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Thinking about February

January was a good month for piano, even though I spent about eight days in North Carolina without my Roland, and even though I was without a left hand for a week and a half thanks to a ganglion cyst. We’re expecting snow on Saturday, so I’m not sure how much practicing I’ll get done this weekend; one downside of a digital piano is that it needs electricity to work.

Still, I’m a goal-driven creature, so it’s time to think about February.

My original January goals were to:

  • Share a "You Are My Sunshine" (YAMS) performance on the PWJ page
  • Post periodic updates on my progress in Foundations and "After You’ve Gone"
  • Get through at least one Analysis course
  • Keep up with all maintenance pieces

Despite the month’s challenges, I managed to do all of that with one exception: I haven’t played "Jingle Bells Rag" a single time. That said, I still have at least three more practice sessions ahead of me, weather permitting.

I’d planned to break down my practice time like this:

  • Core (Foundations, Skills, Styles): 70%
  • Creative (mostly YAMS): 20%
  • Maintenance: 10%

As of this morning, I’m at 66% Core, 20% Creative, and 14% Maintenance. (I don’t count technique in the 100%, but if I did, it would come in at about 8%.)

Even though I’m technically “over” on maintenance, it doesn’t feel like enough. For February, I’m considering bumping the maintenance goal up to 15%, which would bring Core down to 65%. But honestly, I’m comfortable with that. I’m pleased with the Core progress I made in January, and 65% feels both substantial and sustainable.

February Goals

You Are My Sunshine

At the start of January, I thought I might have a finished YAMS arrangement by now. I’m very close. Jonny gave me some excellent ideas, and I still need to play with those, but I don’t think it will take long to work out something I’m happy with.

My February YAMS goals are simple:

  • Finalize an arrangement I’m satisfied with
  • Post a performance online

Core

Foundations (Play Lead Sheets with 7th Chords): I’m still working through Lesson 4 and don’t quite feel ready to move on yet. Still, finishing Lesson 4 in February feels realistic, and I may even be able to start, and possibly finish, Lesson 5. Lesson 4 has taken longer than Lesson 3, not because it’s harder, but because I’m integrating ideas from the stride course and applying concepts from the transposing course. Such cross-pollination takes time.

Analysis (Transposing a Lead Sheet): I technically “finished” both this course and Analyzing a Lead Sheet in January, but they’re never really finished. I’ve been applying those ideas to everything else I’m working on, and I want to continue doing that in February. I expect to be ready to begin the next Analysis course (Passing Chords) in March.

Styles (Stride: After You’ve Gone): This course took a back seat while I was in North Carolina and while my left hand was out of commission. I’ve now started working on the advanced stride technique (tenths) introduced in Lesson 2, along with the right-hand stylizations I described in yesterday’s post. My February goal is to learn both and to be playing hands together—slowly, but deliberately—by the end of the month.

Maintenance

I need to rebuild a real maintenance routine. Saving maintenance for the weekends hasn’t worked well, largely because I’m often not home on weekends. I think the answer is to do a little maintenance every day instead. I’m fairly sure this was part of my 2026 plan… and then I promptly forgot about it.

Those are the goals. I’ll post a proper January recap once the month is officially over.

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