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no fatigue in rehearsing all octave-passages in Liszt's sonata, and even, once..., playing them with no mistakes.

Practicing for hour long Christmas program of arrangements by Bayless, Wellstood, Coates, Iles, Garson, Deford, Zielisnki, Rosenblatt, etc. to be performed 12 times at two senior centers starting in December. An elderly woman comes up to the piano and starts singing wildly off key as I play. She tells me the story of how her Mother promised their piano to whichever child learned how to play the best. Unfortunately, their home had a fire and the piano was destroyed. Another elderly man comes up and gazes seemingly transfixed by my performance.

Practicing for hour and a quarter long Christmas program of Xmasarrangements by Bayless, Wellstood, Coates, Iles, Garson, Deford, Zielisnki, Rosenblatt, etc. to be performed 12 times at two senior centers starting in December. An elderly woman comes up to the piano and starts singing wildly off key as I play. She tells me the story of how her Mother promised their piano to whichever child learned how to play the best. Unfortunately, their home had a fire and the piano was destroyed. Another elderly man comes up and gazes seemingly transfixed by my performance.

Yesterday I landed my first paid piano gig. It's just providing some background music to an Art Exhibition opening, but you've gotta start somewhere, right?

Today I got a chance to play a 1914 Dolmetsch clavichord.

I came home from doing errands this afternoon, and my dog, Scherzo, was so happy to see me that she repeatedly jumped up to eye level with me and barked in my face. Actually, this is a daily occurrence, and it never fails to make me happy. Now she's asleep at my feet.

Tomasino

After weeks on a plateau, I'm finally making progress on the last few pages of Ballade #3. Best of all, my teacher has released me from my self-imposed cage and I am beginning to understand that I am "allowed" to express the music much more than I had been. I was always reticent to over-express and as a result, I under-expressed. It's very liberating and I'm liking what I'm hearing, which is making me very, very happy. I've almost conquered the rushing thing too. God, my Liszt sounded really heartrending today!

Tomasino - the dog thing - here too, only times 2! As I opened the door from the garage into the house, one cocker was literally climbing on top of the other to be the first to say hello.

Edit: one more thing: two couples I know, have announced they will soon be getting married, thanks to the passage of Washington State Referendum 74. That makes me happy.

Just attended a fantastic all-Chopin concert by Jeffrey Siegel. It was particularly great not only because of his fantastic performances, but because of his patented conversing with the audience before and after performances about the history of the programmed pieces (in addition to an unexpected encore of op. 64 no. 2 - which turned out to be the best performance of the piece I've ever heard), breaking the norm.

It's close to two years that I haven't had a piano at home. I bought one a short time ago at Emmaüs, which is similar in some ways to the Salvation Army. Cost me 50 bucks.

An upright it is. Made in England, E.C. Phillips and Co, Hackney. Never heard of E.C. Phillips and Co, and never been to Hackney, but I think that with a little tender loving care this is going to be a great instrument. I've had it since Saturday, it's been breathing the air of our home, getting to know the kids, getting to know the odors and the temperatures, the sunlight that streams in the mornings. It is definitely getting accustomed to its new home, I can feel it relaxing, settling in.

So it will be for a few weeks, and then we'll see about getting it into shape.

My rehearsal with my flautist friend went really well :3

I played through a new piece John Thompson book 1 The Cuckoo, so if I can do it once, I can do it countless times to bring it closr to perfection.

While browsing in a junk shop this am, I found a small side table of mahogany that I can dedicate to my music collection and do away with the "piling" system I now have in the bench and piano top.

What made me happy: Listened to a bit of the YouTube link Dave Horne posted featuring George Shearing. What a great sound that guy had!

What a nice topic!

I try to find something that makes me happy each day and usually I manage to do so.

Today, I passed my chamber music exam. Got some really good comments from my teacher. It was not perfect but it was a step up from the previous lesson when me and the violinist were dragging the tempo behind the performance level. Now it's just right and I only have a few spots to fix in the sonata we are playing. Unfortunately for me this was only for the first movement. Now I have to begin the second movement which is an Allegro and the technical level is much higher which means I will need lots of work to achieve it. It was so nice to see my piano professor play it today, she was showing me how it should sound and if you saw her you'd be happy too because she was enjoying herself immensely while reading it for me and it was quite interesting to see someone who genuinely loves music and is an excellent performing artist, do their magic. I want to be like that one day too.

Another thing that made me happy is that I got to talk with my favorite singer and got to tell her personally what I think about one of her songs. I also got a comment from her on a lesson I made for playing her song. She was delighted that I took the time to record it.

Also I got my results back from my piano methodology class (how to teach piano) and I have 100% on the exam and the professor complimented me on it and also she told my piano professor which also brought it up today during the lesson which was nice. She was very proud that I am doing so well.

Nothing

That I'm finally starting to fade away from this spiral of chaotic thoughts.

Going back to Rachmaninoff 1st sonata somehow is helping me become a human being again.

Went Steinway shopping with my student's dad. Good times!

My teacher told me I'm ready to start working on Rachmaninov's Prelude in C Sharp Minor!

Musically? I used the melody hound to id a passage a friend had running thru her head. ( Brahms' 3rd, 3rd )

My music for arrived from sheetmusicplus. Boy, they sure can suck you in with those constant 20% off coupons. Doing a piano duet at a luncheon.

Amazing people.