Weekly Wishes, Revisited

Ok, people.  I am back in New York.  It's been very refreshing to be gone most of the summer.  Now to recombobulate my discombobulated self.

To the garden variety blog reader, it will seem as if I've been very flaky these past couple months.  Those more closely acquainted with my life, however, will know that some matters of business have required my attention, and that I've been on the road an awful lot since about mid-June.  (Jacksonville, Cape Cod, Denver, El Paso, Silver City, Tucson, Phoenix, Memphis, the Hamptons... rough life I lead.)

Weekly Wishes require consistent access to a piano.  My little 25-key midi controller is fine for half-ass-memorizing the basic structure of a song, but isn't sufficient for learning to play a piano transcription.  Weekly Wishes also require what I will call Advanced Discipline.  Patience.  Perseverance.  Attention to detail.  

(Bleh.  I have to give myself a C- at the midterm... )

Last year was a survey course of Self-Discipline with my song-a-day project - just show up and do it, whether or not I feel like or not, even if some days I'm just going through the motions.  Weekly Wishes are harder, because the timeline is longer, and the while the goal (learn to play a piano piece well enough to tape) is more concrete, the path to get there is longer and more nebulous.  While song-a-day was almost exclusively about Process, weekly wishes have an element of Product (videos that are non-cringeworthy enough to post online).  

It was easy to cop out when I was traveling and only had my little wee keyboard, especially because I really did miss learning a song a day.  I wish I had time to do both.  But as long as I have regular practice time on a full-size keyboard, it's time to work the discipline and the details.  

To that end, I'm picking up a project I tabled months ago for logistical reasons - my Lullabye guys are still around and interested in recording with me, so I'm going to revisit that song and awesome piano solo and hopefully record the next Weekly Wish video sometime next week!

Weekly Wish 05/23/11: FAIL

I played Nat's recital last week, and we did enjoy performing "Every Time We Say Goodbye."  I also played "'Round Midnight" at In the Pocket's recital yesterday.  Both performances were videotaped.  I don't really feel like posting either performance.  They were ok, audiences enjoyed them, but I didn't accomplish what I'd wanted.  That's what happens when you only put an hour into something very detailed like music - audiences will still dig it, if you're a pro and manage to make it musical. But You the Pro will not be satisfied with the details of an hour's work. 

The two main reasons I'm doing this Weekly Wish project:
I wanted to continue growing as a musician the way I did last year with my song-a-day project, but
A) I wanted flexibility to have a little more of a life
and
B) I wanted to go into deeper musical detail. 

I have gotten to have a little more of a life, since I'm not constantly thinking "I gotta go home and learn my song".  I know you all really miss how much cathartic personal stuff leaked onto my blog last year.  Maybe sometime I'll share some haiku I've written over the past few months. 

Regarding deeper musical detail... it's great.  Yeah, it's awesome.  WHEN I put the time in, it's fantastic.  But I haven't been real clear with myself on what my goal is every week; it's kinda open-ended.  Consequently, it's real easy to just... have a life. 

And of course, it's easier make the choice to focus on career-work than it was last year, with my maniacal but simple directive to memorize a pop song every day.  So these past couple weeks haven't all been fail: aside from being busy enough that I can afford a couple slower weeks during the summer, I got to music direct, play and "orchestrate" (for piano, violin and cello) a production of The Secret Garden.  I got to meet the composer and original music director, both of whom seemed pleased with my work. 

But until I'm working at a level where I'm constantly being challenged to grow at my paying work, I need these little projects.  So this week's catch-up week (Oscar Peterson, and maybe Nat and I can re-record), and then next week I start again.