Slogan: Discipline Your Relationship

I tried twice yesterday to get onto the computer and both times there were interuptions. So, here I am today. In from mowing the lawn, boy it was knee deep.

Thursday evening I sat down with the music and had a good session. Doing all these pieces with both hands, that isn't the way I had in mind. Originally, I was going to work on the basic pieces and keep at them till I had good two-hand playing happening. But after finding those sheets that I thot I had lost I realize that I want to make them sound beautiful ~ with both hands. I have a hard time thinking of playing favorites well, very well, the way I want them to sound.

Ha! Look at that, I'm being whiney. That means that I am tired; haven't had enough rest. Things aren't going the way I had expected lately and stuff is piling up, can't practice as much as I want, the way I want. That is to get up, have coffee and writing, take Ch'ng out for her walk and then go to my practice time for a couple of hours. All that because the cleaning lady was in and the landscaping got done. All Iike I had organized, all like I had been promised. All I was willing to pay for.

Thursday Evening I worked on:

* Wisteria
* Swan Lake
* Westminster Bells
* Danny Boy

Once I got sitting down with it, I just spent too much time with it nad got overtired, didn't sleep properly and felt sluggish getting up the next day. I'll try to do better this weekend.

Thanks for dropping by, Meg

Slogan: Discipline Your Relationship

Wed Sept 23rd: I went to visit a harp friend and we had an hour or so to play and listen to each other play music on this delightful stringed instrument. When I practice, even if its only 5 minutes, I make those minutes count and get the best out of the time I spend. Knowing what I am going to do and sitting down with the music already going in my head gets my fingers moving faster and more accurately. Last night I played Swan Lake and worked on the left hand that I had never seen before, plus those 7 notes of Danny Boy and got further along playing with both hands.

At this point I am beginning to feel more confident in playing, seem to have more control over my fingering and with practicing each day, even for a short time I am able to recognize the written music . . . well, the treble clef anyway, the bass clef, it may come at some point, I can only hope. As I say, it has been a very long time since I did any constructive playing, using all the functions that go into playing a piece of music. This time tho I feel like I have a connection, commitment if you will, to doing my part in it, not just showing up and hoping it will 'come naturally'. When was the last time that happened?? No, not even to Glenn Gould, he practiced all night long while his friends slept and then lied to everyone. Good one Glenn.

Tonight I am planning on some practice at 6:30 after walking poochie. Then I' want to sit with the music for a while and memorize the bass/left hand clef to re-establish it in my head. It was there once so I can get it back again. Nearly the end of the week so not too much energy for evening work.

* Wisteria

* Danny Boy

* Swan Lake

* Star of County Down (run thru to keep it firmly planted)

Its nearly the end of the month, have to come up with a new slogan for October. Hmmm, fun.

Thanks for dropping by,

Meg

Slogan: Discipline Your Relationship

Oops, didn't realize I had missed so much time. I have been sort of all over the map when it comes to getting anything done lately.

Sunday: I sat down with the music I wanted to play and nothing sounded right, hmmm ~ tuning, that might work. So I began to tune her and things got worse in some respects, when I thot I had it right I tried the music again and when I put hands together on the one tune that I was working on with a friend, it sounded awful. Tried Swan Lake and it was much better, but still . . . ya, something's off. Had to walk away from it for awhile. Apparently, I never returned, nor did I feel the need to report it.

Monday: Took a short 5 minute turn at the music tonight. Tried an exercise piece, and that sounded vaguely familiar, so it was back to tuning. I did some writing in my journal on how I've lost control of my fingers and how lousy I feel about not being able to keep 7 notes, 3-L and 4-R, organized. It feels like I'm aging rapidly, alzheimers is setting in for sure.

Tuesday (6:25 AM): I saw I had 5 minutes and decided to give it another whirl. YEA!!!!!! I did it, got the 7 notes for Danny Boy going all together . . . annnnnd, in F# - ha ha ha - I got Swan Lake sounding like its supposed to for the most part. The last line needs work so I can go back to the top and repeat. I'm so happy I could just spit. Nice, huh!

Thanks for dropping in,

Meg

Discipline Your Relatonship

Today my goal was to do more than I have lately to get back on track with the music. I had a wonderful opportunity to meet a friend who plays also. She has many years experience in music and plays well, much higher level than I. We got together this afternoon and had a good session; she has been very helpful to me in learning one of the more complicated pieces I have as one to master by the end of the year. Kindly, she also gave me copies of music that I have been hoping to find.

