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Bare Ne-Saturday

I was going to title this one "Bare Necessities Woes," but I apparently already have a blog post titled "Bare Necessities Woes."

I worked on Bare Necessities for two hours today. Two hours. 

Actually, let me rephrase that.

I worked on the Bare Necessities outro for two hours today. Forty minutes this morning, and then in little 10- or 15-minute intervals throughout the day.

And I still don't have it. It's better, but I can't play it with any semblance of confidence. When I do play it perfectly (at a snail's pace, always), it always seems like a stroke of luck.

I finally had to stop practicing. Not because I wanted to, but because my forearm was screaming. I had to keep resting because the reaches are hard on my hands/arms. Even though I've taken out some notes to make them easier.

I'm tired and I feel like I'm making my way through darkness. I still have not managed to wrap my brain around this passage yet, and it feels brand-new to me nearly every time. I wonder if my brain is trying to carve a new fold or fissure into itself, and it just can't do it.

I don't want to think about how many hours I've spent on just the outro. I didn't work on anything else in Bare Necessities today. I'd wanted to work on memorizing the easy kiddie section and cementing the easy crossed-hands section, but I labored over the outro for my entire BN practice.

I did get to practice blues and a bit of the Rondo, and I also started the Lead Sheets course.

But I kept coming back to the outro. And I'll keep coming back to the outro until I have it.

I'm going to get it. It will just take a while.

Here are my latest Bare Necessities woes, in video form.

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