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Weekend Goals Update

 Ah, those ambitious weekend goals ...

I had some good goals for the weekend and, as expected, I did all right on some of them. I practiced for about 3.5 hours total, which is not a lot for a weekend ... but, considering I was in North Carolina most of Saturday and Sunday, I'll take what I can get.

Solace

My Solace goal was to be able to play it smoothly with increasing tempos. I'm getting there--which is good, considering that Solace got the most attention this weekend. It's still quite slow (about 48), and it needs to be about 65. I get kind of frustrated because I'll feel like I have it, but then I have a memory lapse in some spot where I never have memory lapses. It's like walking through a field full of gopher holes. I'm happily walking along, and then suddenly I'm on the ground with a twisted ankle.

The twisted-ankle moments come mostly in Sections A, C, and D, which are the three sections I know best. Section B sounds good, but I'm struggling a little to speed up in the sections with the grace notes. This will just take drilling and repetition. I'll get there.

Jingle Bells Rag

Jingle Bells Rag got about an hour and a half of practice time this weekend--just a little less than Solace. I worked particularly hard on this one Friday night, and I'm happy with how things are going here. I want to do a good job on JBR, and that means keeping everything slow and steady, and not flying through it, ever. It's taking great patience because I like to play fast!

I feel like my big mistake with Bare Necessities has been to play it faster than what I'm ready for, and I think that's part of why that piece dragged on (and continues to drag on) for so long. I don't want to go there with Jingle Bells Rag ... plus, I want to have it ready for the holiday season! So both of my JBR practices this weekend were slow, methodical, and not very exciting. The exciting part is that I'm able to play it with accuracy.

Maintenance Pieces

I ran through all of my maintenance pieces a couple of times Saturday morning. I didn't "practice" them -- just played through them to make sure they were still there. They were.

Amazing Grace/Old Rugged Cross/Blues

I didn't put much work into the blues contingent of my repertoire this weekend. I'm now planning to focus more on blues during the week, but so far that hasn't happened. It's only Tuesday, though, so there's hope.

Only Tuesday? How is it already Tuesday?

I practiced for about an hour yesterday morning, but when I got home from work last night, I was exhausted and didn't even open the piano lid. Then this morning didn't go as expected, and I only practiced for about a half-hour. Tonight I'm going to an event from 7-9, so I'll need to squeeze in an hour or so of practice before we leave for that.

As for the rest of the week? We have a lot going on, so it's not looking auspicious for piano practice. This is one of those weeks where I just need to grab practice time where I can.

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