What day is it anyway?

I had a lot of "things" to take care of on Sunday. I wrapped up some business with an eBay auction. I finally motivated and sold my Morris Minor Tourer. Although it has been stranded on jack stands for years, I'm still going to miss that car. I managed a short bike ride in the morning, a mere 6 miles. They're all going to be short until I build up some endurance. I am hoping the repetitive peddling action will strengthen my knees and grind away some of the crap that has clearly accumulated in those joints. I kind of crashed(not on the bike) in the afternoon, resulting in an incredibly long nap and got my second wind at around 11:30 pm. I had sporadically picked up the guitar through the day but my sustained practice started at this late hour and continued until the second wind expired at around 2:30 am. I spent a majority of the time in the pursuit of memorizing some of the phrases in Sor's Study in Bm. This is a beautiful piece that has been on my "must learn" list for about 9 months but somehow always got pushed back into the queue. The rest of the time was spent polishing Accordion Bells, Maison Blanche, Freight Train, Anji, and a couple of Irish pieces. I did a few adjustments of the action of my guitar. I had it a bit too low, evidenced by some buzzing strings when I put it in open tunings. Again today I have picked up the guitar for some short practices but I have the definite feeling my intensive study will be starting later tonight. Somehow during the summer I very quickly slip into this mode of staying up into the wee hours even though I'm usually up and active by 9am later that same day. Tomorrow my Summer Studio workshop at Fire Arts begins. I know two of the incoming students, the rest are newbies from the area. I'm dedicated to providing a good experience for these kids.

Taking a Break

Well I just had to get up and move around a bit. I think I've been hammering away since around 2pm. It's another beautiful day so I shifted my guitar practice to my favorite spot, the deck at the back of the house. This locale gives me the opportunity to get fresh air, enjoy the sunshine and to take in the lush wooded scenery when my mind needs a break from staring at sheets of music. I do admit some irritation as the local maniacs speed down the road up front, sometimes with music blasting away. Although this does give me practice at maintaining concentration with distractions around me. Sometimes I am successful. I've been concentrating upon timing and note quality today, slowing things down, tapping out timing, endlessly repeating phrases that I am not pleased with. There have been an ample number of those today. I did allow myself to stretch the limits a bit with Star of County Down and Foggy Dew until they sort of fell apart and I felt the need to rein them in again. I think I'd rate my playing as a 6 out 10 today. So far I've spent some time on Study in Bm, Study for Margot, Dance, Anji, the two Irish tunes, Falling Slowly, Jamaicalina, and Maison Blanche Exit Song. Each piece needs attention....no such thing as perfection from this guitarist. Of course perfection is an impossibility isn't it. I can play through all of these tunes with the exception of Jamaicalina, which is definitely at the stage of discovery. I am just beginning to get some of the phrases in Study in Bm memorized. I feel pretty good because I have Falling Slowly memorized(although I still make mistakes) and it is a new piece for me. I just acquired it from Walbert on the 15th of this month. Admittedly it is not the most complex of pieces but in retrospect one of my difficulties has been memorization of tunes. So, whenever I get another bit of music stuck in my mind I consider it a victory.

The Official Beginning of My Lilly Grant Project

This is the official first day of summer break from my teaching job at New Prairie High School. It is particularly special this year because I shall soon begin to implement my Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship proposal. I have high hopes for an excellent experience. For those who managed to navigate to this space expect this blog to be updated frequently.

It is a particularly beautiful morning, windows are open and providing a cool clean breeze. Birds are serenading me and I am enjoying the solitude. Moments like these are to be savored. One of my former students, Matt, a National Guardsman who recently returned home from a 390+ days tour in Iraq commented about how fresh and clean everything smells here. This is much in contrast to Iraq which according to Matt is permeated with a very unpleasant odor that is a mix of sulfur, excrement and human decomposition. Not a pleasant thought for this civilian. I digress so......

In the months since being awarded my grant, I have been steadily making arrangements, booking flights, lodging, rental cars and contacting my mentor, Richard Gilewitz and his mentor David Walbert to arrange lesson times. I feel like a travel agent and have been learning about how to go about trying to find the best deals and therefore stretch my dollars as far as possible. It is a mere 18 days and I will be boarding a flight bound for Miami to join in the activities of the Miami International Guitar Festival. I will be away from John for a total of nine days and if I think about that, the separation anxiety already begins. We have not been separated for more than four days at a time since we married 15 years ago. I think I may actually use all of my monthly minutes on the cellphone for the first time.

For the next couple of weeks I will be scrambling to get myself organized. I certainly cannot forget anything on a trip like this, gotta pack all the travel essentials and every piece of guitar stuff I may need. It scares me to pack up my C25 and hand it over to folks who may not respect the fact that it is a beloved instrument and it is the key to making everything work. Have you seen "United Breaks Guitars" on Youtube.com? I don't want to be composing my own version of that ditty.

I will also be using this time to continue honing my guitar skills. I have some new pieces to work on, suggested by Richard and in preparation for my lesson time with Walbert. I want to play as well as possible for Richard, David Walbert and most importantly for myself. Afterall, it is an intrinsic drive for improvement that set the wheels in motion for this whole adventure.

This is my first attempt at creating a blog so I'll apologize now if I mess something up. While traveling I'll be using my netbook with its teeny tiny keyboard, so I'll use that as an excuse if there are any "typos" in future ramblings.