Making Progress

By Vyacheslav Mishchenko

Well, my lesson went surprisingly well last time. I was able to play a duet with my teacher (almost) smoothly and he even commented on that, saying I seemed less nervous than previously. I agreed that I was, though I couldn't explain why. Perhaps we were both in a better mood for reasons unrelated to playing. That's how it goes sometimes.

I said that I noticed that I played better after not playing in the afternoon and he suggested I try taking a day off once a week. I was reluctant, but I did try, though I ended up playing anyway each day, though for less time. I'm not sure that helped, but I found I was afraid I would get out of the habit which seems to be what is sustaining me right now. Now, however, I've gotten into a habit of playing less time which is not so good.

Despite that, I'm improving, and find I can now play some of the chords that were quite difficult a few weeks ago. So I've been working on that--fingering--as well as coordination, another challenging area for me. Things are coming along--slowly.