Practice Log for Tuesday, 15 May 2018
thirds and fourths scale patterns May 15, 2018 music| Topic | Start Time | End Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| warm-up | 23:09 | 23:16 | q=70, M.A. Batio’s warm-up |
| scales | 23:16 | 23:30 | q=96 1-3 top down in F/Bb, q=72 1-4 pat. |
| repertoire | 23:32 | 23:53 | under the bridge |
Warm-up
I hit my goddamn left funny bone while I was warming up.
I do a hammer-on variation of Michael Angelo Batio’s warm-up where I change fingering instead of changing positions first. (N.B. MAB reminds me very much of my high school weightlifting teacher, Mr Conroy.)
Scales
I started with the 1-3 patterns top-down. Only had time to do two scales, so I picked these two. In some places, the barring is still better, but my pinky doesn’t want to play ball. It’s a useless little appendage, sometimes. I’ll have to focus more slow, relaxed movements with it to get it up to speed.
harder to play, especially the first one played with the pinky
I also got to a few fourths patterns. The fourths patterns are just generally difficult. There are two ways to play it: either using separate fingers for separate strings, or barring just like the thirds. I feel like the barring approach is more like something a bass player would do, but I like the feeling, and I think that learning to roll my fingers better will pay off in other areas like arpeggios.
Repertoire
Still on this song, but I was able to play through it more or less cleanly as long as I could look at the lyrics, although the lyrics to this song seem pretty memorable. I don’t think it’ll take too long to memorize them.
Next Time
I spent a lot of today listening to random Rush songs on YouTube. Rush songs I think I could fumble through:
- “Freewill”
- “Tom Sawyer”
- “Closer to the Heart”
- “Limelight”
I should take some time one of these days this week to review some of the songs I’ve learned over the past two months.
For some reason, I was thinking about “More Than Words” by Extreme. I had a friend in China when I first came to Beijing, and she loved this song. Must have came to mind after my friend broke up with his girlfriend. It’s a good song, and I think that the words are true, so I’ll take a look at this one tomorrow.