I practiced for an hour on my own this morning, all the small bits that I have been working on. It was delightful having all the time that I wanted to just sit and play. O my, after so much activity I am as tired as a whole day training would make me, I didn't think I'd have this ever again. It gives me hope that there is going to be time for much harp playing in the future.

Today's Line-up:

* Wisteria
* Danny Boy
* Water's Wide
* Happy Birthdaay

What a lovely day.

Thanks for dropping in,

Meg

Slogan: DISCIPLINE YOUR RELATIONSHIP

Last evening I reread my plan for this month that I drew up on Sept 7th and saw that I was to do more than just practice daily and then write on it. Guess I need to check more than once a week or so. I am to be working on something that will stretch me. I haven't done much in that area yet; still getting my fingers back in memory shape. I see also that I want to have Star of County Down back as part of my line up of music.

So, this evening I will pull that music out and go thru it once with each hand. This is an exercise that can get it back in my head faster. Most of these small pieces have a left hand chording that I have not even tried out yet and need to do that if I am going to actually incorporate that aspect into the music. This weekend I will work on that. There could be some fear around working in both hands, not sure but I seem to be ignoring that part as I go from one piece to another without really doing both hands. Hopefully, this is just an oversight and not an obstacle to overcome. Ya, we'll talk.

Thanks for dropping in,

Meg

Slogan: DISCIPLINE YOUR RELATIONSHIP

Last night I was very tired again and was really unable to sit down and do a full 15 minutes of practice. I know, it sounds like a cop-out, but I actually dozed off shortly before 8 PM and my poor dog had to get me up to take her outside. I had chosen to try to do some plunking to get a new tune to start writing out. Be it old or new, I was going to start something. Just as I was going to bed after drifting in & out for two hours, I stood with it and did Westminster Bells and Happy Birthday, once thru with each hand. That took all of 5 minutes, of course.

Making myself sit for a very short time when all I could think about was getting into bed and reading myself to sleep, if that was stretching me in any way, then that's good. Maybe it was the discipline of not just ignoring it and going to bed.

Thanks for dropping in, Meg

Slogan: DISCIPLINE YOUR RELATIONSHIP

Well, last night I did a few minutes of music time. For some reason I am so tired these days that if I do more than a small amount I get so overtired that I can't get to sleep for hours and then I'm no good the next day. I am focusing on three pieces and if I don't get more than that done then at least I have the ones that give me the best finger exercise, maybe that's why I'm so tired . . . all that finger exercise, lol.

* Scales
* Wisteria
* Water's Wide
* Westminster Bells
* Happy Birthday

So, any three of those make up the basic 15 min and then I am done, can't think any more.

Thanks for dropping by, Meg

Today I felt like I was on a mission to avoid doing my practice any time during the day. The problem I see is that I have a scheduled time in the weekday evenings but no scheduled time on weekdends. Guess I just expected that I would be so thrilled with having a whole day to just sit down and spend as much time as I wanted to, that I would not have to schedule it. Now, I see that is not true, why would I even think that??? Its alright, it just never occurred to me that a w/e scheduling was necessary, now I knwo better.

Today I went for groceries and had this idea to make soup when I got in and had the bits of left over vegetables up. The broth turned out well and it was a great diversion from doing harp work. It seems like there were several things I overlooked like AMPages, laundry, changing the bed. I'm not working harder on my duties, but less it seems.

At ten to eight I sat down to do a short practice, I did a few mnutes of warm up and then Wisteria. It doesn't seem like much but it may be the way am going to have to do things in tiny increments, there is a phrase I am looking for, can't think of it, so I'll come back to this part when I can get the wording right. Its in an earlier post so not being able to remember is very aggravating.

Now I'm going to finish watching Morse and go to bed. I'm tired.

thanks for dropping in, Meg

Regarding Thursday September 10th,

I see that I have not been keeping up with this blog. It may seem like I have already fallen and I can't get up. This isn't true, I came in on Thursday nite with in such brain fatigue that I was unable to think, went to bed at 8-ish and fell asleep in the pages of my book.


Regarding Friday September 11th,

Slogan: SLOW & STEADY IN SMALL STEPS

Today I came in with the old mindset of ordering fish & chips and mindlessly watching TV all evening till I fell asleep on the couch. Hopefully, you will be happy to know that I did exactly that. I am beginning to think that I don't really care if anyone else ever joins the blog and reads all the nonsense that makes up my life. I have been unavailable to do any practice the last two days so I think that I will go out and cut the brambles/blackberry vines down, then come in and do some harp work.

