Slogan: Unfinished Projects
I'm back, and not a moment too soon I think. I had a very long session this afternoon, an hour and I went over many of the old pieces from the monthly lists I've made up. Some of them I have a handle on and can sit down and play right thru, right handed, some I don't have as good a memory of and I work from the music sheet, often I get a good result, but needs practice. There are a few that really need work and the fingering is one thing that gives me the big problem.
I think if I want to play for longer than 15 - 20 minutes I will have to change to a more structured way of practicing. I can start with a few minutes of warm up music, move onto pieces that are the most difficult for me, and as I am beginning to get tired and make mistakes, finally I'll finish off with simpler music that i know well and can end on a high note.
Okay, its time to go and start the weekend, like I can really tell the difference.
Cheers, Meg
Friday, April 30, 2010
Slogan: Unfinished Projects
Hye folks,
Here we are at the end of another month and for the first time I feel like I have actually accomplished something. Last evening as I was playing one of my new simple pieces, the ones I am using for two-hand practice, suddenly I realized that I had been keeping up on the left-hand side as well as getting the melody going with my right hand. I know it is just chording on the bass, but it still counts in my opinion.
I was so astonished that I actually had to stop and think about it for a minute and then it was nearly impossible to get back to that piece, The Christ Child's Lullabye, it says its played slowly and tenderly. So far I have mastered the S-S-L-O-W part, I'll get to the tenderly part later ~ I hope :)
This month I have played more regularly than in the past two years and it feels like its starting to come back. I called a friend last night who has a piece of music that I have lost and she said . . . well, she said that she has it, but since she's been away all winter, we had so much to talk about that I don't think we discussed me getting a copy.
But, she is back and we are going to try to get the group lesson going again. It'll be great to have someone to encourage each other with. My fingering feels pretty sticky in some of the crossover places, but they are the simple pieces and I am able to add them into practice also. Its really funny to think that Row Row Row Your Boat has complicated bits, it was the first piece I ever learned and I forgot that there's a couple of them. At the time I thot, 'O, this is so embarrassing, I'm playing nursery rhymes', but now I see that its more complicated than Twinkle Twinkle so it was a good one and I feel bad about not taking it seriously.
Isn't it strange that I behaved the same way, as an adult student, as I did as a child in school over things I didn't want to do. I loved my lessons but hated feeling like it was a put-down in any fashiion. Ooooooooooh, sensitive me, still taking it all personally !
My aim for today is to have a good practice session and then come back this evening and do a proper summary so I can start fresh with a good solid list of possibilities for the coming month of May.
Cheers, Meg
Hye folks,
Here we are at the end of another month and for the first time I feel like I have actually accomplished something. Last evening as I was playing one of my new simple pieces, the ones I am using for two-hand practice, suddenly I realized that I had been keeping up on the left-hand side as well as getting the melody going with my right hand. I know it is just chording on the bass, but it still counts in my opinion.
I was so astonished that I actually had to stop and think about it for a minute and then it was nearly impossible to get back to that piece, The Christ Child's Lullabye, it says its played slowly and tenderly. So far I have mastered the S-S-L-O-W part, I'll get to the tenderly part later ~ I hope :)
This month I have played more regularly than in the past two years and it feels like its starting to come back. I called a friend last night who has a piece of music that I have lost and she said . . . well, she said that she has it, but since she's been away all winter, we had so much to talk about that I don't think we discussed me getting a copy.
But, she is back and we are going to try to get the group lesson going again. It'll be great to have someone to encourage each other with. My fingering feels pretty sticky in some of the crossover places, but they are the simple pieces and I am able to add them into practice also. Its really funny to think that Row Row Row Your Boat has complicated bits, it was the first piece I ever learned and I forgot that there's a couple of them. At the time I thot, 'O, this is so embarrassing, I'm playing nursery rhymes', but now I see that its more complicated than Twinkle Twinkle so it was a good one and I feel bad about not taking it seriously.
Isn't it strange that I behaved the same way, as an adult student, as I did as a child in school over things I didn't want to do. I loved my lessons but hated feeling like it was a put-down in any fashiion. Ooooooooooh, sensitive me, still taking it all personally !
My aim for today is to have a good practice session and then come back this evening and do a proper summary so I can start fresh with a good solid list of possibilities for the coming month of May.
Cheers, Meg
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Slogan: Unfinished Projects
Hello again,
I haven't written for a few days now, but I am here to say that I have been doing some small, increments of work on the harp several times a day. I have improved by using those minutes to doodle instead of stare at the instrument and dream. I believe that dreaming is important also, if I don't have any of that going on when I look at it then maybe I'm not as interested as I'd like to think I am. Now, when I walk over to it and touch it I get an idea of what I want to try, I sit for 5-10 minutes and work with both hands in this one piece that has a great section that really lends itself to repeating.
A friend is laid up with an injury and I go over to help out every couple of days, she has a harp also and I play her the couple of small tunes that she really likes to hear me do. Its strange working on a different harp, its like nothing is in the same place, like borrowing a car. Hers has more strings, so when I try to go down to the bottom, where my C is, the extra strings throws me off for a second. This is good experience also.
I don't know if I have mentioned it but the piece that I use for two hand practice at the moment is Searching For Lambs, calls for left-hand chording and I am figuring out where to put my hands without the music, this is huge for me, easier to practice for a brief time. Its nearly the end of the month and this time I may have something to do a summary on.
Take care and keep on playing
Cheers, Meg
Hello again,
I haven't written for a few days now, but I am here to say that I have been doing some small, increments of work on the harp several times a day. I have improved by using those minutes to doodle instead of stare at the instrument and dream. I believe that dreaming is important also, if I don't have any of that going on when I look at it then maybe I'm not as interested as I'd like to think I am. Now, when I walk over to it and touch it I get an idea of what I want to try, I sit for 5-10 minutes and work with both hands in this one piece that has a great section that really lends itself to repeating.
