100 Days of Practice Challenge 2019 - Day 70 Check-In

My practice trackers tell me that I hit Day 70 of my #100daysofpractice challenge yesterday. So much for doing a post at the midway point. All I can say is that spring is a busy time musically. Better late than never.

100 Day Music Practice Challenge (Round 2) So Far

Things are chugging along, but real-life musical commitments (along with just real life commitments) have been taking precedence over the trio of pieces that I wanted to highlight this challenge. Prior to Spring Break, I buckled down and recorded teacher demos of most of my Grade 1 - 6 students’ repertoire. With music festivals and exams coming up, getting clips up to help my students finetune and polish was more important than learning Papillons. I guess that’s just a reality I have to accept as a music teacher and choir musician.

I am now on the roster to play the piano at funeral services at three churches. On one hand, I feel sad, seeing that I started gigging by playing at weddings and banquets. You know, happy occasions. Now, I’m sending people off. However, there is honour in giving the departed a fine send off musically, so I’ll do the best I can.

Of the featured trio, Happy Together is furthest along. I have learned the song on voice, ukulele, and cajón. Although I am still tripping on a couple of chords and lyrics, I am getting close to being able to record a virtual performance.

Papillons? Ugh. I performed the Introductzione and No. 3 at last month’s studio piano party. It was OK. I am learning to relax my hands on those blocked octaves, but it’s nowhere near ready to be brought up to speed. Nor do I have any desire to. I am currently learning No. 7. It’s slow and that’s fine. Once I have learned it, I’ll call it a day and put it away.

I dusted off Leyenda (Asturias) from Isaac Albéniz’s Suite Espagñola. It’s the last piece that Mrs. Ginzburg taught me during our time together. Enough time has passed that I think I have something new to bring to it. Plus, I simply love the piece, whereas, I don’t like Papillons.

Danza del gaucho matrero has been placed on hold until I have finished Papillons. That should happen this week. I do want to have the entire Danzas Argentinas relearned by the end of this challenge.

With Easter fast approaching, my practising will be dominated by music for Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) and Easter Sunday. Although my brother and I are splitting the bulk of the piano duties (the other pianist is taking the last service - yay! - because I plan on being home, fast asleep for that one), I will probably sing and/or play the cajón for the services I am not playing piano.

March 2019 Music Practice Tracker

Lots of dots = lots of progress, in some areas. Credit: R-M Arca.

Easter Triduum Prep

There’s a lot of music needed for the services on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday. Credit: R-M Arca

Singing Practice

My ear training drills have been paying off. My a capella singing is stronger than in years past. Credit: R-M Arca.

Happy Together

Singing and ukulele seem to go hand in hand. Well, until I trip on a chord or a word, that is. Credit: R-M Arca.

Cajón practice

I’m so glad I picked a percussion friendly piece for my non-dominant instruments. Credit: R-M Arca.

100 Days of Budo Practice Challenge So Far

I am facing the same challenge that my piano students face: how to fit enough physical practice time into the week. Although I do notice an improvement overall because of my increased budo study time, nothing really beats committing things to muscle memory through repetition.

Camera sensei continues to be my best friend during at-home practices. However, with weapons that range from 20 inches to six feet long, I am limited by ceiling clearance and space. If I break another light fixture or accidentally slice a plant, my kouhai (juniors) will never let me live it down. Thankfully, spring is here and I can go train at a nearby park. Just in time, really. We will be doing martial arts demonstrations at the Calgary Expo later this month, so I better kick things up a notch. Ka Muso Kai will be demonstrating all of the arts we practice: Iaido, Jodo, Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu, and Choken Battojutsu Kagéryu.

March Budo Practice Tracker

More dots but the majority are in the “Study” column. Need to change that up this month. Credit: R-M Arca.

Checking Angles

There is so much math in Iaido that it’s not funny. Here, I’m checking my angle before completing the cut. Credit: R- Arca.

Mic Stand to the Rescue

Not only is my mic stand a camera stand, it also serves as my training partner in Jodo. It goes into Chudan very nicely. Credit: R-M Arca.

Lots of Swords

One of my kouhai got his iaito recently. That prompted this “dojo family photo” after training. Credit: R-M Arca.

Brain Dump Time

After a seminar or a really good class with sensei, writing down all the tips is critical. At least, it is for me. Credit: R-M Arca.

Looking Beyond the Practice Challenge

As I listen to my students and myself play, it is wonderful to see and hear how much progress we have made. However, as the year ramps up, physical, emotional, and mental fatigue will become a bigger challenge to face. We have all learned different ways to practice, but we are noticing the need for taking some time off. Rest gives us that time to reset, refresh, and come back to our work with a fresh perspective.

