Back from vacation

I'm so happy to be playing again. So happy that I played for 2 hours straight and noticed a lot of muscles are kept up when playing constantly.  My tensor fasciae latae, for example is used quite a bit when pedaling. My shoulder is also fatigued. And the muscles I built up in my thumb to play Arabesque 2 are atrophied.

Chaconne - I need to skip over the problem measures and go for the remaining 3 or 4. Then go back to the hard ones.

Arabesque 2 - I fudged and checked a measure off just so I'd have something to check off. It's getting disheartening.

ImpCap - Just taking it easy. 1st 2 pages checked off.

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.