I've been working on little sections of Impromptu by Lex van Delden because I'm so sick of Giga.  I'm hoping it's a good thing that I'm "setting it aside" for a little while. Hopefully, all the dynamic and musical things will percolate and it will be perfect when I pick it back up again. 

I almost couldn't make myself play today, so I did the CBT thing of "try it for 5 minutes". I lasted longer than 5 minutes, but not by much.  I did play fiddle a little bit after that, and that was fun.  I'm still working on trying to play the notes in tune.

I also sight-read a little bit of Joaquin Turina's Tocata y Fuga arr. Nicanor Zabaleta (thank you, MultCoLib and Vassar College ILL depts) and will probably order it.  I like the pieces and they are arranged REALLY well.  I always wonder when that happens (Dewey Owens anyone?) if the arranger had the same size hands as me, or if they had really bendy fingers like me.

Tried to work more on Giga, but I'm burnt out on it.

Results of exaggerating:
- Listen to original Berceuse, more strictly in time and sounds ok.
- Don't pause between measures in Berceuse, make sure glisses dissolve into notes properly.
- Sped up Giga in audacity, don't like the over exaggeration, but some things sound good. Maybe incorporate regular phrasing instead of exaggerated.
- Prelude 2 sounds good, just need to record 3x to find errors and FIX ERRORS.

After all the technical work, Giga now sounds boring.

Options for making it more interesting:
+ Really, really exaggerate the phrasing. Like, REALLY. And record it and see if anything sounds good. (searching duckduckgo brought up a lot of "How to be interesting" articles. Pursue later. Right now, FOCUS.) (Practice these things in small chunks/phrases.)
+ Painting the scene chapter
+ Play along with the recording I really like

Add more as I think of things.

I also need to go back to exaggerating Berceuse. Need to do that and record.

And I need to do that for Prelude 2.

All 'x's erased in Giga.  Record all tomorrow to see where additional 'x's need to be added.

Erased the 'x's off the 1st and almost all the 2nd page. I'm a little sick of Giga.

Berceuse and Prelude 2 are keeping, I think.

Yesterday, I erased more of the 'x's I marked in Giga. I make different mistakes every time, though.

Recorded Giga 3, need to listen and mark copies.

Need to record Giga with changes.

Giga, Berceuse, and Prelude 2 are all very close to being ready to record.

Since I just canNOT play the first ending in Giga, I need to treat each section as a ... section and rit. at the ends, not necessarily leaving a gap, but just making a noticeable ends like I did in Rigaudon. Take a breath.

Still need to get a lot of buzzing out of Giga.

Did not want to practice today. Worked on a little bit of buzzing and missed notes in Giga and meas 24 of Flagello's Sonata.

Test recorded, need to listen to Giga and Berceuse and mark trouble spots and write down practice plan.

Giga notes

It's totally fine to play this slower.
Watch out for buzzing jeezy creezy.
Incorporate more dynamics and phrasing.
Make it sound fun.

Headphones

I finally fixed my good headphones - it took two hours - so I can now do all the subsequent things I've been putting off. 

I'm taking a break, dammit. Two. Hours. Mostly from threading the tecflex onto the wires and now my fingers are killing me.

On the bright side, I did manage to solder and reassemble everything without testing. Ha!

Test recorded Giga 2x, tried 3 but my hand was cramping.  That's something that definitely needs working on before recording for real.

Also recorded Berceuse and Prelude 2 to see where I am.

Also need to rewire my headphones before I can listen to these recordings critically.

Went through Giga and practiced playing my preferred mods at the preferred times.  Time to record and adjust this one.

I finished editing another piece. Yay.

Changed my mind on Giga again, and I think the last variation would sound better with broken chords and uneven rhythm.  I think I might leave of Prelude 4, too.

While trying to improve Giga by visualizing, I realized there are repeated themes in different keys, but using completely different fingering and splitting the chords between two hands differently, which may explain why I can't remember how to play either of them. And why it's exhausting to visualize.

Berceuse needs test recording, or I need to listen to my other recording to remember how I want to play it.

Started some good work on Prelude 2, need to chain the rest of page 1 and first part of p 2.