Happy 4th of July!

Hope you had a great 4th weekend. Mine was ok. I definitely slowed down a bit this weekend on the practicing, partly because I actually didn't have the time, and partly because it is a holiday weekend after all.

Saturday's memory progress (July 2, 2011):

Chopin Op.17 Mazurka, no.1 - 0.4/2 pages or 20%
Op.17 no.4 - 0.33/3 pages or 11%
Ravel Waltz No.3 - 0.4/3 pages or 13%
Ginastera Mvt 1 - 4.5/7 pages or 64%
Beethoven - 7.66/11 pages or 70%

Sunday I basically just maintained what was already memorized.

Today (July 4, 2011):

Chopin #1 - 0.6/2 pages or 30%
#4 - 1/3 pages or 33%
Ravel Waltz #3 - 1/3 pages or 33%
Ginastera mvt 1 - 4.83/7 pages or 69%

And... Crap! Writing this, I just realized that I forgot Beethoven AGAIN. Poor Ludwig. I have to stop doing that. Tomorrow I will start with Beethoven and learn the rest of that 8th page!

Decided to wait til tomorrow to paint my nails again. That Essie I used last week was kind of a fail. It needed pretty constant touching up/redoing. Sometimes it would just peel off! I'm back to a Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish this week. Stay tuned to see what color!

TGIF!!!

Ginastera mvt 1 - 4.33/7 pages or 62%
Beethoven Op.34 - 7.5/11 pages or 68%
Chopin Op.17 No.3 - 100% MEMORIZED!!!
Ravel Waltz No.2 - 100% MEMORIZED!!!

Thursday's Notes

Was sooo tired all day as a result of my Jaleo salt-induced coma from last night. Apparently the DC location is better than the Crystal City one, but I don't know if I want to even try that out. Each dish was saltier than the other. ONE dish saved the meal - the simplest appetizer on the menu. Pan de Tomate - Bread with tomato smushed and smeared all over it. That was delicious. And that's all I should have ordered.

Today's Progress:

Chopin Op.17 #2 - 100% MEMORIZED!!!
Chopin Op.17 #3 - 1.33/2 pages or 67%
Ravel Waltz #2 - 2.2/2.6 pages or 85%
Ginastera mvt 1 - 3.33/7 pages or 48%

Took a break from memorizing any more Beethoven and just reemphasized the 5th variation. The 6th looks a little scary (aka pain in the butt) so I figured I'd wait until tomorrow to start it.

Ravel gets a little more comfortable under my fingers every day, but it's definitely taking its sweet time. I've got 2 more lines left to learn of Waltz #2, so slowly but surely, I'll get there. It's more motivating for me to count progress one waltz at a time, since the whole set is 25 pages.

The 2nd Chopin mazurka in e minor is SOOOO BEAUTIFUL. I think Op.17 is my favorite set of mazurkas. There are only four in the set, so I'm almost 50% done learning the set :) Oh! And my music finally shipped from www.burtnco.com today! So I don't have to worry about downloading the other two mazurkas from the CUA library. Although I still might.

Any fun plans for the 4th? I think I'll be spending the day at the piano :-)

Yesterday's Progress

Last night I broke out of what's become my 90-day routine (of vegging on couch or reading, too tired to go anywhere) and went to Jaleo with my friend. This isn't my restaurant blog so I won't go into detail, but let me just say that I'm still recovering from the salt coma I was in after a sad set of tapas last night. Needless to say, I forgot to blog!

So! Yesterday's memory progress:

Chopin Op.17 No.2 - 1.2/2 pages or 60%
Chopin Op.17 No.3 - 1/2 pages or 50%
Ginastera mvt 1 - 3/7 pages or 43%
Ravel Waltz #2 - 1.6/2.6 pages or 62%

aaaaand....
I realized yesterday that I completely forgot about Beethoven the day before, so yesterday I did a Beethoven catch-up, plus more memory!

Beethoven Variations - 7.17/11 pages or 65% - I have memorized all of Variation #5 - this means that all I have left of the Beethoven to memorize is the last variation and the coda! Woo! (Of course this last variation/coda is longer than all the other variations.)

Hopefully my morning caffe' latte will wake me out of this salted groggy state and I will start today's practicing sooner rather than later.

WOO HOO!!!

Yippee! The Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #11 is memorized!
The picture shows me very happy, and a little tired, at the end of my practicing today.

I'm still waiting for the Polish National edition of the Chopin Mazurkas and the Durand Ravel edition. Apparently the Chopin has been ready since last week, but it's the Ravel that's holding up the mailing. Not wanting to wait any longer for the Chopin, I remembered that the Catholic University library has an online database of classical scores. I checked, and printed off Op.17 Nos. 2 and 3 of the mazurkas.
Memory Progress as of today, 6/28/11:

Liszt - 100% MEMORIZED!!!
Ginastera mvt 1 - 1.5/7 pages or 21%
Ravel Waltz #2 - 1.2/2.6 pages or 46%
Chopin Mazurka Op.17 no.2 in e minor - 0.8/2 pages or 40%
Mazurka Op.17 no.3 in A-flat Major - .33/2 pages or 17%

STILL MEMORIZED:
Ginastera mvts 2 and 4
Ravel Waltz #1

NAIL POLISH NOTES:
The Essie does not seem to stay on my nails as well as the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure did last week. I also found the Sally was easier to apply, due to the flat brush. I'll probably have to redo at least the thumbs tomorrow. (They take a beating on the piano.)

Liszt memorized in 1 more day!

Still making headway on my memorization progress!

As of today, June 27, 2011, I have memorized:

Liszt Rhapsody - 8/9 pages or 89%
Beethoven Variations - 6.5/11 pages or 59%
Ginastera 1st mvt - 2/7 pages or 29%
2nd and 4th mvts - totally memorized!
Ravel Waltz #2 - 0.6/2.6 pages or 23%

Liszt will be completely memorized tomorrow, because the last page I have to learn is almost exactly like the page I learned today! Woo!
I've started learning the 5th Beethoven variation, which is a funeral march. It's actually very fun! And even a little funny :)
Ravel Waltz #2 - it is so beautiful, and it reminded me why I chose this set of waltzes. Really lovely.
As far as my bright orange (Braziliant) nail polish goes, it's a little weird to watch my fingers on the keys. Sometimes when my hands are moving quickly, I see green. Which is weird, since there's no green nearby. Hmph, science.

2nd week already?!?

Today was Day 9. Tomorrow will be 80 days remaining, and I can't believe that!

Today I did a lot of memory "maintenance" but also memorized more of the Liszt and Ginastera.

Liszt: 7.6/9 pages or 84%

Ginastera mvt 1: 1.55/7 pages or 22%

I took a break from memorizing more Beethoven and Ravel today, and instead just focused on becoming more comfortable with what I've already memorized. For the Beethoven, I only have Variations 5 and 6 left, so I feel pretty good about that.

I took my Fairy Teal nail polish off a couple of days ago with the intention of reapplying, but never got around to it. I think I've been feeling a little bummed the last couple days while practicing, and I'm wondering if that bright nail color wasn't actually motivating me to keep going. Well, we will find out this week with my new color, Essie's Braziliant! I almost didn't find the color but luckily spotted a special display at CVS all by itself. I'm going to paint tomorrow.

I've also chosen the color for the following week, but you'll have to wait and see. (Hint: It was an Allure readers' choice bright color.)

Confession: I still haven't read all the Ravel notes, etc in the Alfred edition. But I will... soon...