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Well, you barely hear from me for weeks and then I can't keep quiet....


Today my nextdoor neighbour came over for coffee (note, not the downstairs neighbour, the one from my floor) - and I played my sonatina for her!

I flubbed a number of times, but..but...I kept going and recovered every time.

This is definitely an accomplishment! woohoo!

Sounds great! You were probably close the whole time

Congratulations, Cheryl! That is an achievement on two fronts: playing something new for someone, and playing through flubs under pressure. Great Job!

The devil made me screw up at lesson time this week too!!

Wonderful Jim!

I was going to make it my avatar, but it didn't show up well, so I've settled for putting it in my siggy, and this way I get to keep my pink booties too


(is anyone else hearing the voice of Flip Wilson right now? lol)

(now of course I'm wondering why it didn't show up well as an avatar but is ok as a siggy decoration? oh well, ...)

Achievement - being ok.

It may be a bit disgusting but here's the detail.

Experienced sudden Vertigo followed by vomit. It turned out to be Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). I turned my head sharply to right in bed to avoid collision with my big dog Charlie jumping up on me. It's his ritual to wake me up if I'm still in bed past 6:00AM. Unfortunately it caused some particle (natural part of inner ear) to fall into horizontal canal (balancing). I felt like being on a roller coaster ride falling down into the abyss. It turned out to be benign and the doctor fixed me by "clinical maneuver", basically jerking my head around. So after so many pukes later I'm fine now and count my blessing. Have a happy and healthy year!

Farmgirl, I've never heard of BPPV... What a story.
I expect you to stay well. And give a punishment to the dog, please!

FarmGirl - that's horrible! I bet Charlie felt terrible! How fortunate that the dr was able to set you straight so quickly and easily. It must have been real torture until you got to see him though.

Charlie's bark may or may not be worse than his bite, but his jumping is definitely a problem!

Hi Cheryl and Carlos,
Charlie is afraid to jump on the bed now. The whole thing, my scream for help, fall and vomit, completely scared him off. Also Emma the smart dog is on guard for mummy now.

Here's Charlie feeling sorry.

FarmGirl - I am glad you were able to get quick medical help, and you are better! Charlie is adorable. It is hard being a rambunctious boy, you know. One is alway getting in trouble.

Glad to hear that you are OK... Indeed, count your blessings, as it can be so much worse:

My wife had/has something similar in terms of symptoms, called Chronic Labyrinthitis, which was caused by permanent damage from an infection of the inner ear. Bedridden for months (lost her job of course) and unable to drive for ~3 years, it took a very long time to get back to a basically normal life. That was only possible due to finding the right specialist team (thank you Mass. General in Boston) that offered some prospect for recovery, which was via neurological exercises to train her mind to compensate for the fact that her inner ear is basically sending gibberish back to her brain.

It is now 15+ years later and still she can only drive on two lane roads, so that if a sudden dizzy spell hits she can pull over without having to cut across traffic. She avoids elevators like the plague.

Glad to hear that your experience with this was mercifully brief!

Farmgirl,

Yikes! Glad you got it straightened out.

I know you won't be too hard on Charlie. Poor guy, just trying to give his mommy some lovin'. Sometimes being low man in the pack is depressing...and a bit bewildering.

In a 1 hour and 45 minute practice session today, I've practiced Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata 1st & 3rd movement (practiced 2nd movement yesterday), and Rachmaninov's C#m, D, Gm, G#m preludes. My hands feel like half an inch bigger now!

Next session will be technical works and Debussy. If I have energy left, perhaps Bach's D minor prelude & fugue book II and/or Chopin's Fantaisie Impromptu.

Am keeping up with my new year resolutions to keep these pieces and technical works under my belt!

Tallguy, I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your wife. It would have been terrible if the symptoms did not go away. Yes I count my blessing.
Jim, thank you for the pic. Charlie is feeling bad. I love him no matter what.

Tubbie, what a productive session you had. You are amazing guy. I've been thinking of you since I started Violin two months ago. My husband picked up viola and I thought I would do violin to keep company. My violin is horrible. So terrible that both dogs leave the room as soon as i start practicing violin! You play both instruments very well.

Farmgirl, best wishes for a fast and full recovery!
BTW, Charlie looks fantastic!

Sorry to hear about your misadventures Farmgirl.

Week 96:: my left hand complains more, so it is very light week of practice. I have been doing the Coursera, Write Like Mozart. However, lesson five was much longer than I expected, so I haven't completed my assignment yet.

Non-piano related, but possibly beneficial is a new mattress. It is memory foam, and may help with my chronic back issues and poor sleep patterns. Another positive is a return to yoga class. Yoga will help with the many minor aches and pains as well as with tension.

FarmGirl,

The string instruments are amazing! It's great you decided to give it a go. Don't worry about the sound for now. Pay attention to your violin hold and bow hold. Make sure they are as tense-less as possible, especially the shoulders and wrists (but not so relaxed that everything becomes floppy). Learning the violin will push your problem-solving skills to a whole new level. Keep it up and all the best!

What book(s) are you using at the moment and are you taking lessons from a violin teacher?

Tubbie - yes we have a wonderful teacher now. He is already our second violin teacher. The first one was less than desirable. She did not teach us how to hold violin etc and just told us to play the 1st piece in the book. We were making those scratchy bad sound and she just marked it "very good" with dates. After the lesson I asked around for a better teacher and switched the current one. He has masters degree in performance, played in orchestra (still does as a part time) and currently pursuing engineering degree at Arizona State University. We have Suzuki book and Essential Elements for strings which we were told to buy by our first teacher. As you mentioned he is helping me with violin and bow hold and posture. I'm working on string crossing without tensing up my shoulders. I will PM you (since this us piano forum) when I have questions. Let me if you have some recommendations for beginner pieces too! Thank you.

That's fantastic FarmGirl! The first teacher sounded really unhelpful (a cheat if I must say). I started with Suzuki book 1 -4 before switching to the Australian syllabus. If I haven't play the violin for a while, I always warm up with my Suzuki pieces, sometime even starting with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars!

I have my problems and bad habits with violin playing too, but I am happy to help where I can. I hope this piano forum is "large" enough to embrace violin discussion topics too :-)