cracked
Okay. Having thought more about what I wrote in my last entry, and the comments thereof, I've decided to make more of an effort to be a good diarist. It occurs to me that maybe one of the reasons I haven't been writing at all is that I've let this journal go stale. Perhaps, if I write more regularly here, I'll be more inclined to write more regularly over there. *points at story files* Or maybe I've got the wrong cause for this effect. Won't it be madly interesting, finding out?
I mentioned, yesterday, that I'm still aching with whiplash. When my back gets cold it feels as though it's cracked open around the right shoulder-blade. Playing the piano makes it worse. I have to play the piano, and not just because it's my job. I just have to, alright? But I do also have to play it because of my job -- now more than ever because the Manx Music Festival is coming up and I have approximately fifty song accompaniments to learn.
I'm playing for the opera class this year, which mostly involves doing tremolos all over the place. A tremolo on the piano is when you have a bunch of notes (for one hand, unless you've got tremolos in both hands at the same time, which some of my accompaniments do have, the little buggers) and you kind of shake your hand over them so that the thumb alternates with the other fingers very quickly, over and over again. Shaky hands! They're funny to watch, but they're not easy to do, especially when they're quiet. Guess who has to do lots of quiet ones? ME! Anyway, the problem with doing shaky hands is that I end up tensing my upper arms. Try tapping your fingers on the table now, switching back and forth from thumb to little finger as fast as you can. Can you feel the tension in your upper arm? If you can't then you're a better trembler than me. But the tension in my upper arms gradually works its way into my shoulders and upper back until the crack effect around my shoulder-blade gets so bad that I finally notice it (funny how much you can ignore when you're pounding away at the piano). At which point I go and look pitiful in front of Matt until he makes me a cup of tea.
And now I must sleep, because rehearsals start just after 9.00am.
I mentioned, yesterday, that I'm still aching with whiplash. When my back gets cold it feels as though it's cracked open around the right shoulder-blade. Playing the piano makes it worse. I have to play the piano, and not just because it's my job. I just have to, alright? But I do also have to play it because of my job -- now more than ever because the Manx Music Festival is coming up and I have approximately fifty song accompaniments to learn.
I'm playing for the opera class this year, which mostly involves doing tremolos all over the place. A tremolo on the piano is when you have a bunch of notes (for one hand, unless you've got tremolos in both hands at the same time, which some of my accompaniments do have, the little buggers) and you kind of shake your hand over them so that the thumb alternates with the other fingers very quickly, over and over again. Shaky hands! They're funny to watch, but they're not easy to do, especially when they're quiet. Guess who has to do lots of quiet ones? ME! Anyway, the problem with doing shaky hands is that I end up tensing my upper arms. Try tapping your fingers on the table now, switching back and forth from thumb to little finger as fast as you can. Can you feel the tension in your upper arm? If you can't then you're a better trembler than me. But the tension in my upper arms gradually works its way into my shoulders and upper back until the crack effect around my shoulder-blade gets so bad that I finally notice it (funny how much you can ignore when you're pounding away at the piano). At which point I go and look pitiful in front of Matt until he makes me a cup of tea.
And now I must sleep, because rehearsals start just after 9.00am.