Today’s Accomplishments
- This is day 1 of the full exercise, though I experimented with a couple of other variations yesterday
- Made it somewhat comfortably up to Altissimo A and almost to Bb. Goal is to get up to super-high C
- For my sloppy fingers, I still prefer the alternative form. This one is good for over the break, and also for maintaining consistent sound across registers. It also turns out to be a good yardstick for my endurance progress.
Chart Explanation
To recap briefly, I have a somewhat loosely defined goals for short- and long-term endurance:
- Short Term: comfortably play 4-bar phrases at 60 bpm without breathing within the phrase. That equates to a 16-second phrase.
- Long Term: comfortably play a 3-minute piece at 60 bpm with no need for extra rest between phrases. Again assuming 4-bar phrases.
I analyzed the recording to determine when I breathed, and for how long — excluding the altissimo part at the end where I was hesitating to find the right notes. Looks like I could do 8-10 seconds at the beginning — well below my goal. Moreover, it deteriorated significantly over time.
I wasn’t really thinking about breathing when I played the exercise. Tomorrow I will try to be more conscious of breathing.
Endurance Chart, May 22, 2023
Day 1 of the full returning chromatics exercise as Hiedi sees it
Explanation of the exercise
Alternate form that makes it easier to focus on sloppy finger movements. Here the intent should be play each pattern 3x in a row correctly.