We will all have to figure out what that ideal balance is. For me, I think musically, it will be six days a week, with five days being on my instruments and one day dedicated to scorestudy and/or ear training. Budo-wise, I think it will shift to five days a week, with three days physical training and two days of study. The breakdown will vary depending upon what else is going on, but the main thing I will take moving forward is planning my practices so that everything gets worked on regularly.

Although having said this, I may just carry on with daily on both fronts but take a day off when I need a day off. I just need to make sure that I don’t go beyond three days off. Violinist Jascha Heifetz once said: “If I don't practice for one day, I'll know it. If I don't practice for two days, the critics will know it. If I don't practice for three days, the whole public will know it."

100 Day Music Practice Challenge - Students

Three of my students have completed their 100 Days of Practice Challenge, with a handful expected to wrap theirs up this week. The remainder are slated to complete their challenge around Easter. I will share their reflections once they have turned in their surveys.

Some of my students have opted to do another 30 Days of Practice Challenge, working in a break before doing another round. Others have decided to complete another 60 Days of Practice Challenge - with a little break before and after the challenge.

The general consensus for next year is that we will do a 100 Days of Practice Challenge but it won’t be consecutive days of practice. Obviously, if a student opts to make it 100 consecutive days of practice, they’ll reach their goal more quickly than someone who takes a few days off. I do hope that students do take a day off here and there though. Resting our minds and our bodies is just as important as practice frequency. It’s a fine balance.

To find out more about my 100 Days of Practice Challenge Rules, check out my Reflecting on My First 100 Days of Practice Challenge post.

To follow my 100 Days of Practice Challenge, head over to Musespeak Studio’s Instagram:

100 Days of Practice Challenge 2019 - Day 30 Check-in

According to my practice trackers, I completed Day 30 of my 100 Days of Practice Challenge on Wednesday. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I decided to do a 100 Day Music Practice Challenge as well as a 100 Days of Budo Practice Challenge simultaneously. It has been an interesting journey so far.

100 Day Music Practice Challenge (Round 2) So Far

Very early on, I hit a couple of snags in my music practice challenge that affected working on my featured trio of pieces: Danza del gaucho matrero (Ginastera), Papillons (Schumann), and Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Iz’s version). The first piece to hit a roadblock was Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I truly love this song. Sadly, I would need to capo my ukulele down seven frets to transpose it into a key that works for my voice. That just doesn’t give me much to work with fret-wise.

Rather than futz around with trying to make it work, I decided to work on Happy Together (The Turtles) as my non-dominant instruments project. I can comfortably sing it in the original key. Besides, I will have an easier time coming up with a cajón groove for Happy Together.

Schumann’s Papillons presented me with two challenges. It didn’t take long for me to realize that although I like listening to this work occasionally, I don’t really click with it. I don’t feel any emotional connection to it. However, since my late piano teacher Mrs. Ginzburg bequeathed this work to me, I want to unlock whatever lessons she wanted me to take from it.

The second challenge is potentially dangerous from a musician health perspective. Those who have been following the 100 days of practice challenge on the Studio’s Instagram can plainly see that I have small hands. Not much I can do about that.

Papillons is chock full of blocked octaves at a fast tempo. From Day 1, I recognized that another round of Tennis Elbow and Golfer’s Elbow may lie in my near future. I’ve had those repetitive strain injuries enough from from playing ragtime and other works with blocked chords and octaves to know that this is going to be a huge problem. By my fourth practice working on Papillons (Day 25 of the challenge), sure enough, the first signs of Golfer’s Elbow were making themselves known. I was seriously contemplating dropping it.

After discussing the situation with my brother (fellow pianist and music teacher), I decided to stick with it. Perhaps the lesson Mrs. Ginzburg wanted me to learn is how to play such pieces injury-free. So, I’ve taken everything back to square one and am breaking everything down into very small chunks, constantly assessing and adjusting until I have released all tension in my hands and arms before moving on to the following notes. This is going to be an arduous journey.

Featured piece #3, Danza del gaucho matrero, has been a fun ride so far. It’s so much easier to relearn old repertoire. It’s like reconnecting with an old friend. Sure, we fought a lot at the beginning but now, it’s just pure fun. Crazy, discordant fun, but fun nonetheless.

One observation I have noticed is that balancing my work on these three pieces, while juggling work on choir repertoire and my advanced students’ repertoire is hard. I’ve fallen behind on my student repertoire recording project. I haven’t spit out a technical requirements video in a while either. I think I will need to start budgeting how much time I spend on each area in my practice plan and set a timer.

