10 minutes today, all scales. Chromatic skills are improving drastically with practice, and line 1, 2 can be played with much more ease. Very happy with progress. Still miss c sharp on way down (line 2) every once in a while.

Practiced for 10 minutes today. Did not have significant time to dedicate to playing, so I did some breathing exercises then went through some rhythms I was struggling with just on my mouthpiece. Mentally I was making connections to the fingerings that went along with the rhythms, and after doing this for a 6 or 7 minutes, I ran through the parts I was struggling with rhythmically (see last post) flawlessly (in terms of rhythm). Very successful with this stratey, and and quite pleased with how well it worked.

Feb 21, 22

Practiced for 25 minutes yesterday, 30 minutes today.

Yesterday
Worked on band rep mostly. Walked through all of Light Eternal, couldn't figure out why it didn't sound right. Turns out I had a fingering wrong after checking the whole phrase. Played through all of Light Eternal a few times, after about 3 run-throughs it was without error. Worked on Rhosemedre again, tried to focus on sounding less like a tuba, and taking Mr. Haq's advice into account. It's getting better, and I sound slightly more like a string bass, but stringing the notes together fluidly almost causes me to put no separtaion in the notes whatseover. Still working on it, its imprvoing. Walked through solo in 4th movement of Holst, I still need ot take it under tempo to get the slurring more accurate, but my speed is improving with practice. Bars 9-16 of section E in the 4th movement is difficult, and I work through it very slowly. Speed in the low range in gradually increasing, but still working on rhythm perfection at this point. Plan to continue breaking down the difficult sections and work up to playing at tempo.

Today
Scale day. Spent 25 minutes on scales, mainly chromatics on page nine. Really struggled with number 2. So much so that I wrote out the fingerings just to get used to the key signature/accidentals of the line. Worked through it very slowly, about 66 on online metronome until I nailed the fingerings. Sharps are still challenging, but with continued practice at a slow pace, I am improving and will continue to do so. Chromatic scale #1 was much easier, very little difficulty, worked up to a very fast tempo quite quickly. Broke both scales into measure-by-measure. If I made a mistake, I started over. Successful, yet tedious. Im quite pleased with the subtle improvents after a few sessions of practice, and ease with these pieces increases every day. Finished the practice with some "Stand By Me", and a few Christmas Carols just for Mr. Stevenson's sake.

Feb 19

I practiced for 20 minutes tonight after work. About 10 minutes on each of the following : band music and chromatic scales. Progress is slow on sharps in both lines 1 and 2 on page 9 of the purple book. I have been trying to look up the fewest notes possible. Slowly I am making fewer mistakes, but need to work on playing more consistently in the sharps. Flats are less challenging, and can play through them much more quickly. To improve the parts I am struggling with, I will take the time to memorize the fingerings from my fingering chart, and begin to practice the song. Bar by bar, and if I make a mistake, I start all over. Progress is not significant yet, but it was only 10 minutes of playing. It is comforting when trying to work out the kinks of a scale that I know I can play with little difficulty once I learn the notes better, and I look forward to when i hit that point in the near future.
I played the solo at the end of 2nd Suite in F and am slowly getting improving at playing the slurred rhythm accurately, but I take it apart very slowly. I'm hitting notes correctly with the exception of the high g in bar 24 of letter H. Still need to work on the high range. Thinking about the note in my head beforehand helps. Gradual improvement and faster tempo is becoming easier to play. Also worked on "played less like a tuba player" for Rhosymedre, after working with Mr. Haq for 10 minutes after class yesterday.