If you read last Friday's post, you'll remember that I had trouble with my focus during practice. Coming into today, having identified this issue, I found that I was much better equipped to stay on target. I started early this morning (11 ish), took frequent breaks (got water, chatted with the mailman, walked around the studio, etc), and worked on items that have been lagging this week.

With the foreknowledge that I tend to wander on Friday and a good plan to keep my mind fresh, I had a really good session today. I didn't get everything in, but what I did get in was focused and productive.
 
I found a new ear training program, EarMaster, that I'm evaluating right now. I've played with the interval comparison, chord progression and rhythm training sections. Some nice features and a few quirks that I need to figure out (i.e. is it user error or just areas that could be improved). I'll give a full commentary on this in a few days.

Technique is solid at 102, but I had a few issues with a couple of new modal exercises that caused tension in my right arm. If I can't clear before Sunday, I'll keep the MM-102 for next week.

Sight reading is improving, painful - especially with the metronome clicking away, but improving. For those of you thinking "what's the difference between reading music and sight-reading", one can read music - and learn it, by sitting down and working the notes out on the fretboard one measure at a time and practicing each measure/section until you know the piece. Sight-reading is sitting down with a piece of music and (in my case) attempting to read through it as accurately as possible on the first time through. I've found that I have to turn on the metronome to "force" me to read through and not try to stop and fix my errors. That's the painful part, hearing all those wrong notes LOL.

Fall is still a work in progress. I may need to revise my EOY goals around the jazz tunes. I love to really dig into a tune to not only learn the melody and harmony, but also transpose it to other keys (it's amazing how different a tune can feel in different keys) and obviously solo comfortably. So, instead of a false goal of 1 jazz tune a week, maybe I'll go with 1-2 a month so that I have time to really get into them.

Put the KWS song aside today to spend some more time with "Killing in the name of" - I'm really digging this tune. It's a blast to play.

Well, i'm off for the night. Time for some family time (pizza and a rental I think). I'll probably practice later tonight, I need to spend some quality time with my little arpeggio friends