The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men ...

Any of you who follow me on Twitter know that I had grand plans to take a walk on the National Mall today.  The day has been gorgeous, if not a bit cold.  It didn't happen, though.  Instead, Keith and I went the container store and had a light Thai dinner afterward.  While we didn't get any exercise at the Mall, we did get some great ideas for organizing our new closets!

My practice menu today started with long tones in the style of Moyse De La Sanorite.  Following that, I hit the T and G pretty hard by working with EJ 1 and 2, second page of each exercise, two octaves, 60 beats per minute.  I finished my warm up with EJ 4, Eb major through Bb minor, 60 beats per minute.  I made it easy on myself and played it all slurred.  My plan is to stick with these three exercises for awhile, working my way through each of them and slowly increasing the metronome speed toward 120 beats per minute.  I'll add in other articulation patterns (I can't slur everything all the time, right?) as I progress.

I deftly worked my way through the second etude in the Cavally Melodious and Progressive studies.  I know it's easy, but I have to say I take a bit of pride in being able to learn it and play it with only a few mistakes in one short practice session.  Using some practice advice I learned from another flute blogger, I divided the etude into arbitrary sections, and I rehearsed the sections starting with the last one, rather than starting from the beginning of the piece.  I think this method tricked my brain somehow, because I learned the piece very efficiently.

I ended my practice with the JSB Partita in A Minor.  I had also divided the first movement into arbitrary sections during my practice session yesterday.  I decided to focus on just the first section.  I love this method of learning new works.  It makes practicing seem, well, easy.

There is a group in DC called The Adult Music Student Forum.  Based on what I saw on the group's website, it looks like a great way for amateur adult musicians to get some performing experience.  I'm considering joining soon and hope to perform the JSB Partita in the near future.

I gave Ms. Trimber the news today that I like the Muramatsu from Alberto Grossi better than her Hammig/TJ flute.  I told her why (the mechanism on the Muramatsu feels so much better), but I also told her that the Muramatsu has a silver plated tube and it doesn't have a C# trill key.  She says she has other flutes I can try, so we'll see how that goes.  I have all the time in the world to find the best flute for me in my price range.

I know it's not a big deal that I didn't go to the Mall today, but I'm still reminded of the quote "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry".  When pursuing a lofty goal, like mastering the flute, we have to strike a fine balance in planning too much and not planning enough.  I don't know where that balance lies, but I'm not going to give up finding it, now matter what goes awry.