Summer Update

Just a quick update today.

I've been doing a nice job keeping up with practice and with rotating my DeLorenzo exercises. I started incorporating more of them into my practice rotations as well. There were many that I've putting off certain exercises until I was "ready" for them, which is slightly misguided. No, I'm not ready to plow through tons of exercises at a fast tempo, but I can definitely do a few a day at a slower, reasonable tempo. This variety from day to day keeps my practice interesting, and it stretches my abilities just enough. After enjoying my coffee and a crossword on the balcony, it'll be time to start today's practice!

Happy Fourth of July!

My Journey with Anxiety

Since it's summer I decided to try and get back into practicing regularly with the hopes of being able to put together a recital in early fall (we'll see if that works out or not). It's not uncommon for me to ebb and flow and try to get into a new practice routine only to have it fall apart pretty easily. I then end up in some sort of shame spiral because I've yet again failed to prove myself a "real musician."

Earlier this week I had a realization while practicing that it has been seven years - SEVEN. YEARS. - since I was practicing and playing regularly and at a fairly respectable level.  No wonder why it's been so hard to get back into the swing of things! I was under a lot of stress during the end of my time in grad school (around 2011-2012) and that was the beginning of some significant anxiety for me. I left West Virginia after finishing grad school in 2012 and moved to south Florida, where I've had some significant dry spells.

During my last year in graduate school, I had a pretty humiliating experience with a playing a chamber recital for a pianist friend. The repertoire was the Prokofiev flute sonata and Saint-Saens' Tarantelle for flute, clarinet, and piano. By this time I was already struggling with stress and it was beginning to have a negative effect on my playing. After a several rehearsals on the Prokofiev and a couple coachings with the pianists' teacher, she told me that her teacher had decided that another flutists should play the Prokofiev. No one had indicated to me that there were significant issues with my playing. The pianist hadn't voiced any concerns to me directly (I don't know that it would have served anyone well if she had; it likely would have had the unintentional consequence of looking tacky on her part), her teacher hadn't said anything to me, and my own professor hadn't said anything either. I should add here that maybe they did, maybe someone did try to tell me that I was not up to snuff. If they did though, I never got the message.

This was the start of significant issues for me. My self esteem dropped, my playing continued to suffer. This manifested in two significant ways: long phrases were impossible (even "normal" length phrases were very difficult), and playing anything in the second octave (especially C/B/A's). Once I had moved to south Florida, my anxiety eventually got so bad that some days I couldn't even produce a sound. I remember once having to literally tell myself that everything was okay and I was fine just holding the flute down by my side.  Keep in mind that I had just finished my MM in flute performance and I had given my final degree recital only a year before. This was the tipping point for me.

In either 2013 or 2014 I started going to therapy for anxiety. I was teaching very part-time at a university and thankfully was able to sign up for therapy for very cheap. Going to therapy really helped provide me with tools to manage my thoughts and stress levels, and I was able to get back to playing although I still struggle with performance anxiety.

It's been a long time coming, but I am feeling more comfortable and confident about myself and my playing. I still have times of worry, but they are usually shorter and I have ways to handle the situation.

Summer Plans

Originally, I had this grand idea that after my recital I would hit the ground running and would plow through at least one more technique book plus etudes and new repertoire, but as the dust settled I realized that I want to use this "down time" to refocus my efforts as a performer and teacher. I want to approach my practice in a more holistic manner. This will help reduce muscle tension and pain. Instead of seeing how much ground I can cover this summer, I want to take this time to reevaluate how I've been achieving my goals. While I am proud of the work I've put in this academic year, and of the progress I've made, I want to make efforts to tweak my habits toward a more healthy approach.

The longer I've been teaching keyboard the better my playing has gotten, but I'd like to spend some time this summer working on really becoming a more well-equipped pianist. Part of this will require me to just squeeze in a little extra practice time here and there, but I'll also be doing a lot of reading. I've currently been working my way through two texts that a colleague at the university loaned me (A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop the Mind and Body for Optimal Performance edited by Kris Kopff, and The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher by Marienne Uszler). It's great to be able to say that I've recognized some of those pedagogical approaches or encountered the same issues as I've been teaching, but it's strangely even more exciting to see how much of this field I'm just not familiar with as I keep investigating.

I'm also working on a couple side projects, including a scale book geared towards woodwind doublers and general woodwind teachers like myself (but more on that later).

