next steps

The concert was good again today, a larger audience, but we didn't play quite as well ... weren't as tight on it as we were yesterday. I actually broke some notes on one dramatic part - but, so be it. It was still a good show and a great time.

We have one more performance tomorrow evening at Gastineau School and I am feeling good about that one. I've actually called a couple of people to come. Ah, and I just read the concert report from Rick, where he is telling us to have fun being our characters tomorrow!

One thing that performance always does is mess up my practice schedule - I realize what a funny thing that is to say even as I write it. Damn those performances, they are getting in the way of practice! But, here's where I feel I am ... I think my demanding practice schedule leading up to the Fall Symphony concert, with my focus, really kicked my playing up a step. I have more confidence in my notes, I sound better, I know that I have a better sense of time. But. That practice schedule just completely wiped me out, that and the final rehearsal week before the concert. I need to have a better balance but I also really want to have that kind of focus and discipline so that I continue to improve.

How to do that? I need to practice every day, but a full hour every day is often hard to achieve - and it is time from other areas of my life. So, here's a thought: Practice every day for a total of 7 hours a week. This is 1 hour less per week than what my goal was leading up to the concert (weekdays 1 hour a day, weekends 1 1/2 hours a day).

I also need to think about a way to keep my longer term goals before me so that they don't slip ... like, I need to keep remembering to work on my clefs! Maybe I can use the right margin of this blog to do that, put monthly goals there.