The bummer of being sick

The biggest bummer of having been sick this month is the lack of motivation I'm experiencing now with my piano practice. While I am still practicing every day and have managed to do so even while ill, I am not practicing as much as I should be. I have had three days in a row where I haven't managed to get in my full 60 minutes. Today it was because R woke up 30 minutes into the practice session, and since it's past 11 o'clock, it's unwise to resume practicing because she will wake up again. Yesterday I think I was just tired. I'm not sure about the day before.

Now I'm working on memorizing the nocturne. I am halfway proficient at it, so the next logical step (to me) is to memorize it. I cannot play this piece at all from memory. But I will drill it into my memory one way or another, and I will memorize it. Soon. I want to just play it at church when I happen to be there with nothing to do (which actually happens a lot, since I volunteer with the youth organization and sometimes I am there a little early). Right now I only have 2 or 3 pieces that I can just pick up and play without music. I want a lot of pieces that I can do that with. And the work continues.

My perfect record will soon be broken

Thus far I've averaged around 60 minutes per day of practice time per month. March will be the first month where I don' t meet that average. I think what I have is the flu, and it's putting me on my back! Today I actually got up at 9:30 or so, took a shower, got halfway through changing my sheets, took a long break, finished my sheets, and needed to lie down I was so tired! My house is a disaster area and I'm just glad that I can keep up on my dishes. That's the only thing I can keep up on at all. If my kitchen were out of order, it would be loony bin time for me! I hate having a messy kitchen and dirty dishes. Hopefully I'll be able to get over this stupid flu soon!

Today was just one of those days

You know, the kind where you're moving from the minute you wake up until it's bedtime? Yeah, that was today. Except a lot of my day was spent sitting down doing taxes. Fun. Thankfully, we got a nice big return, so it wasn't all that bad. But I did have to spend some time on the phone with the IRS. That was a joy. All I needed was my ARI from last year, and somehow I don't have a copy of my last year's tax return. How did that happen?

Tonight I started practicing at 10:20. I decided that there was no way I would be able to get in a full day of practicing and exercise, and since practicing is more important to me (I'm only 10 pounds above my goal weight, after all), I decided it'd be better to skip the exercise. I practiced 'till 11, when I was starting to get droopy eyed. I needed to start a load of laundry (it is piling up big time!) and get a couple more things ready, so now at almost 11:30 I'm pooped.

Today I started working on my new method for practicing my Schubert piece. It went well-ish. I passed off one drill section at half speed.

I also practiced the prelude and fugue 21 by Bach. I'm starting to figure out the fingering, which is tough with these pieces. It's just not intuitive to me, so I have to really work it and figure it out in order to get it right.

I played through May Song twice today, and worked on a couple of spots. I think I'm okay there for a while. As long as I can play it once every week or two, I think I'll be fine on this piece.

No warm ups, since 40 minutes is hardly any time at all for practicing.

Now I'm almost off to bed. Tomorrow should be a better practice day.

Getting Smarter

So tonight I skipped the warm ups and went straight to the practicing. I got about 40 minutes of Fugue in when R started wandering the halls. I have her now and I think my practicing is done for the day. Tomorrow I am babysitting a little boy, but other than that my day shouldn't be as hectic. I expect to practice a bit more tomorrow during the day so I can get in the rest of my practicing in the evening, not all of it!

What's going on with the short days?

I really tried to get in a full hour of practice today. The problem is, I haven't been at home as much lately so I haven't been practicing during the day. Tonight I began practicing at 10 pm after a busy day of cooking and baking and running around. I also got in 20 minutes of exercise somehow and began my finger workout after that. Alas, 30 minutes into it my sweet 2 year old R woke up and was inconsolable when her dad tried to calm her, so of course when he's gone through all the tricks in the book it's time for mom to take action. And now that she's back to sleep, I'm afraid to play for fear of waking her!

