Tightly Focused Practice

On Sunday afternoon, I had my first lesson with Richard since The MIGF. Although it was brief, (we both wanted to watch the World Cup final), it was focused and contained enough guidance to give me a good working approach towards Prelude 1.

Today is not a particularly "exciting" day to read about. I really focused my practice upon two pieces of music, Nocturne and Prelude 1. Yesterday's lesson with Richard pin-pointed measures or parts of measures that I am likely to find challenging. My time was spent reviewing my notes from his instruction and applying those concepts to actually playing Prelude 1. It is a very new piece of music for me, I received it from Walbert about 6 days ago. After today's review it started to feel a bit more familiar under my fingers, but firmly situated within what I refer to as the "exploratory" stage. Richard has limited my practice to about the 2/3 point of the whole piece until I can manage the difficult bits. There is a left hand ring finger stretch that is a serious challenge. It is not completely out of my capabilities because I have managed it with a struggle. RG has challenged me to have Prelude 1 memorized in time for Gillacamp. Surprisingly, I have memorized the first page and some of the measures on the second page. This does not mean I can play the music with anything resembling confidence. Nevertheless, I should be able to commit it to memory by August 7th.. but it will surely be a work in progress, much like everything that I play. As far as Nocturne goes, I do have this one memorized but it still needs a lot of work. I am beginning to feel the piece, which signals a step of progress. I broke up my practice of the above pieces by playing through Dance, Study for Margot, Maison Blanche Exit Song, Anji, The Foggy Dew and Star of County Down.


Tomorrow, I will have to at least begin to organize myself for the ODPC Festival. We will be leaving for Evart, MI sometime on Wednesday. I will probably pack clothing, essentials and do a bit of shopping for refreshments on Tuesday. I always wait until the last minute to pack instruments. A packed instrument is an un-played instrument. The festival events begin on Thursday and extend until Sunday morning. John and I hope to be participating in workshops and jam sessions. I only worry about the weather since a major heat wave is predicted to hit us on Wednesday. Perhaps a three hour drive north will take us to cooler conditions.... There is a guy offering a fingerstyle clinic, so I may pop in and see what he has to offer. Judging by his write up his right hand technique is limited to p, i and m. and with "banjo" style finger picks.

This festival is something that John and I will participate in equally but with different focuses. I do plan on packing my octave mandolin and the tin whistle to give them their annual workout. We did really enjoy the atmosphere of the event last year. Lots of nice people and virtually everyone is a musician.