What Are You Practising / Composing Now?

[Suffolkcoastal]

Its good that you get comments/praise showing that people are engaging with you. I get hardly any comments at all, I just have to presume my music is so bad that they're embarrassed to tell me.

[Dave2002]

Its good that you get comments/praise showing that people are engaging with you. I get hardly any comments at all, I just have to presume my music is so bad that they're embarrassed to tell me.

Perhaps people don't know where to look for it. Is it your full time work?

[Suffolkcoastal]

It perhaps should have been my full-time job or at least something musical anyway, but instead I just compose in my spare time from my normal full-time job.

[Richard Barrett]

Its good that you get comments/praise showing that people are engaging with you. I get hardly any comments at all, I just have to presume my music is so bad that they're embarrassed to tell me.

Is your score available to view anywhere?

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm rather sorry Joseph K decided, it seems, to give up on his jazz guitar, because since lockdown, my own efforts at the piano have improved by leaps and bounds, and I would assume from reports that others have discovered their talents improved by the opportunity presented to concentrate more on specific areas of activity. At last I'm sometimes even excited by my own playing! This morning I started on the standard "There'll Never Be Another You" during an ad break on TV, and the found I just couldn't let up, moving from tune to tune, prompted by goodness knows what unblocking process was underway in my usually sluggish brain, including several I hadn't attempted previously, playing as if possessed!

[Joseph K]

I'm rather sorry Joseph K decided, it seems, to give up on his jazz guitar, because since lockdown, my own efforts at the piano have improved by leaps and bounds, and I would assume from reports that others have discovered their talents improved by the opportunity presented to concentrate more on specific areas of activity. At last I'm sometimes even excited by my own playing! This morning I started on the standard "There'll Never Be Another You" during an ad break on TV, and the found I just couldn't let up, moving from tune to tune, prompted by goodness knows what unblocking process was underway in my usually sluggish brain, including several I hadn't attempted previously, playing as if possessed!

It's good that your jazz piano skills have seen palpable improvement.

You can see in previous posts how I was defeated by plectrum-picking technique. Then you can also read that there was a brief time after that where I told myself I'd be a fingerstyle jazz guitarist - that turned out to be very short-lived since I found myself simply overawed of the scale of the task of solo jazz guitar playing and also I was sick of playing over backing tracks and sounding no good. In a nutshell, my jazz guitar playing was hit and miss - mostly miss.

A day or two ago I discovered - or rather, put a name to - a particular hurdle I'd encountered with my classical guitar plucking-hand technique - focal dystonia. This is basically an involuntary movement, typically in the hand and experienced by musicians and sports-people; for me, it manifested in my middle finger coming back into the palm of the hand and causing some discomfort quite quickly. Now, I think there is more than one type of focal dystonia, from what I've read - there is one where very advanced players for no apparent reason start experiencing it, and it's very debilitating with no apparent cure. Then there is me who - putting aside the fact that I experienced it when I played classical guitar before - has identified it quite early and I've seen improvement in excising this defect within a day or two of discovering I have it. This makes me think that (and this chimes with one or two videos I've seen about the matter, though not, for example, the wikipedia article) at least in my experience, focal dystonia is not so much a neurological disorder and more simply a psychological or behavioural one. So, like I say, by thinking in making very economical movements with my middle finger and relaxing and playing slowly I feel confident I can cultivate this good technical habit so I won't have to think about it.

And, I absolutely love practising BWV 998... such a sublime little suite...

[Serial_Apologist]

It's good that your jazz piano skills have seen palpable improvement.

You can see in previous posts how I was defeated by plectrum-picking technique. Then you can also read that there was a brief time after that where I told myself I'd be a fingerstyle jazz guitarist - that turned out to be very short-lived since I found myself simply overawed of the scale of the task of solo jazz guitar playing and also I was sick of playing over backing tracks and sounding no good. In a nutshell, my jazz guitar playing was hit and miss - mostly miss.

A day or two ago I discovered - or rather, put a name to - a particular hurdle I'd encountered with my classical guitar plucking-hand technique - focal dystonia. This is basically an involuntary movement, typically in the hand and experienced by musicians and sports-people; for me, it manifested in my middle finger coming back into the palm of the hand and causing some discomfort quite quickly. Now, I think there is more than one type of focal dystonia, from what I've read - there is one where very advanced players for no apparent reason start experiencing it, and it's very debilitating with no apparent cure. Then there is me who - putting aside the fact that I experienced it when I played classical guitar before - has identified it quite early and I've seen improvement in excising this defect within a day or two of discovering I have it. This makes me think that (and this chimes with one or two videos I've seen about the matter, though not, for example, the wikipedia article) at least in my experience, focal dystonia is not so much a neurological disorder and more simply a psychological or behavioural one. So, like I say, by thinking in making very economical movements with my middle finger and relaxing and playing slowly I feel confident I can cultivate this good technical habit so I won't have to think about it.