A friend is laid up with an injury and I go over to help out every couple of days, she has a harp also and I play her the couple of small tunes that she really likes to hear me do. Its strange working on a different harp, its like nothing is in the same place, like borrowing a car. Hers has more strings, so when I try to go down to the bottom, where my C is, the extra strings throws me off for a second. This is good experience also.
I don't know if I have mentioned it but the piece that I use for two hand practice at the moment is Searching For Lambs, calls for left-hand chording and I am figuring out where to put my hands without the music, this is huge for me, easier to practice for a brief time. Its nearly the end of the month and this time I may have something to do a summary on.
Take care and keep on playing
Cheers, Meg
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Slogan: Unfinished Projects
Hye Folks,
I have been sort of dragging my heels on this site, I know. I have finally solved the problem; its taken a long time to work thru enough music to find a piece that has very basic left-hand work that you work at the same time as my right hand. This is exciting and really helps me to want to get onto my harp each day and do a real practice, not just the few minute basic one that I am obligated to do if I want to keep my fingers from forgetting their place.
Another thing I have to maintain is the amount of pressure I apply to the strings that gives me the sound I like to get from the music. I like it on the softer side, so it sounds more like the tinkling of bells rather than the strumming of a more guitar-like sound. Strangely enough, the comments I usually get are mixed. I'm told that its a beautiful sound, but I need to try to play more loudly. Amazingly, I would not get the same sound at all and I would not give myself the same relaxing tones.
My harp still has the partial levers of a student's instrument and it helps me to stick to the less complicated pieces. I have promised myself that once I get competent with both hands that I'll get more levers installed, or even get myself a larger fully levered harp . . . but that is down the road a ways at the point of becoming more involved with music at a higher level.
Thanks for listening,
Meg
Hye Folks,
I have been sort of dragging my heels on this site, I know. I have finally solved the problem; its taken a long time to work thru enough music to find a piece that has very basic left-hand work that you work at the same time as my right hand. This is exciting and really helps me to want to get onto my harp each day and do a real practice, not just the few minute basic one that I am obligated to do if I want to keep my fingers from forgetting their place.
Another thing I have to maintain is the amount of pressure I apply to the strings that gives me the sound I like to get from the music. I like it on the softer side, so it sounds more like the tinkling of bells rather than the strumming of a more guitar-like sound. Strangely enough, the comments I usually get are mixed. I'm told that its a beautiful sound, but I need to try to play more loudly. Amazingly, I would not get the same sound at all and I would not give myself the same relaxing tones.
My harp still has the partial levers of a student's instrument and it helps me to stick to the less complicated pieces. I have promised myself that once I get competent with both hands that I'll get more levers installed, or even get myself a larger fully levered harp . . . but that is down the road a ways at the point of becoming more involved with music at a higher level.
Thanks for listening,
Meg
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Slogan: Unfinished Projects
Hye folks,
Seeing as I didn't exactly overuse the slogan for last month, I'm going to continue on for the few entries I make this month.
I am beginning to wonder if there is any such thing as finishing in the way I mean it to be. I think of something being completely finalized in some way. But, it could be that my thinking is incorrect, there is only completed to the limit of my expacetaions and abilities at the time. I have come to an appropriate place to stop and call it finished. It could be the perfectionist in me that is always looking for stretching myself beyond my abilities. When I make lists of music to practice, I always learn the right hand well and try to come in with my left, or I change the left hand to more simplistic chording for accompaniment. As there are few pieces that I can do according to the original music I seldom feel that I have accomplished my challenge.
The list of pieces that I am able to play completely thru with a small amount of left hand accompniment are as follows: Wisteria (original music), Happy Birthday, Star of County Down, Swan Lake exertp, Sakura, Here Comes the Bride, Saint Basal's Hymn. Its a good list, solid pieces to continue improving upon. I have received some new pieces of work from a friend and I'm thinking I'll begin putting them down on a list of never tried pieces to add onto my current music. Searching for Lambs, Flow Gently, Sweet Afton, Whispering Hope.
I think if I am able to maintain the new thinking and not revert back to the more negative thots that cause me to feel like I'll never get it right, I will make better progress.
That's all for now, I have to go make my list for tomorrow now.
Cheers, Meg
Hye folks,
Seeing as I didn't exactly overuse the slogan for last month, I'm going to continue on for the few entries I make this month.
I am beginning to wonder if there is any such thing as finishing in the way I mean it to be. I think of something being completely finalized in some way. But, it could be that my thinking is incorrect, there is only completed to the limit of my expacetaions and abilities at the time. I have come to an appropriate place to stop and call it finished. It could be the perfectionist in me that is always looking for stretching myself beyond my abilities. When I make lists of music to practice, I always learn the right hand well and try to come in with my left, or I change the left hand to more simplistic chording for accompaniment. As there are few pieces that I can do according to the original music I seldom feel that I have accomplished my challenge.
The list of pieces that I am able to play completely thru with a small amount of left hand accompniment are as follows: Wisteria (original music), Happy Birthday, Star of County Down, Swan Lake exertp, Sakura, Here Comes the Bride, Saint Basal's Hymn. Its a good list, solid pieces to continue improving upon. I have received some new pieces of work from a friend and I'm thinking I'll begin putting them down on a list of never tried pieces to add onto my current music. Searching for Lambs, Flow Gently, Sweet Afton, Whispering Hope.
I think if I am able to maintain the new thinking and not revert back to the more negative thots that cause me to feel like I'll never get it right, I will make better progress.
That's all for now, I have to go make my list for tomorrow now.
Cheers, Meg
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