I’m already getting ideas for future challenges, after checking out what others are doing in their 100 days of practice challenge on Instagram. Although I don't think I’ll ever do a #100daysofBach challenge, I think 100 Days of Sight-Reading, 100 Days of Baroque (OR Classical OR Romantic OR Impressionistic OR Contemporary Classical OR jazz) would be exciting adventures.

January 2019 Music Practice Tracker

I was trying to be smart and fit my tracker onto a single page. Not doing that again. Credit: R-M Arca.

February 2019 Music Practice Tracker

This is a bit easier for me to get my brain around. It’s also good for those days when I didn’t write down a log entry. I still kept up with the 100 Days of Practice Challenge posts in Instagram, at least. Credit: R-M Arca.

Learning to Release

Day 30/100 of the 100 Days of Music Practice Challenge: After each blocked octave in Papillons No. 3, I am forcing myself to relax before proceeding. It’s tedious but necessary if I want to avoid Golfer’s Elbow. Credit: R-M Arca.

Teachers Need Light Practice Days Too

Ear training drills have been my usual go-to on light practice days. We all need light days during this practice challenge.

Choir Practice

The life of a church musician. Snatching a bit of calmness between choir practice and the start of Mass . Credit: R-M Arca.

100 Days of Budo Practice Challenge So Far

“Budo” is the Japanese term for “the way of martial arts” or “the way of war.” For those just joining in, in addition to teaching piano and playing a bunch of musical instruments, I practice four non-mainstream Japanese martial arts at Ka Muso Kai (a dojo affiliated with the Canadian Kendo Federation, which, in turn is affiliated with the All Japan Kendo Federation): Iaido, Jodo, Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu, and Choken Battojutsu Kagéryu. Last summer, I earned my Nidan (second degree black belt) in both Iaido and Jodo. The grading was the culmination of a vigorous weekend-long seminar and the gradings ran back-to-back. “Intense” doesn’t begin to describe that experience.

Iaido is the art of drawing the sword. It translates to "the way of harmonizing one's self in action at all times and in all conditions." Jodo is the art of the short staff. It was founded by Musô Gonnosuke Katsukichi, the only person known to have defeated Miyamoto Musashi in a duel. The Japanese police use a variant of Jodo to this day. Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu is Miyamoto Musashi's two-sword art ("Two Heavens as One"). Choken Battojutsu Kagéryu is one of the few surviving Japanese long-sword arts. The founder was Yamamoto Hisaya Masakatsu, a retainer of the famous Tachibana clan.

Prior to the challenge, I tried to train two to three times a week (dojo and at home). Some weeks were better than others. It was much easier when I trained at the dojo twice a week. Due to my teaching schedule, I can now only train at the dojo once a week, so I felt I needed to do something to not let things erode. Plus, with over 120 techniques floating in my head, I knew I needed to practice more secure them more firmly into memory. Enter the 100 Day martial arts practice challenge.

I must admit, adding a second 100 day practice challenge has made my days a bit more complicated. This is, by far, the longest uninterrupted stretch I have practiced budo for. There were days when my plans to squeeze in a 20 - 30 minute training session got derailed, becoming a 5 - 10 minute study session.

Recording my training sessions has been highly educational. “Camera Sensei” has pointed out problems that I thought I had already fixed, from dropped sword tips to stride lengths that are too short to be stable, and from kinked wrists to sloppy footwork. With Camera Sensei’s help, I have worked through some of those trouble spots.

Initially, I started jotting down a study/training plan for the next day in my Budo Notebook. I noticed a definite increase in my budo study sessions when I did not write out a plan. I better go back to writing a plan so I can budget my time better on designated “at home” training days.

January 2019 Budo Tracker

As you can see, the week before I started the 100 Days of Budo Practice Challenge wasn’t very productive. Credit: R-M Arca.

Senpai Duties

On the day I taught one of my kouhai Uke nagashi, the third Seitei Iaido kata, I showed the gang a practice drill that my senpai showed me to get the draw nice and tight. Credit: K. Yee.

February 2019 Budo Practice Tracker

I can safely say that this is the most practising and studying I have done over and extended period of time. Credit: R-M Arca.

Mokuso

After a long day of teaching, meditation is a good thing.

Double-wide, 45

Day 24/100 of the 100 Days of Budo Practice challenge: Practising the footwork for Kuritsuke, one Jodo kihon that I should be more consistent on.

It’s been neat to see the steady progress being made musically and budo-wise. However, this 100 Days of Practice Challenge does reveal that there is always room for improvement. Well, whether music or budo, the journey is more important than the destination.

To find out more about my 100 Days of Practice Challenge Rules, check out my Reflecting on My First 100 Days of Practice Challenge post.

To follow my 100 Days of Practice Challenge, head over to Musespeak Studio’s Instagram: