Time practiced

10 minutes

Scales practiced

• One octave A, without slurs
• One octave D, without slurs
• One octave G, without slurs
• One octave A, with slurs
• One octave D, with slurs
• One octave G, with slurs

Arpeggios practiced

• One octave A
• One octave D
• One octave G

Techniques practiced

• Mindfulness of elbow position when doing string crossings
• Mindfulness of finger positions, trying to keep a relaxed finger curve and not straightening up my fingers every time I change notes
• Keeping my fingers in that relaxed curved position when changing strings
• A little bit of left hand rehearsal when working with the B part of Feller from Fortune
• More strategic placement of slurs to improve tune flow and ease the changing of bow directions

Tunes practiced

• Blarney Pilgrim
• Feller from Fortune

Commentary

Bit of a shaky practice, but I’m coming out of last week being stupid work-wise, and a weekend where I had to do additional day job work as well. So I wasn’t as on top of things in this practice as I’d like.

But this is a situation where it’s just helpful to take a step back and remind myself that it’s okay if I play something incorrectly, I just need to be a little more patient if I’m tired and/or stressed, and think my way carefully through what might have caused me to make a mistake. And at the same time, to not work the problem too hard. On the grounds that if I keep trying the same thing while I’m tired, if I keep playing it wrong that’d make me learn how to do it wrong rather than how to do it right.

In other words, don’t be too hard on myself if a practice goes badly. Don’t push it, me!

So even though my practice today was a bit of a mess, I got in my ten minutes. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!