YAMS Afterglow and the Danny Boy Trilemma

The PWJ recital was Thursday, and I rocked my YAMS performance! It wasn't perfect, but I barely paused and just kept moving forward. Jonny had very nice things to say—he always does, even if you made a ton of mistakes—but he also said I was playing at a professional level, and I will happily accept that compliment.

The video was just posted (I may have checked for it dozens of times a day since the recital), and I finally watched my performance. It sounded better in my memory than in reality, which probably shouldn't be surprising. The piano sound quality wasn't great either, so that was a little disappointing. The performance is still good, though, and I’ll share it here if/when it becomes publicly available. For now, you just get a picture from it.

(Not a video, just a recital photo) Why did I leave the cat toy in the background? Why didn't I wear something more flattering? Why do I have to look like such a middle-aged suburban mom? Why, why why?

YAMS Fallow Period

For now, I’m in a YAMS fallow period. I’m still playing it daily to keep it fresh, but it will soon move to my “Maintenance A” group for weekly revisits. I may try to record a cleaner version later this week, but I’m honestly not interested in spending an hour or more chasing the perfect performance.

In the meantime, I’m back to my actual projects: After You’ve Gone (polishing and learning to solo) and Lesson 6 (“Misty Progression”) of the lead sheet course.

And then there’s Danny Boy.

PWJ’s Danny Boy Challenge was not supposed to be a project. It wasn't even on my agenda, but they announced the challenge on March 1 and I thought it would be fun. It was supposed to be a simple, straightforward challenge: learn the arrangement, play it, share it, and move on. Instead, I’ve turned it into a whole thing—transpose it to Bb, modulate back to C, tack on Jonny’s advanced bridge, then modulate again to Eb for a grand finish. Because apparently I am an arranger now and feel compelled to “arrange” anything and everything.

The result: five hours spent this month on something that wasn’t even in the plans, while my planned core work (lead sheets, After You've Gone) will now spill into April.

So now I’m debating: drop Danny Boy? Rein it in to just the challenge, no more? Or embrace my new arranger identity and let it run wild, lead sheets and After You've Gone goals be damned?

It's a dilemma. Or, I suppose, a trilemma.

Back to the YAMS Afterglow

In the meantime, I’m still basking in the YAMS afterglow. The closest comparisons I have are finishing my Appalachian Trail thru-hike or completing my master’s degree. Was it perfect? No. Did I finish—and finish well? Yes. And it feels good to know I put in the work and got the result.

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