I am going to pick out 3 small pieces and work for a short time, like 5 min per day in order to do the program in Artist Way that I have taken on till October. I think this could be where there is a slight shift in the goals for my blog. I have to learn to take things slow and steady in small steps. I have been rushing so hard that I have forgotten that there are details I am overlooking in trying to get to the end of the project as opposed to doing the work in all the minute detailed tasks that it needs, loving all the work, mistakes and redoing some stuff it includes. Just wanting to know how to play the harp and not loving the minutes and hours of practice just to be doing this activity is cheating my harp and myself. Now, let's see if I can remember this message.

Thanks for dropping in,

Meg

SLOGAN: Discipline Your Relationship

Tonight I got in late from work, I stopped at Long & McQuade music store for a book of blank sheet music. They showed me where the books for the harp section are located, there is a decent selection of books and composers. I found Danny Boy and it was hard to resist buying it, but I know that it will be in the new books Caroline sends me and there is no sense purchasing them twice. I could go to the library and see what they have for music to borrow, but I would want to copy the pieces that i liked and I'm not sure that's legal. I ended up taking my dog out late and came back to start my music time late, but it was still a good session.

I worked on getting a good opening exercise of running thru the scales. It started out slow and rough, but I gave it a good ten minutes so that all the fingers got a good work out and it seemed to help. I don't think that this being the third session in a row hurt matters either. I'm really tired in the evenings but I am probably more capable of slowing down to the point of being able to concentrate on one thing at a time for more than a couple of minutes.

After running scales I played my lovely Wisteria, which will be lovely once I am able to lightly finger it gingerly all the way thru. Then I did Happy Birthday, but not ten times and my fingers are not in love with this tune yet. Water's Wide didn't fare much better, but both imporved. The winner for the evening was Sakura which was played the best of all the pieces

Another part of this Music Quest is to pick out and write down a piece like I did with Swan Lake. I'm thinking I'd like to do Starry Starry Night in honor of Gail Ross, sometimes I miss her a lot. There is also House of the Rsing Sun that I did once but its in part of the work that has gone missing sooo, I may never see it again. These are all just options at the moment, I could stumble across my own tune while running scales.

Thanks for dorpping in,

Meg

ANOTHER REHEARSAL

SLOGAN: Discipline Your Relationship

This evening I started my practice session later than I had scheduled but as I sat in my harp seat and opened the music book to the place I am choosing to start my fingers went to the strings quite naturally. I have an exercise piece that I run thru to warm up. I play it three times in order to be sure the harp is in tune and to see my fingers are in sync with each other. I don't think its enough, when I get to the hard pieces, with a long stretch I notice that I stumble and hesitate. If you begin with hesitation that is how you will learn to play the piece and its difficult to erase the memory. With this new chance to start over I would like to take care not to do that.

I played the same pieces as last night, with the exception of Happy Birthday; that and the Wedding March are two very important easy pieces that are requested often and you need to do them well in order to enhance the occasion which usually belongs to a friend or relative and you want to make it a delightful memory. Therefore, practice is essential.

There isn't much to report at this point so I'm going to go file down my nails, they were catching on the strings, maybe when I return to a higher level I can chance working with longer nails but for now they need to be filed and have a coat of polish for strengthening.

Thanks for dropping in,

Meg

Well, hare I am on the first day of reporting real work that I am trying to create. The idea of taking notes is firstly to have a place to report my progress. Secondly, to see if there is any material that I could use for working into an essay to keep and use as personal help that I can read in the future when I am discouraged after this year ends. I don't really think there will be a publishable book here for public consumption.

I'm finding that I have been away long enough from playing more than an exercise piece I like and some glissandos that my fingers have lost all the memory they had at that time, which right now feels like a very long time ago.

I practiced for more than 15 minutes as I had promised myself. Starting on a long weekend may not have been the smartest move as my schedule was completely off and it was hard to decide how to just stop and work it into my day.

* did exercise warm-ups
* played Wisteria 10x to get my fingers flowing over the strings
* ran thru Westminster Bells twice and both hands was automatic :)
* played Happy Birthday half a dozen times with each hand
* Sakura - a harmonics piece that I used to play so smoothly

SLOGAN: Discipline Your Relationship

GOALS for week and month end:

I can tell I will be at this very beginner level for a while so the expectations won't be that high for the present. I'll practice the above pieces daily for 15 minutes to get them back to where they are memorable and muscle memory returns.

By the end of the month I want to be able to play a harder piece called Star of County Down.

I contacted Caroline McKay to see about getting some music I used to play while taking lessons with her. she is just updating them now and will send them to me as soon as they are ready. So, I may have those books to work out of also. Swan Lake that I picked out and showed her is in it so I'll have that to work on also ~ makes me happy.

This session felt good,

Meg

Music Quest