Happy birthday dear Nolan!!

how could i resist? i was so happy about my nephew coming into the world on this day that i practiced for 1.5 hours today!!!

For laughs

since photo booth makes it easy to record now, i present you with some improv. lol. yes, it is a long road learning this instrument..

Skippin around

this is bad form. i know it. but i just love seeing what all i can play. i figured out Take Me Out to the Ballgame. after all, it's almost that time of year, so i've gotta be ready, right?

haha.

i'm still struggling with 16th notes. think i'm finally gonna get some help from my boss who can play. he brought it up the other day, and i was like, "oh yeah! you can totally help me out with this!"

welp. my cheeks hurt again. i'm grateful it's after 1.25 hours of practice though. praise God for snow days where i can practice more! now for some juggling? reading? something..

Muy bien

one of those days where i wish i practiced longer. i was sounding really good, and i've got the basic 16th note down. now comes the weird varieties the note comes in when combined with 8th notes. confused? me too. :P

any way. the only thing that bothered me was running out of breath while playing the Entertainer. oh joplin, you are so cool. also started on a jazz favorite known as Bill Bailey. it's an oversimplified version of course, but it's pretty shnazzy.

one more hour! so thankful for this instrument!!!!!

Two days in a week

ole! i actually practiced twice within a more reasonable time frame! i'm wanting desperately to maintain this frequency, however it only occurred this time because my lunch date was cancelled. take advantage, i suppose.

worked on some 16th notes, and also figured out most of Sesame Street Theme Song. twas fun. worked on book one a little, on the more challenging songs at the end. also played Molly Malone, because after all, it's st. patty's day!!

45 minutes added!

Practice update, how generic

i can add an hour to my total! this is the first practice lasting this long in a couple weeks, which makes me both sad and glad. it is clear i need to make more time for this, but i also question how to balance work, support raising, learning spanish, and playing?

perhaps my hope is to at least include 2-3 hours a week until i leave, and then see how much more i might be able to practice while there. it would be a dream come true to get to perform in a band that plays music to bring glory to God. how much cooler if it includes songs in another language?

something to pray about.

73.5 hours. i can almost taste 100 hours!!!

Workin it

honestly, i shouldn't expect much when i don't practice as often as i should, or would even like. again, thankful that i keep a blog to make sure i actually practice at all. so, above, is You're A Grand Old Flag, with two rather blatant errors (and several small ones). it's okay though. at least i got in a 45 min practice!

better than nothing, and also grateful that my team in argentina welcome new instruments! perhaps i'll get more playing time out there!

All to myself

just had a half hour where i played in the house as loud as possible. twas pretty great to work on Entertainer and sixteenth notes. She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain is the song to work on said notes, and i think i'm starting to get it. i keep practicing by clapping out the notes before i play them.

Grrrrr

i haven't had a chance to play in awhile. this makes me sad and angry. perhaps this weekend when i have a house all to myself (house-sitting jobs rock!), things will change.

so busy...