Tomorrow is the day of rest, so I'm hoping I can get some restful playing in then.

Today I did Hannon 1-10, arpeggios in C, G and D, and scales in B Major and F# Major. This was 20 minutes of warming up. I was planning for a full hour or more of practice tonight since I've had several 30 minute days this week. I went through my prelude 21 and started in on the Fugue when she awoke. I was barely able to work on the fingering before I had to go back there.

Hey, with as much as I have to do, I'm proud to get 30 minutes in per day! In a few years, I'll be able to dedicate a lot more time to the piano. For now, I'm grateful I can get in any time at all.

Just 30 minutes today, again.

I was interrupted tonight by a crying little girl, so I was unable to completely my practice. Since I didn't start until 11 pm, that means the practice is over for today. I only worked on the Fugue today, but I intended to work on some other pieces as well. Mostly I worked on the fingering. With baroque music, the fingering has to be absolutely perfect. I'm working on the second section of it, and I will soon have that fingering down. I'm hoping in another few weeks I will have the fingering perfected and I can really fine tune it and work on the dynamics.

I also warmed up with Hannon 11-20 today.

Another short day... sigh

We STILL haven't found the camera. We have the feeling that we need to get the house clean and orderly before we will find it. Because I am a complete basketcase, I was again unable to complete a full hour of practicing. But I got in 40 minutes, which is much better than yesterday. Today was a super busy day anyway, and I got 12 points for the Healthy Living Challenge today and L had preschool, plus hubby was out all day running errands, then we went to some friends' house. I wasn't completely uninspired today, but I was a bit depressed and I'm sure m y practice session could have gone better. I'm chalking my decent mood for the circumstances on all the exercise.

All my practicing today focused on the Nocturne. I would really like to get the fingering down and be able to play the whole thing through. I really need to work on my speed and accuracy once I can actually play the whole song.

Maybe once I find the camera I'll be able to record it for you to hear how I've improved.

Frustrated

I am so flippin' frustrated tonight I can't see straight. L took the camera somewhere and we have torn the house apart and can't find it. She has no idea where she put it (and how would she-- she's 4!). So. I got in a little practice on the nocturne tonight and I fear I will be unable to practice any more. I probably will stay up all night till I find the thing. I'm just glad I got some practice in today. I'll make up for it tomorrow (if we have the camera!).

Yeah, that's twice that I didn't check in.

I'm having a bummer week. But I'm keeping up with the practicing. I also noticed I had been neglecting my journal blog, so I had to post a bit on that today.

Yesterday I got in about 50 minutes, practicing Bach and Chopin only.

Today I have spent the majority of my time on those as well, but I also played Clair de Lune. I was about to open to that tonight when I opened to "O Polichinelo" from Prolo do Bebe, No. 1 instead. This little ditty is by Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is very fast and lots of fun. Listen here as performed by Marcelo Bratke. I can't play this piece nearly as well as this guy, but at one time I played it fairly well. I believe it was included on my senior recital. The hubby thinks it is just a mess of keys, which is what it probably sounds like right now anyway, so I'll give him that. But I was playing it more like at moderato, rather than presto. So I can understand his dislike. My goal is to make him like this piece! 20th century music can be hard to appreciate sometimes, but this is a great piece and its so fun.

Today so far I have about 50 minutes in as well. I'm going to get back to those ivories before I hit the hay so hopefully I can get at least another 10 minutes in tonight!

Tired tonight

I'm glad I got about 30 minutes of practicing in earlier today, because I'm beat! It was actually closer to 40 because I sat down a second time and went over some parts in the nocturne I'm working on. I also ended up with a total of 70 minutes yesterday, focusing on Beethoven's sonata 8 and also (of course) the nocturne. Dave told me today that when I first began playing that song, he thought I was doing warm up exercises! But now it sounds like music.

Today I wanted to work on the Fugue, but all I got in was a waltz and the nocturne. OK practicing today, but at least I got something in!