Last month of my Year of Practice!

It's already been about a year since I started using this blog actively (a term I use loosely), and it's been quite the year.

A little review:
Just after starting, the Year of Practice we up and moved over a thousand miles from the beautiful hills of West Virginia, where I had just finished grad school, to the beaches of south Florida. The move was a major leap of faith (really though, the only reason I get to call it a leap of faith is because it happened to work out for us. It very well could have been absolutely disastrous).
I was in probably the worst playing shape of my life.  Ironic, I know, since I had just finished a Master of Music, but thanks to a little bit of unfortunate circumstances, and a lot of unfortunate habits on my part, I found myself in a place where my nerves were so bad I could barely get a sound out of the instrument some days - and that was when I was practicing alone in the house.
I was working part-time in a sports restaurant doing prep work. As much as I wanted to be gigging, teaching, or otherwise musically employed, I wasn't in a place to take any work, even if I could find it.

The goals I set for myself at the beginning of this year included:
To be in a stable financial place.
To be an employable musician, with 25% of my income coming from music.
To increase the home/from scratch cooking.
Begin exercising.
Do some scholarly writing.

With the exception of the last one, I can say that I've met each one of these goals. While I do still work in foodservice, I'm also now on the faculty of a university as an adjunct professor. I've also had a few good gigs. Few, but enjoyable.
I have also been cooking more at home, and all at-home cooking has been vegan, which I'm pretty happy about. I've also been going to yoga since sometime in February. It's been extremely helpful for relieving stress, tension, nerves, all sorts of things.

If you go back in the blog, you'll see that I had a grand plan for this entire year. A plan that fizzled out pretty quickly. It was nice in theory, but I think it was too rigid of a plan, which was exasperated by the chaotic nature of this past year. An idea like this one would work better in a more stable environment and it would need to be more flexible, changing and adapting as it progressed.

Over the next month, I'm going to keep working and practicing like I have been. I'm currently working my way through Moyse's 480 Scales and Arpeggios, which I'm almost halfway through, plus various tone exercises, as well as a few pieces and excerpts. I'm also hitting the clarinet and sax again, getting ready for the school year to start again. Maybe I'll do something special to commemorate the year ending. Ideas?

I'm back!

In case anyone was wondering, I did not fall off the face of the Earth - I swear! Truthfully, I just haven't been focusing my attentions like I should have...

Classes started today - my first "first day of school" NOT being the student! I'm definitely excited and looking forward to turning over a new leaf. I spent a fair amount of time wrestling with the Blackboard system and there is a glitch in the school email at the moment, but I did manage to get everything I need up for my online class.

I've missed 4 days of playing this quarter, which is not the perfect record I was aiming for, but I'm glad that I got myself back going again. I think the first day I missed was an honest mistake. It had been a really busy day and by the time I realized I hadn't played it was after 11:30 and I was already in bed. Lame excuse, but hey, it happened. I've definitely gotten back in the saddle and have been chugging along!

I am still preparing for the recital, and it has been going very well. I have to pick a date and find a pianist, which I'm going to try and do in the next week or two. I have someone in mind to ask about collaborating with me, and I'll be seeing them on Wednesday. I think I'm going to aim for mid-February, maybe the week after Valentine's day.

It was so great to be able to spend today working in music and it NOT feel like I needed to be doing other stuff. I just feel so much less stressed about my life. I have high hopes for 2013.

Recital Planning

The "Wild Party" has officially come to an end. Le sigh. It was an absolute blast. I could go on and on, such a good time.

With that show over, I'm going to get going on my first SoFla recital. I have a program picked out that I think will be pretty interesting for the audience and also provide a good amount of challenge for myself. I'm going to start contacting some pianists and possible venues soon, and hopefully I'll have a date picked out soon!

I'm not really sure which week I'm in for this quarter, but I'm not going to let that get me down. I'm glad to say that I've been playing every day like I wanted to, and I've been making progress. All of this will be more thoroughly discussed in a later post (hopefully soon). Be back soon!

Goodbye Quarter 1, Helloooo Quarter 2!

Welp, the first quarter of the year ended yesterday. This post *would* have been up yesterday, but apparently the "Schedule" feature on this website doesn't actually do anything.

