We are surviving the sudden cold weather AND or new puppy, and I was still able to learn all three new tunes and the one new song on my practice plan for last week. As a reminder, I am on an end-of-year sprint, trying to add an additional twelve tunes and six songs to my repertoire.

Practice Plan for 11 December 2022

Lesson:

No lesson this week (lesson was last week, and we’re currently on an every-other-week schedule).

Playing With Others:

Between the puppy and the weather (and my partner’s work schedule), I didn’t make it out to play with other people (again). While working on my end-of-year blitz, I may focus more on at-home practice over playing out.

1) New Material

• Forked Deer
• Eighth of January
• Squirrel Hunters
• Worried Man Blues
• East Virgina Blues

2) Developing Material

• Chinquapin Hunting
• Angeline the Baker
• Cripple Creek
• Road to Columbus
  • Bill Monroe break on “Kenny Baker Plays…”
  • Adding double stops
  • Getting that Kenny Baker groove
• Bury Me Beneath the Willow

3) Performance Material

• Jenny Jenkins
• Cindy
• Make Me Down a Pallet

4) Techniques

• Frailing Texture
  • Cripple Creek
  • Cluck Old Hen
  • Angeline the Baker
• Potatoes Several Ways (and in at least D, G, and A)
• Chord tone scales
• Double stops (again, again, still)

5) Musicianship

• Ear training
• Transposing (using the key signature spinner)
• Standing while playing (this is one that I have had on my practice plan for a couple months, I think, but I keep forgetting it’s here)
• Transcriptions
  • Ricky Ricardo (my own recording)
  • Goodbye, Liza Jane
  • Road to Columbus (my simple version + version with stops)
• Book of Exercises
• Writing
  • Dollar Store Frankfurter
  • Ricky Ricardo

6) Placeholder for Next Week/Next Lesson

• Creating kick-offs, introductions, and endings for tunes and songs
• Writing
  • Tikka and Ricky
  • Brindle Curry with a Side of Billy Beans
  • Bill Monroe