It pays to revisit old pieces sometimes...

I have been struggling with some new skills recently.  The first?  More comprehensive damping of strings - starting with identifying where they need to be damped, figuring out which hand is available to do the damping, and then finally trying to choreograph it while actually playing the notes!  This is still a work in progress.  At least I fondly hope and anticipate there will be some progress at some point...   Tapping your head and rubbing your tummy is child's play by comparison.  (Oh wait, that is child's play 😉).  The second is to shift around the fretboard without adding a whole boatload of tension.  I seem to have failed to grasp the concept that relaxing during the shift is a much better way of shifting than tightening up.  Seems obvious in retrospect doesn't it? Again - working on it.  Don't hold your breath.

While struggling with these apparently immovable obstacles, I've been more than a little frustrated.  Throwing balls for the puppy has become a too-attractive substitute.    However I started to relearn an old piece, the beautiful "Un Dia de Noviembre" by Leo Brouwer.   I've heard that it's difficult to incorporate improved technique into a piece where there is old muscle memory - and indeed if I'm not concentrating - off I go automatically again.    However there are some rewards as well as challenges to applying new technique to old pieces. For instance in the Brouwer second half I could never actually play all the notes with the barre, but now I can - and in that same section the previously- fudged slurs show hope that they will emerge nice and clean.  If pushed, I can now play the piece in time with a metronome rather than adding in technique-related pauses, and my improved knowledge of the fretboard means that reading the notes has not been a major hurdle in itself.  And for the rhythmically challenged (ie me) I was able to check the tricky timing by inputting it into Musescore.  Now just need to practice
I like this version - low key and doesn't rush...

So although the major challenges of the day remain unconquered, there have been small successes... I'll take what I can get, and keep working on it.