We have met the enemy, and they are us....
Jul. 8th, 2004 02:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
days_unfoldingYesterday, it was very, very late when I practiced guitar (at work). I almost decided to skip practice, go home, and go to sleep. Then I decided to make a game of the practice by seeing how fast I could do scales. I was going at a pretty good clip; it wouldn't be fast for an experienced guitar player, but it was the fastest that I've ever played.
I made fewer mistakes than I normally do.
My take is that I had to concentrate really hard to move fast, and that's why I didn't mess up as much. Apparently my concentration is a bigger problem than I thought. I had no idea that I was getting in my own way so much.
I kept going at that speed until I did mess up (by playing D instead of D sharp in an E major scale) and heard a Voice from Beyond* saying "sharp!" That completely broke my concentration. I took a break and decided to wait until the Voice went home to finish practicing.
When I started practicing again, I couldn't get the speed or the concentration back. I did find that trying to play louder helped my concentration somewhat.
I'm leaning more towards learning piano rather than violin. I don't feel up for the level of frustration that learning violin would involve. (Whenever I do try to learn it, however, my experience with the frustrations of guitar will help me. I literally have hated the damn guitar for eight out of the nine months that I've been studying it, and am just starting to enjoy it now. Perseverance does pay off.)
I had thought that my place was too small and my stairway too narrow for a real piano, but I realized that if I can fit a standard-sized, 88-key keyboard in here, I probably could fit a piano in here. So I surfed ads for upright pianos on the Internet and noted average measurements. Sure enough, it looks like it would be possible to get a piano up the stairs and fit it in here.
One question would be what the status is of the piano in storage in Detroit. If my mom still has it, I'd want to take careful measurements of it and also have someone look at it to see what shape it's in.
If I bought a new piano, I'd like to get a silent piano (a piano that can operate either as a normal piano or a digital piano that you can use with headphones), but I think that they're fairly expensive. However, I just saw a Web page that mentioned a silent piano feature that you can install on any piano. It would be wonderful if I could use that; otherwise, for late-night practicing, I'd have to keep the keyboard as well as the piano, and I don't have much room.
Another question would be the timing on getting a piano. I'm planning to have my place repainted and recarpeted as soon as I dejunk it (whenever that might be). Somehow, I don't think that lifting a piano falls under the "light furniture moving" that carpet installers say that they do. So the best thing for me is to find a teacher who would accept the keyboard for a while, and then get or move a piano after I have the work done on my place.
And, of course, I'd need to find a teacher. I'd like to have my Alexander Technique teacher teach me, but I think that she does only classical. (Don't ask me why I'm interested in classical everything else, but rock piano. What I like to listen to and what's fun to play are different. In guitar, I especially enjoy songs with a more pronounced beat.) There's a local teacher who interests me, but I don't know what hours he teaches. Ideally, I'd like to get a Friday evening time slot to leave time free during the week. I think that my approach should be to talk to my Alexander Technique teacher in two weeks (no lesson next week), and see what she says. If working with her doesn't seem right, I'll contact the local teacher.
* No, decidedly not divine intervention. A friend/colleague is highly knowledgeable about music and also is as much of a night owl as I am. I mock-growled about the too-helpful interruption, but I also thought that it was funny.
I made fewer mistakes than I normally do.
My take is that I had to concentrate really hard to move fast, and that's why I didn't mess up as much. Apparently my concentration is a bigger problem than I thought. I had no idea that I was getting in my own way so much.
I kept going at that speed until I did mess up (by playing D instead of D sharp in an E major scale) and heard a Voice from Beyond* saying "sharp!" That completely broke my concentration. I took a break and decided to wait until the Voice went home to finish practicing.
When I started practicing again, I couldn't get the speed or the concentration back. I did find that trying to play louder helped my concentration somewhat.
I'm leaning more towards learning piano rather than violin. I don't feel up for the level of frustration that learning violin would involve. (Whenever I do try to learn it, however, my experience with the frustrations of guitar will help me. I literally have hated the damn guitar for eight out of the nine months that I've been studying it, and am just starting to enjoy it now. Perseverance does pay off.)
I had thought that my place was too small and my stairway too narrow for a real piano, but I realized that if I can fit a standard-sized, 88-key keyboard in here, I probably could fit a piano in here. So I surfed ads for upright pianos on the Internet and noted average measurements. Sure enough, it looks like it would be possible to get a piano up the stairs and fit it in here.
One question would be what the status is of the piano in storage in Detroit. If my mom still has it, I'd want to take careful measurements of it and also have someone look at it to see what shape it's in.
If I bought a new piano, I'd like to get a silent piano (a piano that can operate either as a normal piano or a digital piano that you can use with headphones), but I think that they're fairly expensive. However, I just saw a Web page that mentioned a silent piano feature that you can install on any piano. It would be wonderful if I could use that; otherwise, for late-night practicing, I'd have to keep the keyboard as well as the piano, and I don't have much room.
Another question would be the timing on getting a piano. I'm planning to have my place repainted and recarpeted as soon as I dejunk it (whenever that might be). Somehow, I don't think that lifting a piano falls under the "light furniture moving" that carpet installers say that they do. So the best thing for me is to find a teacher who would accept the keyboard for a while, and then get or move a piano after I have the work done on my place.
And, of course, I'd need to find a teacher. I'd like to have my Alexander Technique teacher teach me, but I think that she does only classical. (Don't ask me why I'm interested in classical everything else, but rock piano. What I like to listen to and what's fun to play are different. In guitar, I especially enjoy songs with a more pronounced beat.) There's a local teacher who interests me, but I don't know what hours he teaches. Ideally, I'd like to get a Friday evening time slot to leave time free during the week. I think that my approach should be to talk to my Alexander Technique teacher in two weeks (no lesson next week), and see what she says. If working with her doesn't seem right, I'll contact the local teacher.
* No, decidedly not divine intervention. A friend/colleague is highly knowledgeable about music and also is as much of a night owl as I am. I mock-growled about the too-helpful interruption, but I also thought that it was funny.
