Thoughts:
I didn't properly introduce the new gadget I started using yesterday. It's a Zoom H2 portable recorder that records wonderfully and allows one to hear the recording with ease immediately. It would seem like a small thing, but the thing is that recordings reveal the truth behind a performance. I've been playing way too long with way too little analysis of the quality of my playing.

Sight Reading:
4/4 time, level 3 @ 75

Fretboard Review:
Reviewed up to 6 frets. Decided to track progress:
63 correct, 3 incorrect (95%) @ in 2 minutes.
A little bit worse than yesterday.

Interval Review:

Big review of added cards. Added remaining ascending D to G string ascending, and then added all the G string to D string descending. I felt like I was on the home stretch of this interval review, so I decided to open up the whole list to check for any missing intervals. Indeed there were quite a lot, and it took me some time to find them and enter them in Anki.

Warm-up/Technique:

Finger-stretching exercise - 1st position.
Finally! Middle finger reached the 3rd fret!

String Walking exercise (Pumping Nylon pg. 37) with i,m eight @ 113 bpm
String Walking exercise with m, l with eight notes @ 88 bpm.
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 @95 bpm rest & free
i, l @ 83 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 - recorded @ 78 with i, m and l, m. Solid.


Scale Rhythmic Variation p. 68 @ 97 bpm i, m
@ 80 bpm l, m - descending rest stroke was hard, so I decreased from yesterday's 89 bpm

Played etude @ 70 bpm with i, m

Speed Burst pg. 69 Exercise 1 @ 70 bpm with l, m
@109 with i, m
Rest and free
A - F

G @ 75 bpm i,m

Percussive Exercise
Played Nothin on You rhythm @ 84


Repertoire:

Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars cover)
Practiced @ 80 bpm and recorded.

Noticed something interesting that Scott Tennant talked about - it is important to be selective when doing the barre because you can save considerable energy by only sounding the notes that need to be sounded (pg. 23 of Pumping Nylon) . Directly applicable to this piece: when I hit the first F chord on the 8th fret, I only need to hit the root, the Bb on the B string (which I hit with my 3rd finger), and the C on the high E string. That means my barre index finger only needs to hit 2 notes - the F on the A string and the C on the high E string. So, I can bar the 8th fret so that the middle part of my finger is arched and is relaxed.


Pica-Pica
Yesterday's post didn't provide any suggestions for what to work on, which isn't very productive.

Played to metronome on silent @ 85 bpm.

Estrellita
Deliberately made a mistake on the position jump in measures 9-10. Wow, that does the trick. Deliberately hitting C instead of C# will get my wrist used to the position of both, and mistakes should be avoided.

Samba Caribe
Part A measure 13-14 @ 59 bpm.
The movement of the RH wrist is integral here, I must not forget that. That movement is still not natural. Dropped to 54 bpm to practice the movement.

Na Gafieira Do Vidigal
Played beginning to part A @ 64 bpm and recorded.