Week 3: Music Dozen

Well, Week 3 (last week – 15th to 21st) was interesting.

Breakdown:

Day 15: Voice 15 mins; Ocarina – 15 mins
Day 16: Voice 1 1/4 hours; Piano – 1 1/2 hours
Day 17: Dulcimer – 15 mins
Day 18: Dulcimer – 1 1/2 hours
Day 19: nil
Day 20: nil
Day 21: Voice – 1 hour, Dulcimer – 2 hours; Autoharp – 2 hours

10 hours total practice time. But I feel I should explain myself.

Ocarina?

I bought an ocarina, a strawfire seedpod-shaped Alto C ceramic ocarina from these people.  It arrived and so I had to test it out. Being strawfired – a process where the ceramics recieve an extra firing packed in burning straw – which gives them lovely earthy tones, but also makes them smell. Some folks like this smell, I don’t, but I’m told it will fade. The last thing I should do is attempt to wash it out. Put up with it and let it fade over time. Anyway, burnt grass smell aside, this ocarina has a beautiful tone. Ocarina tab, however, is annoying to read, and so I need to memorize the fingering so as to use standard musical notation instead.

The 2 days of no practice were due to unexpected life things getting in the way. Can’t control those!

Autoharp? Yes, I am learning a little autoharp now. The why and where and who will be explained in it’s own post soon.

The 5 hours of music practice on the last day of Week 3, was achieved because I went to Winterfest – a 2-day gathering of workshops and performances by some very talented players of various folk instruments. Winterfest is an annual event organized by the Lone Start State Dulcimer Society. All kudos to those people!  I went to both days and I’m very glad I did. (It also saved what would’ve been a very poor week, practice-wise.)

Week 2 of the Music Dozen Challenge

This covers 8th  to 14th February

Day 8: Voice 15 mins, Piano – 45 mins. Saturday night I did spend more than 45 mins on the keyboard as I was trying to figure out how to transpose some music.  As I was practicing arpeggios I  did some vocal exercises at the same time. Efficient!

Day 9: Pennywhistle – 30 mins.
Day 10: Dulcimer – 1 1/2 hours
Day 11: Voice – 15 mins, Pennywhistle – 30 mins
Day 12: Nil. What happened? I was tired and had no motivation.
Day 13: Piano – 45 mins (scales, arpeggios, sight reading), Voice – 10 mins
Day 14: Pennywhistle – 40 mins.

Total:  4 hours 20 mins.
Breakdown: Voice –  25 mins, Dulcimer – 1 1/2 hrs, Piano –  45 mins, Pennywhistle – 1hr 40mins

So what happened?
Barbershop rehearsal that week was cancelled due to weather – that would’ve been about 1 3/4 hrs. I didn’t go to choir practice either – another 60 mins lost – and no singing lesson – another 30 mins lost.
Then I was feeling a bit tired and not particularly motivated the rest of the week. The pennywhistle ended up with the most because it’s easy to pick up and play. The piano (keyboard) got  more time because of new sheet music to sight read. Also, the table where the keyboard is, was kept neat enough to be usable without too much tidying up first effort.

So…. already I can see that having an organized space to practice in is one of the challenges facing me. I spent yesterday tidying/rearranging things, but the “music table” got everything dumped on it while I was working on other areas. Straightening that out will be today’s priority. Getting to choir practice today is also a priority. Can’t help bad weather though!

1st week of the Music Dozen Challenge: How did I go?

Well, to recap – I declared that I would challenge myself to practice music for 12 hours a week. This began on Feb 1, and so here its the end of the 1st week already. How did I go?

Day 1: Voice – nil, Dulcimer – 1 hour, Pennywhistle – 15 mins
Day 2: Voice – 1 3/4 hours, Dulcimer – 15 mins, Pennywhistle – 20 mins
Day 3:  Voice 1 3/4 hours, Dulcimer – 35 mins
Day  4: No practice
Day 5: Voice – 30 mins, Dulcimer – 1 hour, Pennywhistle – 30 mins, Piano 30 mins
Day 6: Dulcimer – 45 mins
Day 7: Dulcimer – 30 mins, Pennywhistle – 15 mins

Total hours practiced: 9 hours and 55 mins. Not 12 hours, but not too shabby, eh!

Being a total obsessive nerdy sort, here’s the breakdown:

Total Voice: 4 hours
Total Dulcimer: 4 hours 5 mins
Total Pennywhistle:  1 hour 20 mins
Total Piano: 30 mins

Comments:

Pushing to use time in little chunks isn’t as easy as it sounds. By nature, I am lazy and easily distracted. It’s that old story of being tired when you get home from work etc. No surprises that the pennywhistle was the easiest to pick up when I wasn’t in the mood – nothing to set up – no accessories like picks etc to find. Sometimes I got up early and practiced before going to work. As long as everything else was done (lunch packed, shower etc) this worked well.  I gave up caring about whether it was too noisy or not!

 

 

Day 5: Music Practice Challenge

Well getting lots of sleep makes such a difference!

Dulcimer – 1 hour, Piano – 30 mins, voice – 30 mins, pennywhistle 30 mins.

Day 4 – Music Practice challenge

Well disappointingly I did no practice on day 4. I was very tired all day and ended up going to bed at 8pm. What’s causing the fatigue? I suspect its the 30 day food restriction thing. My body is learning to switch from using starches/sugars for the easy energy hit to using fats instead. I’ve read about this – wish I’d read about though before I started! Gee I hope I get more energy soon.

Day 3 – Music Dozen challenge report back

Voice: 1 3/4 hours. Barbershop  last night which is usually 2 hours ended a little early. I’m being honest here…
Dulcimer: 35 mins. I’m pleased that I squeezed in some dulcimer practice after dinner and before heading off for barbershop.

Day 2- Music Challenge Report Back

Voice, 1 hr, 45 mins, 30 mins exercises, 45 mins songs. Yes! As I sing in a women’s barbershop chorus, there’s lots of material to revise.

Dulcimer, 15 mins. Better than nothing.

Pennywhistle, 20 mins.

I intended to practice piano  in church choir room in the afternoon, but fell asleep. 2 days in a row caught napping! Most unlike me, but I guess I needed it.

This first week I’ll probably report daily, after that it’s likely to be less frequent.

Day 1 report back – Music Dozen

Pennywhistle – 15 mins. It’s hard to stop when that timer goes. Good thing right? I don’t know where to practice the super high notes, which are extremely shrill. I bet they bore through the walls and into neighbour’s ear drums. This may have to be an outside at lunchtime during the work week thing. How shrill are these notes? (high b, c, d). Well, the instruction book, recommends wearing ear plugs when practising them!

Dulicimer – 1 hour.

Voice – none. I was tired and had a nap in the middle of the day. Woke up and was still very lethargic for a couple of hours. Then evening chores took over, and as I did dulcimer practice in the evening, no time for singing. I should’ve gone for a walk after the nap, so the fresh air could wake me up properly.

When looking at my schedule and how to fit this in, I realize that 12 hours a week is ambitious (I knew it was, but didn’t fully understand how ambitious).  Time in the morning, as well as evening has to be used, and some lunch break time also. But the potential for major improvement is a big incentive for me.