March 18-19

I have been completely unmotivated lately.  Argh.  Must get back into a routine ...

March 13-17

I've gotten terribly behind on posting!

March 13 - missed
March 14 - 2hr flute and guitar duo gig
March 15 - missed
March 16 - long tones, octave slurs, next concert's orchestra rep on flute and pic
March 17 - missed

So, I've been spending a lot of time outside hiking and jogging in the glorious weather instead of practicing the last few days.  In the interest of being a happy, well-balanced person, I don't regret it.

March 12

Long tones, got back to the Reinecke Sonata, rehearsal/recording session with guitar.

March 11

Distracted by other things today, but at least I got some long tones in.

March 10

Gershwin repertoire, but now on piccolo instead of second.

March 9

Missed - traveling back to Colorado Springs, didn't get home in time.

March 7-8

Greeley Phil!  Gershwin - Rhasody in Blue and An American in Paris.

March 6

Put the flute on my face at 8:30 this morning and barely took it off until 1:30 in the afternoon.  It was great!  Hard to say exactly what I did without making this a really long post (and I'm pretty sure I'm mostly talking to myself, anyway) - I worked on matching tone between registers and pitches.  Then after a few errands, practiced orchestra rep and Paganini in the afternoon.  Good day!

March 5

Missed!  Argh!  Day got sucked away doing other things.  I should have taken ten minutes to play some longtones in the evening.  No excuse.  I'm determined that this lull will only last one day, though.

March 4

Same as yesterday.  Feeling good!

March 3

Played aaaaaaaalllll afternoon, and it was lovely.  Singing while playing, whisper tones, American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue, and Paganini Caprice 24.

March 2

Got up, left the apartment, didn't get back until well after acceptable practicing hours.  Oh, well.

March 1

Paganini!!!  I was a little fixated after last night, so I spent the afternoon making up exercises for myself based on the 24th Caprice.

Feb 28

Moyse De la Sonorite, Paganini Caprice #24 (it was time to change things up a little :) )

Feb 27

Moyse, Reinecke Sonata mvts. 1 and 4

Feb 26

Moyse De La Sonorite dominated my day, plus Reinecke and rep for my next orchestra concert.

Loooooove me some Moyse.  Mmm.

Feb 25

Lovely rehearsal of Reinecke Sonata mvts 1 and 4 with my lovely pianist.

Feb 22-24

Hi.

So, I haven't been on the computer as much as usual, but I have been playing the last few days.  Not nearly as much as I've wanted to be, but at least something.

Feb 21

Missed again.  This is getting so embarrassing I considered lying.

Seriously, ugh.  I was off to a pretty good start there for a minute.  Refreshing my motivation and starting anew tomorrow.

Feb 20

Miss due to laziness.  I'm really not doing well, am I?

Feb 19

Miss due to other life busy-ness.

Feb 18

Flute and guitar gig day!

Feb 17

Flute and Guitar rep day!

Feb 16

Long tones, Salvo articulation exercises, Reinecke Sonata mvt. 4.  Not a lot, but I'm back on track, at least.

Feb 14-15

Two more days missed!  This stops now.  I feel the bad practice habits creeping back in.  NO.

Feb 13

Practicing/rehearsing chamber music with guitar day!

Feb 12

Spent a LOOOOONG time this afternoon on long tones and articulation studies.

Feb 11

Rehearsal!  Reinecke Sonata undine and Carl Vine Sonata.  Such a fun time!  Feels good to be playing with piano again. :)

Feb 10

Missed day. :(

Feb 9

Articulation exercises from Salvo's book.
Reinecke Sonata undine, 1st mvt.

Feb 8

Almost didn't get it done today, but I ended up doing some very pianissimo practice before bed.  After all these years in apartments, no wonder my pianissimos are better than my fortes.  ;)

Feb 7

I didn't play today, but I did bring my metronome and music to do a little mental/fingers practice while substitute teaching today.  Check the flashy light on the metronome to get my time, and finger along some of the tricky parts.  Got quite a bit of time in, too, since my instructions were mostly just to administer tests.  Hope it was productive - we'll find out tomorrow!

Feb 6

And we're back to our normal practice schedule.

If you're still with me, thanks for your patience.

Today I made up some interval exercises to warm up, played some long-tones, had a rehearsal with guitar, and worked on Reinecke Sonata undine Mvt. 1.  (The "u" key is broken on my computer, so that is never going to be capitalized, and the world will have to go on.)

Jan 27-Feb 5

There was a death in the family. I'll be back to practicing sometime next week.

Jan 26

Another day missed. Today involved a LOT of driving, and I didn't make practicing happen.

So that's 3 days missed so far this year. Back to it tomorrow.

Jan 25

Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra concert.

I played flute II/picc on Ravel's Bolero and our maestro Glen Cortese's new trumpet concerto (featuring Robert Sullivan).

Then listened to my colleagues do a great job on Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique!

Jan 24

T&G #2 and 4, more woodshedding on #6.
Karg-Elert Caprice #29.
Bach a-minor Sarabande
Vine Sonata - Mvt. 1
Orchestra parts on piccolo.
Orchestra rehearsal.

Jan 23

T&G #1 and 4. Some woodshedding on #6, but I didn't get all the way through.
Karg-Elert Caprice #29.
Vine Sonata - Mvt. 1
Piccolo orchestra music with tuner.
Orchestra rehearsal.

Jan 22

Lots of laundry, lots of driving, and then: Greeley Phil rehearsal! Yay!

Jan 21

I missed practicing again today. No excuse this time except for lack of motivation.