 It feels like August 1st was such a long time ago. In the past week or two while the quarter has been coming to a close, I've been thinking a lot about the progress I have (or haven't) made.

I set out with grand ideas of playing every day, revolutionizing my practice routine, doubling and tripling my technical abilities, and conquering new rep and excerpts. That's not how it went down. It would be possible for me to list here every one of my failures, my missed marks, all of it, but why? It doesn't help my cause at all. Actually, when I think about where I am as a player today as compared to where I was on August 1, I'm incredibly proud of myself.

In August, playing the flute was a terrifying experience. I was always afraid for whatever sounds might come out of the instrument. I could barely play in the second and third octaves. I quit my job, packed up my cat and my car, moved over a thousand miles from the beautiful hills of West Virginia that had been my home for the past three years. I arrived in Florida, homeless, damn near broke, no job for (certainly no gigs or teaching positions!). While I've been trying to keep practicing, sometimes it worked better than others. Thankfully, I've managed to land on my feet, and things are looking up!

So, what's in store for this "Balanced Flutist" now?

Well, for starters, it's time to change my technique books, etudes, and repertoire. It's safe to say that in this category, Quarter 1 was a BUST. I've got a couple things picked out, but I'll be sharing more about my selections in the days to come.I intend to get together enough repertoire for one recital (using mostly pieces I've played before, but some new stuff too!). I also hope to record another video for my YouTube channel, maybe one of the etudes I'm working on.

As far as work goes, rehearsals for Wild Party are going to be starting in the next week or so, and I'm going to contact some other theaters as well to try and get some more doubling gigs. I'm also going to start advertising for lessons.

I have some big news to share though....

Starting in January 2013, I will be adjunct faculty at Nova Southeastern University! I've been offered (and have accepted!) my very first college teaching position, and I couldn't be more exciting! I don't know exactly what my course load is just yet, but all in due time. 

:)

Woodwind Imposter Syndrome

This post was inspired by a reader who wrote in:

“[A]s I've started to build whatever career I have at the moment, I've [been] getting calls for musicals. The one I'm currently doing has a great deal of exposed flute parts, and I have to come to terms with how "sax-player-playing flute" I now sound. I was wondering if you have any thoughts or observations on saxophone/reed players picking up the flute.” - Tim

Over the years there have been many times when I needed to dust off the reeded beasts and find ways to make myself presentable again. Usually I would play them only once a year, so there were always cobwebs to be removed. Of course, every time I pulled the ignored instruments out of the closet I had to face the fact that I sounded exactly like I was: a Woodwind Imposter.

No one wants to be an imposter, so how do we remedy this issue?

What I’ve found that works best for me is to start each instrument completely independent of all others - I try to approach each instrument as if it’s the only instrument I play. When I’m playing sax I’m a saxophone player, not a flute player trying to work on my doubles. If I practice sax as if it’s my only instrument I’m suddenly able to really focus on issues that are sax-specific, and I make much more progress.

I also make sure that when I am practicing more than one instrument a day I give myself a large enough break between instruments so that the lips can recover or reset (this is particularly true when transitioning from reed to flute). As skill level increases (or performance date approaches!), the time between instruments can be reduced. Because of reed-induced lip trauma, I think it’s always best to start the day with flute (of course, I’m a tad biased). The vibrations from the reed cause the lips to swell and tingle, which can make switching to flute very hard at first.

Even though I am a degree-holding flutist, I *still* have to deal with the fact that if I'm playing a lot of sax or clarinet and then switch to flute, my flute tone will suffer in the short term. While simple daily practice makes switching between flute and reeds easier, here are some other tips that I’ve found get me back into flute-mode:

- During breaks between reeds and flute I buzz my lips - but not like a brass player. Instead, use a  “Bbbbbb” or “Ppppppp.” Keep the lips relaxed and floppy (just pretend you're a five-year-old). I’m not sure why this helps, but it does. Be careful not to overdo it, just a couple times for a few seconds each time.

- Playing a couple high notes on the flute can help as well. When the lips have the post-reed tingle, it can feel like you’re forming a small aperture when in reality the aperture is incredibly broad and, frankly, useless. If you have a piccolo available to play some notes on, it can also really help.

- Also, and I realize that this may not be an issue for sax-primary players, I've found that if I'm playing sax improperly, switching to flute will be much harder. I have to remember to support my airstream from my abdomen and also let the larger facial muscles do some of the work on the saxophone. Otherwise, I'll find myself biting the mouthpiece and really straining my lips, which all but eliminates the chance for me to get the focused, resonant sound I want on the flute.

