Interval Review:

There were 37 cards to review. It took a long time and I started to become overwhelmed, but nobody said it's gonna be easy! These A string - B string intervals are the thing that I'm least familiar with. This will take some time for my brain to incorporate.


Warm-up/Technique:

Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position

String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 105 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 70 bpm
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 68 bpm (same descending)

Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 107 bpm rest & free.
l, m @88 bpm rest & free

Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 93 bpm

l, m @ 80 bpm.

Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - steady @ 86 bpm both i,m and l, m
@ 89 i, m only

Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 88 bpm

Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1.A @ 70 bpm
Played quarter notes at @ 65 bpm in order to prepare for this exercise. Much better than yesterday.

Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 81 bpm

Thoughts:
Went to the Portland Guitar Society meeting yesterday for the first time. So many guitar enthusiasts! And most wanted to play. I came just as the meeting had started and put my name up on the open mike. I was number 23 or so. So I sat through all the performances, and some of them were stellar. I got myself really worked up, to the point that I was kind of hoping that I they'd run out of time for me. Which they did. I felt a bit overwhelmed by the music, because I inevitably started comparing my abilities to those of the players I saw. And it wasn't too positive in my favor.

But today, playing Estrellia, I decided to just enjoy the piece, and thereby reminded myself that this is how music should be played. I just have to play pieces that are accessible to me and have fun doing it. Magnificent chops do not guarantee musicianship.

Repertoire:

Estrellita
Just enjoyed playing the piece and really let is shine. Of course the mic wasn't on...

Pica-Pica
Same pleasant vibe as Estrellita. Just concentrated on conveying the story of the piece.

Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Hmm, going through the last part before the melody, contrary to what I wrote yesterday, seems like the rhythm just keeps repeating itself. Maybe I'm not listening closely enough. Time should show.

In any case, I can play this part at 80% of target speed.

Samba Caribe
Bart A measure 12-13 arpeggio - did yesterday's wrist shifting with open strings @ 65 bpm. Getting better. I must not rush this for the sake of just trying to play this piece at full speed. Truthfully, it's a long way off from that, but with persistent effort, it'll get there.

Part B measures 14-15 - also getting better.