I skipped many sessions this week, as noted previously. Farmers Market went okay today... one long two-hour session... I was wondering if I'd flub my fingers from only a session a day but it didn't happen.

In a late-afternoon session I got a hint of what was going on... I was going through the motions, there was no feeling, no significance to it. I was playing well enough (mostly a classical fakebook) but it didn't have the same emotional hit. In such a situation I'm glad I cut back on practice this week rather than keep on pushing it.

At the market today I started with "Ace in the Hole"... got some people waltzing at one point, cool.
posted by macromed5 at 6:25 PM

Lag between postings here, but I'm not paid by the hour.... ;-)

Saturday's Farmer Market session seemed an improvement... better concentration, flow, and spontaneity. The gang of adults with bad kids were not around. But, uh, by this point I don't remember much of that session.

Saturday night I went to Deirdre's for a "bluegrass" jam of about eight people. I had to change seats to get out of range-of-fire of one guitarist. No harmony, but it was fun. A young fiddler played too fast, cute.

During the week my practice has been less than normal, due to sleep disruption, workload, and a monstrous series with the Diamondbacks at Pac Bell. But when I have played I've noticed a new elevation... better sense of time, relaxation, and simple phrasing... internote differences mean a lot. Some times a break in practice brings about something new.

Reading about Duke Ellington in Gunther Schuller's books.

Anyway, you can see why I wasn't in a rush to write the above... not much there. Progress is continuing, just in another way.
posted by macromed5 at 6:41 PM