My goal from last week was to increase the total amount of time I spent practicing compared to the previous week. While I did not increase it by much, I am pleased to be able to say that I did achieve that goal. I only spent 25 minutes on flute each week, however my piano practice increased from 60 minutes across two days to 115 minutes over three days – almost double the total time. I opted to focus more on piano than flute this week because I will be staying with my grandparents in Vancouver over Reading Break. I should be able to play my flute some when I’m there, however it is a tad difficult to lug a 500lb antique piano with me on the ferry.

I worked on the same piano elements this week as I did the week prior – C minor and E♭ major technique, the C- section of The Wellerman. This section of the song includes many multiple octave jumps across the piano with my left hand, so I spent a most of my practicing this week trying to get more comfortable moving around on the piano without looking down at my hands for both my technique practice and the song itself. I was pleasantly surprised with my improvement in my scales and triads without looking down; I was able to perform them with reasonable accuracy as well as increase my speed. My progress on the song itself, however, has been slower than I hoped it would be (though not stagnant). I am trying to not be too discouraged by this because although this is a part of a song that I used to be more familiar with, I have still chosen to work on a song that is above my skill level. I chose it in order to increase my motivation by playing something I was truly interested in learning. I do not regret doing that, however it does mean that I likely need to lower my expectations of myself.

Anyone that is familiar with piano sheet music will be ablet to see from the picture below that the left hand has multiple large jumps that cross over the right hand that. It is not easy to land these without looking down, but there are also so many jumps that it is also hard to keep track of reading the music while looking down at every beat. It seems that my choice is either to really work to become comfortable doing these jumps without looking down, or else memorize the music. I am wanting to avoid the latter option because I want to improve my music reading abilities and I do want to become more comfortable playing without looking at my hands. While I probably would be able to perform this portion of the song quicker if I did just memorize it (I have never really struggled with that), I would rather focus on the practice that increases my skills overall.

As I had mentioned, I did only play my flute once this week since I prioritized my time on piano. I mostly worked on the same things I did the week prior and saw some improvement. The book I have been working with has an arrangement of The Hall of the Mountain King that I want to work to be able to play. Although it doesn’t have any really high notes in it (which is one thing that I want to work on), it does have other elements that I want to become better at. Specifically, it uses many different notes and key changes which will help me build automaticity with flute fingerings, and it is written with speed and volume changes, which will help me get comfortable playing faster and with better breath control. Most importantly however, I picked it because I think it will be fun to play.

Since I will be away next week, my goal is mostly to focus on my flute practice. I plan to work on what I mentioned above, as well as perhaps follow along with this lesson on YouTube. While there is not much I will be able to do for piano, apparently mental rehearsal has benefits when learning physical skills (mostly in regards to sports). I will try to do some of this while I am in Vancouver. Who knows, maybe it’ll work?