October 13, 2004...

Let's see if I can figure out what to report.

The musical's finally over, so now I have some time to practice again, which is a big plus. I really want to get significantly better this year, and I know how I'm going to do it. I've gotta start working on using my technique musically. The other day, Marc said that I have very good technical skills, but that I need to integrate them into playing musically. I'm so worried about playing with perfect technique that it's interfering with the musicality of my playing. He also said that if I'm solid musically (meaning I can sing everything and know what I want to do with music when I look at it, that I have a solid idea of what I want to hear), then everything will come so much easier to me. I'm going to try that out. I also asked Olivia today at my lesson how I am doing. See, I'm kind of nervous that I'm not doing as well as I ought to be for a performance major. She said, however, that she's noticing a significant week-to-week improvement, and that I've gotten a whole lot better since last fall. She also said not to worry about getting my concerti perfect quickly because even students at Julliard take 8-12 months learning and polishing a concerto (and she would know, having been at the best damn music school in the UK). So I feel a lot better.

Tomorrow's my piano test. I'm kind of nervous, but not too bad. Piano is coming much better than it has been. I can finally do more than a basic block chord accompaniment in my left hand (well, sort of). Transposition isn't much of a problem. The only hard part is really the choral score reading. It's rough reading three voices at once, especially when you've only got two hands. But when I work on it I do just fine.

Anywho, I'd better get to bed. Work at 8am followed by class until 11 followed by 2 hours of practicing before piano. Then home for a bit then practicing and orchestra then it's almost fall break!