September 23, 2006 at 9:22 PM

ASYO rehersal was this morning. That was four well-spent hours. I enjoyed most of it very much.

My section coach was not as intimidating today as he was at Franklin Pond Chamber Music. I don't know why I was scared of him at my audition.

I have a large pile of music that I have collected in my office. it is a nightmare. I have to clean it up this weekend, and I really don't want to, but I need to.

And, I am now hooked on slow practice. For three days, I practiced the first movement of Lalo slowly (always qn=40-60), and now, I can play all of the runs in tune at tempo.

Instead of "learning" a piece and then having to go back through and clean everything up (say for an audition? )using slow practice, I will just go ahead and learn it slowly.

It is much easier because you have time to notice all of your movements. You can make corrections as you need to, and you stay very relaxed.

I wish I had done this sooner. It takes a lot of patience and focus, but the amount of work put into a piece practiced slowly is much less than have to go back and clean things up.

It is things like this that remind me that I am still a student... a very inexperienced student.

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