And, I absolutely love practising BWV 998... such a sublime little suite...

Well that's good to hear about the focal dystonia, Joseph K - a term I hadn't heard of before, though I had a similar experience about two years ago, waking up to find my right middle finger firmly pointed into the palm of the hand, unable to be moved voluntarily, and so having to be unbent by forcing it back with my other hand. The condition then righted itself later during the day, and luckily hasn't been repeated since. However, I am now intermittently experiencing muscular pains in both hands and wrists - though never, fortunately, in both hands at the same time - but managing to alleviate this by fairly vigorous exercises, opening and closing the hands while revolving the wrists, and applying Deep Heat gel, containing Ibuprofen, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It may come down to age in my case, or heavy-handedness on the computer keyboard - tenosynovitis or repetitive strain injury - but, while not apparently recommended, grabbing or pulling at anything heavy and bulky requiring extending the hand span - such as dragging down a mattress which has slid up the bed - and carrying carrier bags heavy with shopping, seems to help, since the problem, which comes and goes in any case, has often disappeared next day. Musicians and people needing a firm grip for work purposes must suffer considerably from the unpredictability of this, I would think.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Is your score available to view anywhere?

They are all on Musescore with midi-playbacks - 42 works in total. My style is basically fairly tonal.

[Joseph K]

Well that's good to hear about the focal dystonia, Joseph K - a term I hadn't heard of before, though I had a similar experience about two years ago, waking up to find my right middle finger firmly pointed into the palm of the hand, unable to be moved voluntarily, and so having to be unbent by forcing it back with my other hand. The condition then righted itself later during the day, and luckily hasn't been repeated since. However, I am now intermittently experiencing muscular pains in both hands and wrists - though never, fortunately, in both hands at the same time - but managing to alleviate this by fairly vigorous exercises, opening and closing the hands while revolving the wrists, and applying Deep Heat gel, containing Ibuprofen, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It may come down to age in my case, or heavy-handedness on the computer keyboard - tenosynovitis or repetitive strain injury - but, while not apparently recommended, grabbing or pulling at anything heavy and bulky requiring extending the hand span - such as dragging down a mattress which has slid up the bed - and carrying carrier bags heavy with shopping, seems to help, since the problem, which comes and goes in any case, has often disappeared next day. Musicians and people needing a firm grip for work purposes must suffer considerably from the unpredictability of this, I would think.

Sorry to hear of your hand troubles, SA.

I was somewhat alarmed when I saw that this thing is called 'dystonia' since I associated this word with oculogyric crisis - a very unpleasant condition, as I'm only too aware of.

[Richard Barrett]

They are all on Musescore with midi-playbacks - 42 works in total. My style is basically fairly tonal.

Thanks... I just went to the Musescore site but it wasn't clear to me where people are publishing music there. Could you maybe give us a link?

[Richard Barrett]

there is more than one type of focal dystonia, from what I've read - there is one where very advanced players for no apparent reason start experiencing it, and it's very debilitating with no apparent cure

Indeed a guitarist I know who has specialised in the kind of music I'm doing has recently had to stop playing because the 3rd and 4th left hand fingers are basically not functioning. I was wondering whether that was a permanent condition or whether he can expect some improvement over time but I didn't feel like asking him, it must be an awful thing to happen.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm on a quest to learn the piano pieces I tried to learn as an overambitious teenager, but never persevered. These include:

Chaminade: Automne
Dohnanyi: Rhapsody no. 3 in C (I need a Bosendorfer Imperial piano to play a couple of very low G's in this one).
Beethoven: Eroica Variations
Ireland: The Towing Path
Mendelssohn: Andante and Rondo Capriccioso

... and many others.

[BBMmk2]

Did you do the whole symphony? Well done!

The 6th movement and final movement. It’s going to be played in Indiana.

[cloughie]

The 6th movement and final movement. It’s going to be played in Indiana.

As a sideline you could add an arrangement of ‘I’ll be seeing you’ with a vocal line!

[cloughie]

I'm on a quest to learn the piano pieces I tried to learn as an overambitious teenager, but never persevered. These include:

Chaminade: Automne
Dohnanyi: Rhapsody no. 3 in C (I need a Bosendorfer Imperial piano to play a couple of very low G's in this one).
Beethoven: Eroica Variations
Ireland: The Towing Path
Mendelssohn: Andante and Rondo Capriccioso

... and many others.

I’m persevering with ABRSM Grade V pieces which I have almost got right having not had a piano lesson for 13 months.