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JimF, nice hug. I need a group hug again tonight. This has nothing to do with the piano practice. Let me just say that my mind is not quiet tonight.

I cam from one of the hardest hit area in Japan by the earthquake. My uncle said that my parents were okay. He lives far away from the epicenter and called them right before telephone went out. The house suffered significant damage, so he said. In addition, the front yard split into two with a large fissure, It’s so scary. It could have been the house. My parents are inland but my aunt lives on the coast and had to evacuate the house within 30 min between the quake and the tsunami. I am so happy her family made it. I just pray for them. My aunt and uncle have frail health. I hope they have the strength to overcome the hardship. My cousin must be heartbroken. She had to leave her beloved Kawaii upright in the house. She won the regional competition as a child and the piano was her baby. Lot’s of things to think about tonight. I would love to hear my parent’s voice. I cannot. Telephone does not work. I tried everything from cell phone to e-mail.

My heart goes out for people still trying to escape. I read about 350 primary school kids trapped in the 3rd floor of the water immersed school building and waiting for rescue. It’s very cold out there. The newspaper said that the kids wrapped themselves up with curtains and huddled together to stay warm. Imagine that.

FarmGirl - my heart goes out to you and your family and friends, and all who are affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. The destruction is overwhelming to see. I'm glad your uncle got to talk with your folks and could let you know they were ok, but it must be awful to not be able to talk with them yourself. I hope your aunt and uncle can come thru this ok, but it must be hard.

Take care, and know that all our thoughts are with you and others tonight.

Cathy

This excited me! I should've posted this here. I had a great, intense week of practice - working on a Beethoven Minuet (resurrected from my childhood), and my latest Joplin piece which is SO much easier than Maple Leaf Rag! I am half way through one and about a third of a way through the other!

I am excited! You guys keep me motivated.

FarmGirl, my prayers go out for you and your loved ones who were devastated by this disaster.

...yes, makes piano playing seem trivial.

Dear Farmgirl, my heart goes out to you, your family and all those hit by this disaster. I hope you manage to speak to your parents soon and that your aunt and uncle are getting all the help they need.
I live far away from my family too and I understand how it tears you apart when you are far away and worried about those you love.

You and yours are in my thoughts and prayers.


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Farmgirl, I hope your family are unharmed. I am always amazed at how fragile we are in the face of nature. We really have to live each day to its fullest. Best wishes to you and yours.

Jim

FarmGirl, you're probably not too concerned about this right now, with your worries about your family in Japan. I hope you get some reassurances soon on their safety and well-being. My thoughts are with you.

But when you come back to thinking about this, I just wanted to let you know that it is not a book, but rather a tri-fold publication, with four pages containing a concise listing of exercises, descriptions, and a cross-reference for which exercises are best for different aspects of your playing that you want to improve.

Update:
I was able to speak to my mother on the phone today. I was really lucky because AT&T and KDDI limited the phone service to the affected area shortly after my call. My mother said that the wall of the living room was gone with their cedar chest (flew out of the wall and destroyed itself on the ground) and the glass windows are all destroyed. She could see the stars now. It’s quite cold there (avg 35 F low 55 High) and going to snow again soon. No central heating, so I imagine that my parents must be bundling up themselves with whatever they have when they sleep. They have no water. That means no drinking water, no shower, no cooking, etc.. My parents in their 70’s have to walk a couple of miles to get water from the humanitarian aid station set up by the municipality. The town's grocery stores re-opened today but there is not enough food for everyone. People wait in line since 5:00 AM to buy food. Mom said it was like a black market after the WWII. I recon no experience is ever wasted. My parents consider themselves very fortunate since there are so many people still trapped in the debris elsewhere in the prefecture. I am yet to reach to my aunt who lives on the coast by phone or even text. I am still praying for her.

I know this has nothing to do with the thread but I thought I better give you guys update. Thank you for your prayers.

Dear Farmgirl - if something this important "has nothing to do with the thread", - which is all about the support we offer each other - then this thread has a problem! Thank you for letting us know you have reached your parents.

Even though you've spoken to them, of course you are still worried. People at their age having to deal with these issues, especially not having drinking water, is very serious business.

I hope you hear news of your aunt - or better yet, that you manage to speak to her yourself.

You and yours, and all those suffering from these multiple disasters, are still in my prayers.

FarmGirl - thank you so much for letting us know. I'll continue to keep you and your family in my thoughts as time goes on.

Cathy

+1

FarmGirl, I'm a bit late getting to this, but you & ShiroKuro have been in my thoughts as I've been watching & hearing the news from Japan since Friday. I hope you've had news of your aunt by now, & that you've been able to keep in contact with your mother.

Because I teach English, I've taught many students from Japan who have since returned home, & I've been concerned about them, too. This morning, I was firing off emails, but most of the addresses are old & out of date. Just one hasn't bounced back, & I'm hoping for an answer by tomorrow morning.

I just can't imagine how they'll be able to clear away all that debris - the situation must be overwhelming.

Wish me luck, folks. I'm headed to two major cities to go piano shopping tomorrow and saturday. Hopefully I'll have something to report to you next week as a AOTW.

Jim, that's really exciting - I'm looking forward to hearing about your shopping results.

