Interval Review:

Wow, the intervals are really kicking my ass. It probably took me around 30 minutes to go through all the reviews, and I got many of them wrong. Definitely need to keep pounding away at them. For sure, I need to review them again today to solidify my memory.

Sight Reading:
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75. I noticed that I tend to mess up in the places where there are long pauses. For some reason, I remembered the importance that many musicians place on the silence between the notes as defining the music (good example - Miles Davis).

Also, 3/4, level @ 75

Started sight-reading book Reading Studies for Guitar, by William Leavitt, from scratch. Pg. 6-7 @ 65 bpm.

Also, sight-read a piece from Delcamp Vol. 2 page 59. It was atrocious.

Fretboard Review:
Reviewed up to 6 frets. Decided to track progress:
76 correct, 6 incorrect (92%) @ in 2 minutes.
Really felt the pressure mount.


Warm-up/Technique:

Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.

String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 88 bpm. Filed nails, so rest stroke was harder. Hmm, maybe I should file the nails less often.
String-Jumping 1st string to 5th string, 2nd string to 6th string @ 85 bpm

Right-Hand Velocity (pg. 63) with sixteenth notes @ 109 bpm rest & free.
l, m @97 bpm rest & free
i, l @ 88 bpm

Synchronization Exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 65) with i,m sixteenth notes 95 bpm.

l, m @ 83 bpm

Putting it all together p. 67 Exercise - @ 78 with i, m. L, m rest stroke was not good - nails too short. This is surprising, because I didn't think that I had filed them excessively. Measured. The white part is 1 mm.

Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 80 bpm l, m - free fine, but rest once again difficult because of the nails

Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m.



Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 @80 bpm with l, m
@109 with i, m
Rest and free

G & H @ 75 bpm i,m

Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 90. Right arm started to hurt after playing for 5 minutes or so. Too much tension?


Repertoire:

Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 90 bpm. Also listened to recording to define my own meaning for the piece. Reminisced about a special time with a certain girl (not that kind of time).
Also, a bit of arranging in my head. During the intro, the singer should sing fifths in "oohs" or "aahs".

Like this:





Pica-Pica
As per Klickstein's suggestion in a blog post, I put the metronome on the downbeat only muffled it a bit so it wouldn't be so loud, and recorded myself playing. My metronome goes down only to 40, so I was essentially playing at 120 (really fast for me, but doable).

Part A was pretty good. Part B, not so well.

Also, dynamics in many parts were not right. I should record in the same way again tomorrow and analyze.


Estrellita
About halfway through part A, I realized that my mind was drifting off thinking about errands. So, while playing, I referred to the essence of the piece, which is love. I decided to think about my dear friend, Yachi, who I love. Even though this piece, should in my mind be romantic, I thought of Yachi thinking about and dreaming of love.

Though there were a couple of glitches in the playing, I was very happy with the piece because I wasn't worrying about the technical aspects. Rather I was making music.

This may big implications for how I perform music. Maybe I need some concrete event in my life to be the theme of the piece I'm playing in order to convey its essence for me.


Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 58 bpm. Sounds solid.

Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 70 bpm up to part C.

Triad Study:
Created triad deck in Anki and put in E major and F#minor triads in 1st inversion. Quite challenging.