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My Piano Garden: A Weekend of Musical Growth!

(Warning: Cheesy Metaphor Below!)

This weekend was glorious for piano. Despite my wrist hurting, I managed to put almost four hours into piano on Saturday and Sunday.

I never spent more than about 30 minutes on a piece/project, and most of my sessions were just 10 or 15 minutes. In other words, I practiced in bits and pieces. With several projects this month (including three new ones), I'm taking the approach of planting seeds and watering them regularly.

The Cheesy (or Flowery) Metaphor

It doesn't take long to plant a seed, and it takes even less time to water it. Yet, with sunlight, good soil, and regular watering, the plant will grow. The good soil is my foundation of music and piano knowledge and experience. The sunlight is the goals I'm working and growing toward. And the watering? Those are my short but focused practice sessions. The invisible growth of the plant is my brain working on everything when I'm away from the piano.

In my non-piano life, I trust that the flowers in my garden will grow every spring and summer when I'm not looking, and they do. For piano, I'll trust that my brain will do the work it needs to do when I'm not looking, and I think it will.

Weekend Recap

Most of my time this weekend went to:

  • Silent Night Rhumba (53 minutes)
  • Honky Tonk Women (37 minutes)
  • PWJ Halloween Challenge (28 minutes)
  • Pianeaux Rag (You Are My Sunshine) (25 minutes)
  • Chopin, Waltz in A minor, B150 (19 minutes)

I also did some work on St. Louis Blues and G and C blues improvisation, and a few other things.

I didn't work on my main projects of Liszt and Bare Necessities, and I did almost no ragtime—not because I didn't want to, but because the ganglion cyst in my wrist was acting up, and I couldn't use my left hand much. So, all of those above pieces? I practiced them with almost no left-hand work. I'll have to make up for the lost time later this week.

All in all, it was a great weekend of piano. I have no videos to share yet, but I should have some progress videos for the Halloween Challenge, Silent Night Rhumba, Honky Tonk Women, and Chopin soon!

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