My week was a bit quiet, I'm doing very well with the technique practice for getting rid of the tension, and the physio is helping. I am on the right track and very pleased.

Today I had a second lesson, (we missed last week as I was away on Monday). I showed my teacher a composition I'd written years ago for guitar and transcribed for piano. I did 3 lines, a vocal line with the melody, then 2 lines for the piano. It has a sort of Alberti line in the treble stave, and simple chords in the bass. When I sat down to play it, I realized that the "leaps" on the guitar are easy but really tough for me on the piano lol.... My teacher played it though, and I sang. I think I'll re-write it as a teacher-student duet.

I'm also transcribing a ballad I wrote for guitar (again, many many years ago) to piano. It is going faster than the others, I'm getting used to the software finally!

This one I should be able to play - I may even play and sing!
We shall see.

My achievement of the century is not looking at my hands while playing. As a result my sight-reading has improved greatly because I no longer lose my focus by shifting attention to my hands. I only look down when it's really really tricky but most of the time I try not to. This is something my teacher has insisted on forever and I am glad I am now implementing it, together with counting the rythm more often and not relying so much on playing by ear.

Today I played Artifact of the living from Donnie Darko (a movie sountrack piece) and I think 3-4 months ago I wasn't even able to figure out the rythm and I didn't play past the first few bars. Today I printed the notes again, I played through the WHOLE piece in one go (hands together) without even knowing the notes (I know how it sounds so it's a bit of cheating but in essence..._), I was sight-reading it and it sounded good enough to me. So I was pleasantly surprised. 30% tempo I make no mistakes, 50%-60% is ok, I try but for that I'll have to break it down a bit, and spend time on hands separately because I can't sight-read and play too fast at the same time.

Not Tomorrow from Silent Hill is another, this piece seemed impossible. I stopped learning it after the first 10 bars, I came back to it now almost a year later and I can play it, all of it, no problems, now working on playing it musically. Here have a listen to the piece, I love it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBsoTjcCGP0&feature=related (NOT ME PLAYING)

I expect to be able to play Zanarkand in maybe another year but right now it's really complicated for me. So I'm leaving it be till I am ready. But now more than ever I am certain I will be really good one day with enough practice.

What really helps me is constantly learning new etudes, easy to sight-read, always some challenges and they really push me forward. I move on to new etudes as soon as I get the thumbs up from my teacher.

I'm also playing Christoforis Dream, the first 3 pages were easy but I'm leaving it till I can play it better, there are some tricky parts I am not ready for yet.

Dear ABF and AoTW friends,
I have an update. A couple of good news in progress.

1) I got my parents out of the Fukushima prefecture. It took them incredible 10 hours journey. They hired a young taxi driver who started a black market taxi business going back and forth between towns of Fukushima and the first train station that still have train running to Tokyo. No one else had gas. This guy has contacts with gas station somewhere. He had people on the waiting list. My parents got their ride yesterday after waited for 3 days.
2) With the help of travel agent extraordinare, I was able to book flights and obtain visas for my parents in a nick of time. I usually book flights on-line. But this time was different. As I find reasonable fare (still 1.5 times more than usual), the system returns me a notification, “the fare is no longer available”. I quickly realized that this is beyond my ability and I need a professional help. This year I happen to have one of those exclusive travel card as a birthday gift from my husband. So I tried the travel office. The agent was fantastic. She was able to hold the most reasonable ticket while searching for a better price. While holding the tickets, she was able to negotiate with other airlines to negotiate ticket exchange – you see, my parents and I already booked up our joint vacation to UK, France and Italy from the end of May. Now the situation has changed completely. My parents are not in the mood to enjoy gondola ride now. Although we still love to see “Le nozze di Figaro”. Yeah, I even booked the opera in Paris for us. Anyway, I got the tickets for $1,800 each. It is higher than usual but there is no other tickets available less than $3,500 for economy if you try to leave Tokyo today or tomorrow.
3) Piano related topic again. I practiced every day. Honestly, I did not know what I was doing. My heart was not there. But it was very therapeutic. It was the only normalcy I had. Since I could not think very clearly, I focused on getting the speed up to 180 for a quarter note in the fast tremor section of the first movement of the Pathetique. That really helped me to get my mind away from what is happening.
4) My poor cousin’s wonderful Kawaii is totally destroyed along with the house. They are living in a different shelter close to Tokyo. The entire Minami-soma city (10 to 20 miles from the reactor) abandoned the town in a 12 bus caravan. My aunt said that they first traveled 6 hours north of their town but they were turned down because the shelter was full. They drove 12 hours south and settled down the current shelter. They can stay there for a month. They are safe. The good thing is that this particular town has abundant amount of hot spring. So my aunt said that they felt human again.

That’s it. Apologies for the long post.

Farm Girl -

Thank you so much for the update! You have done a wonderful job for your parents, and I am so glad your aunt has found a place that is safe.

Bless you and your family.

Cathy

FarmGirl, what good news. As I read the newspaper over the past few days, I have found myself thinking about your family. I'm so glad they are finally going to be in a safe place.

Farm Girl, that's really good news. When do your parents arrive?

Thank you everyone. My parents are currently at the Narita airport waiting for the flight. The plane is expected to arrive here in Phoenix Arizona at 2:00 PM (10:00 PM GMT) tomorrow. My fingers are crossed.