Still, I'm doing a lot better than I usually do.

Back to it tomorrow!

Jan 20

Went to visit a colleague. Played some excerpts, got some piccolo help, played lots and lots of duets.

Jan 19

LONG TONES, Karg-Elert Caprice, Mozart G

Jan 18

Flute & piccolo audition. (No results yet.)

Warmed up on flute, auditioned on flute. Warmed up on piccolo, auditioned on piccolo.

It seemed obvious at the time that two auditions deserves two margaritas. So that was the end for today. :)

Jan 17

Still going: flute and piccolo excerpts today!

Jan 16

More piccolo - it's feeling much better.

Played some Mozart Concerto on flute . . . flute feels worse after two days of picc practice. Going to make sure to start with a good long flute warm-up tomorrow.

Jan 15

Today I worked on piccolo, and lots of it!

(My apologies to my neighbors and their dogs.)

Jan 14

Chamber music with guitar, and a little bit of work on some excerpts.

See? Told you it was only going to be one day. :)

Jan 13

Today, I did not play.

I was planning to do some playing this evening, but my boyfriend's dad had another medical emergency and so we made an unexpected trip to go see him.

This is ok. This was going to happen (and really, today, other things were more important).

However:

This is going to be one day off. Not one day that becomes one week that becomes one month, etc!

Because, remember, this is going to be the year that I break that habit. Thanks for helping. :)

Jan 12

Today, played an audition for the Boulder Philharmonic.

Didn't get the job, but I'm really motivated to practice tomorrow.

Jan 11

Excerpts, excerpts, excerpts, excerpts, cont.

Rinse, wash, repeat.

Jan 10

I haven't been on my computer much the last couple of days, but - never fear! - I have been playing.

Excerpts. Excerpts. Excerpts. Excerpts.

Etc. (More excerpts.)

Jan 9

I almost didn't practice today.

And then I thought about how pathetic I would feel to come here and admit to the world that I only made it 8/365ths of the way!

So I went and spent some time working on the music for our next Greeley Phil concert.

Day 9: check.

Jan 8

I got home too late to post last night, but here's what I did on Jan 8:

T&G #6A (sharp keys), 8, 10, and 11.
Worked on the opening of Leonore and on some spots in Karg-Elerg.
Ran through the rest of my excerpts.

Jan 7

Ok, whoever is reading this. I'm going to make a deal with you.

I'm going to stop beginning every post with "it's not as much as I wanted to do, but . . .". Because, if I'm being honest, it's never going to be as much as I wanted. I want to work on everything!

I didn't work on everything.

Here's what I did work on:

T&G #1, 4, 6A (all the sharp keys)
Double-tonguing
Brahms 4 excerpt

Jan 6

Sigh. Another day of doing less than I wanted.

Long tones
Rehearsal (chamber music - duos with classical guitar)

Still . . . this is the most days in a row that I've played in the last year or so.

I will - I WILL - get more done tomorrow.

Jan 5

Today wasn't a heavy practice day, but I did play. I spent time going through all of the repertoire I'm working on with a metronome, stopping here and there to brush things up.

Actually, almost everything felt really good. I've got some things to work on tomorrow, and I'm excited to do it. Maybe there's something to this whole consistency thing, after all.

Jan 4

Normally when I say "I'm going to start doing X EVERY DAY," I am super motivated for 3-4 days, then sort of lose my drive. This experiment is apparently no exception. I had so much time today, I could have done so much more . . . but I did at least do something, and that is the point of all this.

What did I work on?

T&G #4, 14, 15, 16, and 17
Mozart G Major Exposition
Debussy Faun opening measures
Mendelssohn Scherzo
Brahms 4
Saint-Saens Voliere

4 days down, 361 to go...

Jan 3

Only the 3rd of January, and already life is trying to get in the way!

We woke up this morning to hear that my boyfriend's father was in the hospital again (we moved back here to help take care of him after a stroke and a number of other significant health issues, so it wasn't a surprise). He's about three hours away, so by the time we drove up, visited him, talked with doctors, talked with family, and drove back, it was after 8:00pm. So much for the lots of practice and a chamber music rehearsal that I had planned. We live an apartment, so I don't practice after 9.

Normally this is exactly the kind of day where I'd throw up my hands and sit on my couch and think that since a long, stressful, unexpected disruption had eaten up all of my practice time, I'd just skip it for today.

But now I have fives of people to be accountable to online! I have set a goal in public! And how sad would it be to make it a measly two days???

And so my neighbors just had to deal with an 8:30-9:30pm practice. They have caused their share of ruckuses, so I don't feel too bad.

I spent my one hour on the opening descending scale and first set of ascending triplets in Beethoven's Leonore Overture #3. And I'm glad I did.

Jan 2

Moving on with T&G - today featured #2, 4, 6B, 7(8va), 9, 12, and 13.

Followed up with some light work (mostly a play-through, with a little cleaning) on:
Karg-Elert Sonata Appassionata
Beethoven Leonore Opening
Beethoven Leonore Fast
Beethoven Sym. 7 (First movement vivace section)
Bizet Carmen No. 2 Intermezzo
Brahms 4 Mvt. 4
Debussy Faun
Dvorak 8 Mvt. 4
Mendelssohn Midsummer Scherzo
Rossini William Tell Andante
Saint-Saens Carnival Voliere
Stravinsky Firebird Variation

Jan 1

Feeling stiff in the fingers lately. Today's practice: Taffanel and Gaubert #1, 4, 6A, 7, 8, 10, and 11.