Adding Another Layer

I'm so glad that I have stuff outside of work, that keeps me going. Especially when things are not going so wonderfully in other areas of my life (*cough*work*cough*). I haven't told you about the success I've been having with the metronome. Really. For musicians, you understand the love-hate relationship with this object that tick tocks (or beeps) away while you're playing so that you're able to maintain rhythm. I still have a strong dislike of it, but I have really come into learning how to play with it and not completely ignoring it while it just awkwardly accompanies the music. And rhythm is ever so important! Not just for music...

And as I've mentioned before, learning to master a skill is made up of layers and pieces of the whole picture; everything compliments the end result. I think the progression of loathing to tolerance (and hence complimenting) of the metronome has aided me to advance a step forward: I have been graduated from my grade 1 studies to grade 2!! I also received an Appaloosa sticker for my efforts on a "Battle Song" (list C).

Eventually this musical onion will just reek of melodies, rhythm and technique.

A Student's Journey

I want to start off by saying that I had a great evening last night; I had a make up piano lesson. And let me tell you again, it was a great lesson. We've briefly talked about why I re-started, after a decade long hiatus; literally, I had not touched a piano since I quit in high school. I'm a changed student: I've taken to tracking my practice and aim for 30-45 minutes daily. Sure, stuff comes up and I don't always practice as diligently but that's the nature of being an adult student (with anything, really!).

I've mentioned that I want to learn to play a stash of new arrangements and some old ones, but upon further reflection, I have decided to re-do all the grades I did do... from 1 through 8 including the theory. I won't be taking the examinations again but I will be working through each grade as if I was going for an exam. This could take several years but it's like many of the things I've started doing... it always takes time and to do it truly well, you have to diligently work at it regularly because everything has layers and "cross training" will enhance the ultimate goal. Yesterday was the first moment that I had felt like I got any real traction. K told me that yesterday's lesson was genuinely fruitful and that it sounds like I had really buckled down this past 3 weeks.

K is a great teacher for me. She's something of a real "godsend" because she breaks down the layers of playing well and her goals for her students are thorough and robust. The only thing is, I'm terrified of her. LOL really. But I've been scared of every piano teacher I've ever had... it's performance anxiety with just one other person there. Sounds ridiculous, I figure, but that's one of the main things I struggled with as a kid so now's time to grab the bull by the horns and take it on. Hopefully my Toastmaster training will kick in at some point (aaaaaanytime now...)?

Going back to my revised goal, after I get up to that point, I will start thinking about whether it would be worth my time to work towards the ARCT status. There appears to be a varied range of different certificates and diplomas so perhaps I'll see which one works best to what I want to ultimately achieve. I think it would be reasonable (at this point) to easily say that once I get my achieved grades up to snuff, I"ll be looking at moving forward to complete my grade 9 and 10 and then seeing where the wind takes me. I will probably never teach (because I have no patience for people! I mean I was a totally miserable student) or perform professionally but to be able to accomplish something on my bucket list just for me? That's got to be gold. 

Onwards into 2014

When I started this blog, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to write about. I did know though, that this would be an outlet for things that interest me and projects that I undertake to improve myself. I had just turned 30 and decided it was time to take control of my life beyond what I was doing the last decade; it was now or never. We're on year 3 now and upon brief reflection, I realize that my blog subjects focus around a few primary subjects: equestrian, travel, photography, and facts and stories (through books or otherwise).

I think I've done well for myself so far but this isn't close to being a lifetime of information yet! So, onwards to improving, growing and learning. I have made a series of resolutions and goals for myself that will continue to push me in my journey of things that help me drive this blog. As well, with an audience, I'll be much more likely to be held accountable for my promises as I do hate to break them... more out of pride than anything else. So, here goes:

• Plan my fitness regimen for the week and execute as expected. One of these must be yoga.
• Practice my piano diligently daily so I am able to play at a deeper level and excel at a level that I never accomplished previously.
• Sleep at designated times daily, as per my weekly plan.
• Take more pictures of people. Get out of my comfort zone of standard landscape. Seek to find the 'mesmerizing' and 'beautiful' in people (a difficult feat for someone like me!).
• Read more. And not just the types of books I'd tend towards or are already comfortable with. Always be reading something and learning. Get bold!
• Back off from over-eating... this is tough because I love to eat a lot. The main reason that comes up for this one... I don't waste food and I don't waste my time having to work off the excess caloric intake.
• Stay positive when the worst (or annoying) looks imminent or likely.
• Even though I'm very much the perfectionist when I do things and am not likely to "get out there" until I deem everything to be perfect, I resolve to enroll in the in-house horse show if there is opportunity to do so.
• Get proficient and confident enough to get out on a hack this summer.
• Start 2 lessons (or bi-weekly restart) per week once Old Man Winter decides to retreat for the next several months.

I sure hope that I'm able to follow through without too much of a struggle... already the first few have been posing a real challenge. But, as my title, onwards!