I also like to use a very simple, all-purpose warm-up that I can easily transfer from instrument to instrument:

What I like about this one is that it's not too easy, not so hard I hate myself for even trying, and it covers a good range without being terribly long. I usually start on a fingered G with flute and saxes, and on clarinet I start the same pattern on a fingered middle C. From this starting point I can easily transpose it up or down chromatically, but sometimes I go around the circle of fourths or fifths instead. I also switch up articulations, dynamics, and often play these with a drone for intonation.

Here's one final idea for getting used to switching instruments quickly. After a normal flute warm-up, grab the sax (or any reed) and play for maybe 5 seconds, maybe even just one note. Put the reed down and go back to flute. Take note of any changes to your flute sound, and try to fix them as you continue practicing. Keep doing this, but gradually increase the time spent playing sax (30 seconds, a minute or two, five minutes). You're almost guaranteed to sound different after playing sax than you did before, but by interrupting your flute playing with ever-increasing amounts of reed playing you'll figure out what you need to do to still perform, and isn't that the end goal?

Thoughts on Doubling

I actually don't mind doubling that much, it can be a nice change of pace, plus, show tunes are just so much fun! It's been great exploring these instruments again, especially since I've been really aiming to build a foundation on both instruments, not just patch the holes just enough that I can survive the gig.

It can be incredibly frustrating to go from one instrument where one can play musically in all twelve keys, with good technique and sound to one where creating a sound is challenge enough, let alone when playing in F# major! However, having the chance to start fresh, begin at "Square 1" again with the knowledge gained from 15 years of musical training and experience is really great. I'm able to progress fairly quickly, even when practice time is slim or irregular, because I know now what I should be aiming for (unlike when I was in the 5th grade).

Doubling is not without issue, though. The resistance that clarinet/sax have is something that I'm not used to facing with the flute, which adds to endurance issues caused by the use of different muscles. It's about more than just playing the instrument though.

An added challenge for this gig specifically is the jazz element. Last time I played jazz, I was in seventh grade - and was playing the Trombone 4 part on contralto clarinet. Yes, that's correct. Contralto clarinet. Jazz. 12 years ago. I've been doing a lot of listening to various jazz groups and styles, and looking up jazz notations and learning how to perform them in a representative manner. I'm not looking to be an amazing jazz cat (or whatever those guys refer to themselves as [See?! I'm clueless!]), I'm just trying to do them respect by my performance.

One major downside to doubling is the amount of "tools" you need to get the job done. For this gig alone, I need 5 instruments - piccolo, flute, clarinet, soprano sax, and alto sax. Thankfully I already own four of those, but I didn't have good reeds for clarinet and alto ($$). I didn't have a triple stand to hold the clarinet and saxes ($$$), I don't own a soprano mouthpiece, reeds, or ligature ($$$) or a soprano sax for that matter ($$$$$$$$$)!

Upfront financial investment is never fun, and this is particularly true when you're poor. I tried to find a soprano sax to rent, but the people who would rent one to me didn't have one available to rent and the people who had one available to rent couldn't (or just wouldn't) rent it to me, even though they had it and I was willing to pay for the time I would have the instrument. At this point, buying the instrument is not an option for me, so I'm just going to have to play the soprano parts on clarinet in the most "saxy" way possible.

As flutists, we're super-spoiled. We buy our instrument, a nice headjoint, and we're done. Not so with reeded instruments - reeds suck. In order to play well, you must first sound like crap while a new reed breaks in. Then you have to do it at least one more time so that if a reed gets broken during a performance, you're not totally screwed. Then do it all again for each reed instrument you're playing. Oh yeah, did I mention that some of the reeds you paid money for won't be good enough for you to actually play one, so you have to throw them away. I must say though, when it actually turns out to be the reed causing a problem, it makes me feel much better about myself. ;)

I'm going to get back to some nice Saturday doubling practice, I've got a couple more reeds to break in!

Quarter 1 is coming to a close.

There are just a few weeks left in this first quarter! It's been quite an experience so far. I know I haven't been posting as much as I used to, but I think it'll take a while before I can get to the point where I'm posting frequently and not sharing inane thoughts. I mostly wanted to drop in to say that I'm still here, and still practicing.

