... I think I play the mid-range of my harp loudly. I just rip the chords out with my right hand. Which may explain why I have more problems with the tendons in my right hands. As Great Aunt Lorraine says: "Take it easy, take it easy!"

Prelude 1: I was playing it faster than I thought, and as soon as my brain realized that, it was Fumble Fingers.

Prelude 2: One more line to learn and it's done, possibly to record.

Passacaille: Just need to keep it maintained.

Grey Donkey: Need to start on the detail work.

Prelude 1: hands cramped up - need to do more thumb exercises?

Prelude 2: SOOO much easier than #1, may have it knocked out in 2 more practice sessions.

Then 3, as I said, is completely silly.

Did a little detail work on Grey Donkeys.

Prelude 1 almost up to 120 and feeling more comfortable with 104.
Prelude 3 is just silly.

Minimal practice time - one more line of Prelude 2 - watch pedal changes.

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.