Lesson #62: Ride Each Stride

I don't know if it's just the stress of work and everything else that's going on but I woke up in a cold sweat on Sunday morning at 4AM thinking I had missed my lesson. As if I need one more pain in the bum, eh? I've been a little MIA, I'm sorry. It's been completely stupid at work though. But, enough about work! This is my little space for things that I enjoy doing and those which make me happy. Lately, work isn't one of them so it's going straight out the window in this post!

This is my second lesson at Gosling Stables and I'm really having a good time. Though, this was not one of my better rides. I don't know what was wrong with me but it was just a lot of discombobulation. It took some time to get my trot going at a good pace and the canter... it was as if I regressed several lessons!

I focused on the diagonals today so I wouldn't get caught for it as many times as I've been, since starting this endeavour! Sheri said our trot was in pretty good shape and that we would work on some canter. It's as if my brain went straight on holiday and I was asking for the canter with only my outside leg. And of course, all I got was a lot of speedy trot. When it clicked that I needed to engage the inside leg too, we finally took off and I was bouncing all over the place in on the saddle. Ariel was also speeding up and falling in at the corners. We were both a complete mess. Sheri told me to open my outside rein in the corners to help her rebalance herself and to remind her to slow down a bit with mild rein squeezes. Both worked but my butt slapping the saddle did not get better and Sheri was reminding me to loosen my hips and to allow my pelvis to loosely swing in the seat. For some reason, I was sitting very rigidly today.

Then I recalled that I should loosen my lower back and engage my lower abs and ta-da! Swinging in the seat again. Phew. I thought I lost it for some time. Much more control once I started paying attention again. Sheri reminds me that I need to ride each stride and have to be in control of what I'm asking and what Ariel is doing. The highlight, was when we got on the incorrect lead because I asked for the canter on a straight away and as I was bumping around and speeding about, Ariel did a flying lead change on her own! I thought I was going to fall off when she did that! The momentary mid-air suspension and change in lead was not something I was anticipating to feel. What a neat feeling. I think it was that moment with the reminder when I got out of my fog and something just clicked.

We finished our lesson with ground pole work (which I think Perry--ADW's mount for the lesson--was scoffing at). "Count the stride pace!" says Sheri. "Be sure it's consistent and you're not speeding up or slowing down and you go over the poles at exactly the same pace". I chuckled a bit in my head as I started to count to myself the strides... it's like my piano lessons! The one thing I suck mega at is keeping tempo. I'm constantly speeding up and slowing down and it doesn't even matter that I have the metronome going...

So defintely stuff to work on throughout the week and for the next lesson: practice keeping tempo and doing some stretches to loosen my hips up and remembering that each stride counts. It's kind of like what my piano teacher says about keeping tempo... "don't ever stop counting. You need to be counting all the time."

Posting Diagonal Jar Tally: 1 x $2.00 = $2.00
To date: $25.00

Get Up, Stand Up

I used to be that kid... you know, the one that would hide and give up for fear of failure. I was forced to learn to play the piano, get extra math and English tutoring as well as being pushed to excel academically. I did none of these things well, I admit. And, I'm still uncomfortable with failure but with age, I've gotten better at accepting both--a certain level of 'failure' as well as redirecting the fear to something that will help push me to succeeding. Sometimes brilliantly and other times not so much.

No, I didn't have a sudden near-death experience to illicit a fire under my arse but I've been left with my own thoughts about success and failure in a broader term and realized that I can sit here with the fear keeping me seated; or I can get up and do something about it and take control, and either work to excel or stare fear in the face and make the active choice to do what I can and still fail anyways. But, at least I tried.

What am I referring to? I'm on my way to my first piano lesson (again), tonight. Renewing my musical relationship, is on my "bucket list" and naturally, with the way things have been going, I've taken the decision that I want to revive my dormant memory and skills as now's as good a time as any. When I was being coerced to take it, I struggled with always being much less capable than my (younger) brother; he picked up the sight-reading and the tempos and scales like a duck to water. I, on the other hand was like a cod fish on land: totally out of my element. So, I mentally gave up. I figured it would be sufficient to muddle through to complete my RCM grade 8 and stop. I didn't have any interest to do more but figured that at least I 'accomplished' something. This uncomfortable sense of 'accomplishment' I garnered though, stayed with me in the back of my mind reminding me that I didn't really deserve to feel good about being able to say I completed my grade 8; I could barely sight-read. I have not touched the piano in over a decade now and we have two pianos at home: a grand and a small upright.

But, as my friend Dave reminds me, "You're an adult now. You can play whatever you want.". So, my decision is to start up bi-weekly lessons with a local teacher at the Piano Studio Etobicoke. My game plan is to hone and develop my abilities so that I am able to play the new scores I bought yesterday at Song & Script Music Store. I've always wanted to be able to play some of the greatest songs both classically and on-screen or stage and this is my chance to get back 'on stage'.