I've begun practicing clarinet and saxophone again, which is actually kind of fun. I'm alternating days on each one (of course practicing flute/picc every day). Rehearsals for Wild Party are going to start up at the end of the month, so I'll be starting to dig into the book soon. I've been avoiding practicing it so far just so that I can get reacquainted with the instruments themselves and try to build some general skill with the instrument itself, not just learning the licks I need to know to collect a check.

I'm working on some ideas for next quarter and next year, but I don't have anything concrete to share just yet.

Week 5 is coming to a close...

Okay, I admit it. I'm getting burned out already! It really sucks too because it's stress about other parts of life that's keeping me from being productive in the studio. I'm overloaded with concerns about money, jobs, interviews. I'm trying to keep my practicing going forward, and also trying to get and keep this blog up and going! Despite what seem to be endless stresses on the home front, I've managed to make a pretty significant leap forward this week.

"Roll out!" is phrase I heard quite frequently as a student. I always struggled with staying rolled out, even when I was really focusing on it. At first it's very unsettling, it feels like every note is going to crack, which is probably why I never fixed it before now. I just wanted to feel safe, even though it was really pushing me and my musical progress backwards! However, after spending a few weeks taking a hard look in the mirror (metaphorically and literally) I'm making the real effort to fix this problem, and it's working!

The first step was to watch myself in the mirror - but I mean REALLY watch myself. I needed to become familiar with what I was currently doing, how my lips were moving, check the shape of my aperture, etc. This led to a few realizations:

My aperture is too wide

In addition to being too wide, it's also slightly to the left of center.

I instinctively roll in and out at will, usually when I feel insecure, although it happens so often you almost wouldn't believe it.

These tendencies and habits are incredibly harmful for long term, successful playing.

A wide aperture wastes air. This means that not only can I play fewer notes per breath, but my sound lacks focus and a richness of harmonics which allows the sound to carry.

An off-center aperture isn't inherently bad, but not being aware of it can be. This is an interesting "realization," because I was already kind of aware of it...when playing piccolo. When practicing piano passages on the piccolo (and occasionally flute), I noticed a significant tendency to shift the aperture to the left. This actually worked really well and made a gorgeous pianissimo for me, but obviously it's not practical to shove the instrument to one side or the other while performing La Valse.

Sudden, haphazard changes to the air stream direction via rolling in and out is, not shockingly, very unsettling, even when I'm doing it intentionally so that I will feel more secure.

Once I noticed these characteristics of my playing, I set about finding ways to adjust and correct. I decided that I would stick with the off-center aperture, because it allows me a very consistent sound and response across the full range of the instrument. I've been working on forming a smaller, better controlled aperture as well. Obviously, rolling out (and staying there!) has also been a priority.

Now, I don't want to spill all the beans in this one post, so I'm going to go into more detail about these changes in a separate post. Despite the myriad frustrations this past week has brought, I'm resolved to stay optimistic and to keep moving forward! As I continue to work on these changes over the next week, I'll be sure to post updates and explanations about how I'm going about making these adjustments. Stay tuned, and happy practicing!

Week 4 in Review

This week was a mixed bag for sure. I'm still looking for work, although I have a few interview this week. Maybe this will be my last week of being unemployed!

Practicing went generally well. I did have some frustrating tension-related experiences, but by the end of the week I made a couple of important discoveries:

- I sometimes allow my facial muscles to tense and pull upwards. This severely diminishes the depth of the tone.

- I've had to roll out further than I ever used to. It really gives me a lot more possibilities for tone colors, and somewhat surprisingly, makes my playing more secure.

Practice Plans for Week 5 will be up tomorrow. Here's to next week!

Week 3: Practice Plans

Wednesday

Wagner #50/52    5min.

PG                    30min.

Boehm #2            6min.

Moz. Mvt. 1         7min.

Picc. Tone           6min.

Gazza Ladra         6min.

Thursday

PG                35min.

Picc. Tone     10min.

Boehm #2      10min.

Gazza           10min.

W#50/52       10min.

Cap. Esp.        5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1   10min.

Friday

PG                44min.

Picc. Tone     10min.

Boehm #2       5min.

Gazza            6min.

W#50/52       15min.

Cap. Esp.        5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     5min.

Saturday

PG                   35min.

Picc. Tone        10min.

Boehm #2         10min.

Gazza              10min.

W#50/52          10min.

Cap. Esp.          5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     10min.

Sunday

PG                  36min.

Picc. Tone       10min.

Boehm #2        10min.

Gazza               6min.

W#50/52         14min.

Cap. Esp.          6min.

Moz. Mvt. 1     25min.

Monday

PG                  35min.

Picc. Tone       10min.

Boehm #2        10min.

Gazza              10min.

W#50/52          20min.

Cap. Esp.         10min.

Moz. Mvt. 1      10min.

Tuesday

PG                    30min.

Picc. Tone          5min.

Boehm #2          10min.

Gazza                 5min.

W#50/52            10min.

Cap. Esp.            5min.

Moz. Mvt. 1       15min.

Happy Practicing!

T-n-G, Patricia George Style!

Patricia George's bio on Powell Flutes' website gives a bit of insight on her, as does the website for Fabulous Flute, a store owned and operated by Patricia George and Phyllis Louke. As well as contact info.

And here's the infamous T&G Practice Guide I've been rambling about:

If you're not a flutist, you probably will have no idea what exercises are contained in the 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers de Mécanisme pour la flûte, but trust me: they're good. I'd post more snippets, but it's still under copyright. It would be worth checking out though. In fact, I'd recommend that you borrow a copy from a flutist friend and maybe consider buying a copy for yourself. These exercises are easily adaptable to most every instrument! If you would like to buy a copy, I'll put a link at the bottom of this post.

When you look over her document, you'll see some same or similar ideas repeated with various exercises, which is great for people like me who just can't stay focused. I also like the systematic rotation of key signatures from day-to-day.

As you can see, it's a twelve-week plan for working through almost the entire book (Ms. George omits exercises 3 and 17). I appreciate the slow working method that she encourages. For me, it's great because anytime I begin to feel rushed or anxious I can remind myself: “I still have x weeks to learn this. Plenty of time!” My favorite part right now is the space she suggests that you insert between chunks of notes.

For example, here's the first line of Exercise No. 1 from Taffanel and Gaubert's 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers de Mécanisme pour la flûte:

For this Ms. George recommends playing eight notes and then inserting a quarter rest, as such:

I should note that the original book suggests ten different articulations, but so far I've been slurring each group to make sure the tone is consistent. The addition of these 'mini-breaks' grants many advantages. The space allows you to relax and sort of step back and reflect on what you just played:

How was the quality of sound?

Were all the notes connected gracefully and naturally?

Were the notes of equal proportions?

Of course, this also allows you to listen to what your body is telling you – are you holding negative energy or excess tension? If so, where?

I hope some of this discussion helps you in your own practicing. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions!

I really owe a lot of my 'take a year to practice' idea to Ms. George. I remember reading in a Flute Talk magazine (for which she is the editor) recently where she mentioned that she likes taking a little bit of time every year to just go back to the basics. Now, I'm probably paraphrasing at best (my magazines are still packed up), but if I remember correctly, she talked about going back to very simple exercises to unlearn any bad habits that had crept in and relearn good habits. I thought that was just the best idea, and that was probably the first step to getting me to where I am with this blog today. And for that, I am very thankful to you, Ms. George!

Purchase the 17 Grands Exercices Journaliers from the Flute Pro Shop by clicking here.

Day 3

While I haven't lost any of my excitement or fervor for practicing and achieving goals in general...I'm pooped. We only have some 30 hours left in Motown before we hightail it south, and it feels like we're all set to go and yet only beginning to scratching the surface of the work left to do.

I could only play for a few minutes today, but I really tried to make it worthwhile. I did some harmonics exercises from Jim Walker and some work on Bolero. I'm happy to find that the JW exercises are getting much easier and more consistent as the days go by. I used to struggle to reach the second partial, but now I'm able to get to it with little difficulty.

When I reviewed the recording of Bolero that I made on Wednesday, I was very shocked at how arrhythmic and unsteady my playing was. Granted, I can admit that I wasn't "in the zone," and that I had done all but maybe five minutes of reading over it, but still. I decided I would try to begin tackling that issue first, since rhythmic integrity is paramount to...well, everything.

Even though I didn't spend much time working on the excerpt, I do feel that progress was made. I'm heading to bed before I fall asleep typing.