Musings from the San Jose airport

I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home. I had every intention of practicing while I was here, but with a sore throat that threatens to turn into the cold my husband brought back from Ireland, it just didn't work out. I just crashed last night, and this morning my day started pretty early, so no time in this morning to practice. I didn't even do the rhythm exercises that I've been trying to work on. I did play around with holding a pen with the modified bow hold that I've been working on and I can really feel the difference in how much control I feel that I have with my hand.

I was noticing the difference on Sunday when I played with the Sunday chamber group - a fuller, louder tone than I've had before and more control while crossing strings. We played one of the Brandenburg concertos - it was my first time playing through it and I know that there were passages that a year ago I would not have been able to play on a first reading.

One of the things I've tried to do on a periodic basis is to go back and play pieces that I played months ago or a year or so ago, to measure my progress. Progress for me seems to come in little bursts, where for weeks or months it seems like nothing is happening, and then seemingly out of the blue I notice a large improvement. It's nice to go back and play pieces I've played a while ago and to find that they're much easier to play now! And I sound better!

aargh - the flight is going to be late again. I take these flights enough that I know many of the other regular commuters who do the Seattle-Bay Area thing, many of the flight attendants, and have my favorite car rental return agent at Hertz. It's nice to chat with everyone but I'm not sure this familiarity is a good thing.