Thursday 2 hrs & 15 minutes

Yes, I got past 2 hours today! Spent the morning at school and the rest of the day played with my daughter Chloe until it was nap time. It feels good to be back on a practice routine. It really shows when the practice is consecutive. I'm still doing the scales up to # 8 in the Carl Flesch System ( I love this book!). The thirds are actually getting smoother but still have a long ways to go. Schradieck is amazing. I notice a major difference in my left hand! I'm only doing the first 3 pages. The 3rd page is difficult to play fast so I'm at met=70 whereas the first two pages met=110.

The first page of the Rondo is difficult. I'm still struggling with the spiccato section of the first page. I have a long ways to go still. I really have to practice SLOWLY because when I speed it up the shifting gets a little out of tune which means I'm not ready to speed it up yet. The last page is super fast met=120, I could only do 80. It is a lot of fun to play. I can't wait till it's ready to perform. It is a dream of mine to be able to perform this piece. The Winter is getting better. It is difficult to get in tune and to sound clean because it is so fast! It's easy to get a stiff right arm when playing the fast staccato and fast runs. I have to remember to stay relaxed I love it! I'm taking it slow, slow, slow, slow etc!!!!

I got to remember to be patient! It is easy to get discouraged because I want to it to be perfect already but I have to remember that I've only been working on the Rondo for 2 weeks plus I've only been back into practice since last October. Also when we moved in November I had to stop my practicing because of my move. So really my serious practice only started a few months ago. I think it might take me a 3 or 4 years to get to a concert level. Maybe sooner, we'll see! I will start performing sooner, but only small performances. It's exciting!!!