I’m only 4 lines of 10 into this second Bach minuet, so it’s likely that in today’s lesson I’ll get through the rest.  I don’t go ahead by myself – I feel I have plenty to polish, and I expect Teacher to dole out the new stuff as she thinks I’m ready.

I think my patience in my musical pursuit can be traced to my martial pursuit.  2014 is my tenth anniversary year training in a rank-based system of karate, with curricular components attached to each rank.  Since probably about year 3.5, I’ve been at the spot where there are years between the ranks I earn.  And, interestingly, perhaps, I do not get antsy to learn new things; I love the ones I’m working on.  There’s so much to learn from each piece of the curriculum, and stringing it all together (which I never do) would make for a very, very long practice session anyway, so it’s not like I’m ever at a loss for what to do!

As to my budding Suzuki repertoire, that is indeed how I warm up these days – I go through all the songs I’ve learned to date once or twice, then I dig in and focus in on my newest piece.  I have plenty to practice.  I also do a physical body warm up after I’m through about 10 or so of the warm-up tunes.  I stretch out my hands and arms and legs and lower back, explore the full range of motion of my shoulders and neck, and in general make sure I’m as loose as I can be.  Of course that stuff all comes from my martial pursuit too.

The crossovers between the musical and the martial are myriad – I expect to write quite a bit more on the topic going forward.

But being only halfway into a piece does have me itching for the other half – it’s kind of like walking around with just one sock on.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan