Poseur to Composer

I went through Phase 3 of C Major Scales. It is tedious, time-consuming and totally not fun. Completion requires playing four octaves with both hands, ascending and descending at a 90 bpm. The fingering is different in the middle octaves, adding to the difficulty.

Can I accomplish this? Yes, eventually. It will take longer than a week though, and I wonder if doing scales across four octaves is the skill to have right now when there's so much else to learn.

I've decided to tweak Phase 3. Instead of four octaves, I only need to ace two. Then I move on the the next scale.

There's something else I should mention but too tired to remember.

Time bookstanding today: 40 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 6

I could do C Major both hands descending at 90 bpm twice in a row before fumbling. Then I did it twice more before the wheels came off (again). I think it should count though.

On to Phase 3.

Time bookstanding today: 40 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 5

Note: I had some trouble filtering out a song called Emperor during meditation this morning. It's a piano piece from Ian Ring, a composer and solo pianist who apparently lives only a few miles from me. The song is beautiful and calming, spreading outwards, but it doesn't seem to resolve into a final, stable chord. This sense of neverending expansion made it an earworm that stayed with me most of the day. I didn't mind at all.

Photo by Nina Childish

Today I was in my home office when I heard some minor chords and an arpeggio from my keyboard in the other room. It sounded like some of the avant garde jazz I've been listening to lately. I rushed in to see my cat walking on the keys. My cat plays better than I do!

I'm trying to change that, so I've been practiced the So What intro with renewed diligence. I noticed how sluggish and inefficient my fingering is (on the part right after Bill Evan's opening chords). I see opportunities to "refactor" the fingering, to make that part flow smoother with less movement of the hand.

If you're unaware of what refactoring is, it's a programming term. It means to improve code by making it more readable and efficient.

Also practiced C Major scales: my max tempo for two hands descending is 82. Hope to earn that checkmark by tomorrow night.

Time bookstanding today: 30 minutes Quality of meditation (out of 10): 5