Recalibrating

There are some things in life that are immutable.  In my case, new things are a struggle.  Once I get into something it's full speed ahead, but getting started is always tough.   How does this relate to CG?  After passing my Level 3 Certificate exam through CGC (grade 6)  I  thought I would charge right ahead with new pieces, perhaps tackling the next set of exercises and new repertoire for grade 7.  But wait! there are whole bunch of new skills to learn, such as being sure that individual melody voices don't ring over (what? treble strings?), and of course finally getting to grips with real dynamics and tonal variation.   Turns out that I wasn't really ready to get started these challenges quite yet.  For an interesting read on the interaction between work, fun, and drudgery, click on the graphic above, where the horizontal axis is what's driving us to do something (ourselves or someone else) and the vertical axis is how rewarding it is.  I'm not sure anything in CG really should be because someone else says we should do it, but it's worth checking if 'work' tasks are we really need to be doing to further our goals rather than what we think we ought to be doing.  Specifically how many of those technical exercises really are helping us play that Sor piece?

When I find myself not wanting to practice, I've learned to stop, take a breath and do something different. In this case I looked at the things I enjoy doing (mostly getting together with others to play and learning new - not too difficult - pieces) - and those that are harder to do (learning new techniques, sight reading, orchestra, playing for others) and decided to rejigger what I'm doing.   On the fun side, I signed up to join in an acoustic "play and sing" evening - something I haven't done in forever, plus a get together with some other CGC members (despite the 3.5 hour drive).  Also on the fun side, I started to learn a Pujol piece that has nothing to do with exams, and I've had waiting in the wings to learn for a while.  It requires 'strings ringing over' rather than 'string muting' and has a funky Milonga rhythm to boot For a detailed history of this rhythm and it's relationship to Tango, click here. Did you know it predated the Tango and originated with Argentinian cowboys?   Piazzola wrote a lot of pieces with the Milonga rhythm - here for example is a video of a beautiful guitar performance of Milonga del Angel, where the rhythm can clearly be heard.

Learning the Milonga piece is a lot of fun - it ticks a lot of my boxes - it's got a Latin rhythm, a cool melody, and it's immediately appealing to most audiences.   I've found the rhythm/accents to be quite challenging, and  I've been posting it a page at a time on the CGC forum as I get it to the "play through" stage, as an incentive to keep going.   My intention is to be able to play the whole piece through by the time of the CGC meetup ( in 7 days, gulp).   It's touch and go - still learning the last 2 lines, but with the added stress of an audience, playing it at that venue might be overly optimistic...  And sometimes practice doesn't go according to plan - like when I'm trying to nail the timing and my dog joins in with her squeaky toy (that's what you hear in the recording here). 

What about the "work" side?  I'm back to sight reading - 15 minutes, on the timer,  - not without hesitations, but everyone has to start somewhere.  And I did "play for others" a couple of times - a duet at a low key open mic, and 2 certificate pieces at our classical guitar society open stage, without it being a total disaster.   So I'm not entirely delinquent on the 'work' side of learning CG.

So that's where I am.  Hopefully by the next time I post I will be able to post the Pujol piece ... and having recuperated somewhat, will be ready to tackle the Grade 7 challenges.