March 2013 Lesson - A lesson in multitasking

A couple of Saturdays ago, I traveled to Toledo for an organ lesson. The theme of the lesson became multitasking as I had trouble learning the new hymns and Bach piece assigned at my previous lesson. What do you think of first when you here "multitasking"? I think of my job where I often have several tasks going at once. 

How does this apply to an organist?  

Organists need to be very good at multitasking to be successful. Each hand and foot usually has it's own "task" to handle. The notes for the left hand will not be the same as the right. The feet are playing the pedals. The tempo must remain consistent. Registration (stops) may need to be changed throughout a piece. Pages may need to be turned. Some organists also direct a choir while they play! 

I've learned that playing the organ is harder than it looks! To improve more quickly, I need to practice each "task" independently. For example, learning the part for each hand separately before playing them together. 

What could you learn more quickly if you broke it down into smaller pieces?

Tracking with a NeuYear calendar

In early January, I announced my intention to schedule practice time. I haven't done any advance scheduling yet but I started tracking my practice sessions with a NeuYear calendar. After I practice, I record the time of day and length in that day's box. The calender is poster size and displays every day of the year. Encouragement is also included at the top: "2013 SEIZE THE YEAR". 

 

NeuYear Calendar

My goal is to practice everyday for at least 15 minutes. I have practiced the last 17 days! Previously, I did not practice when I felt too busy or tired or distracted. These 15 minutes segments will add about a hour onto my weekly total. And sometimes the 15 minutes turns into 30 minutes...

What could you improve by tracking your efforts?

What if I set a schedule

A new year is upon us. What will your goals be? Will you write them down and commit to them? I set several goals in a few areas including the typical to eat healthier and exercise more. I wrote them down which increases the likelihood that I will be successful. Now let's get to my organ related goals.

Back in March 2012 I announced my goal to practice 10 hours a week. I have not yet come close to 10 hours in a week. Since mid October 2012 I have been recording a few notes, the date, day of week, and amount of time spent practicing in Evernote. Upon review, I have only been practicing 3 or 4 days a week. I had intended to practice at my church on the way to work but discovered that I am afraid to go there in the dark. 

I learned from Jon Acuff that we will accomplish more if we schedule time to work on our goals. Writing out a schedule feels scary. Then I will be committed and can be held accountable. I am afraid of not sticking to the schedule. Should I let fear stand in my way? Should I let fear convince me that I should not try it because I am going to fail? What if I did it? What if each Sunday I wrote on a calendar practice times for the week? Even if some weeks I could not stick to it I'm sure my overall practice time would increase which is the ultimate goal.

Scheduling practice times could change my life!

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

It's been over two weeks since we have spent time together.You are probably thinking this means I've spent more time at the organ bench practicing. In reality, I've been busy having good intentions and  and reading and making excuses. I planned to make plans for us but didn't follow through with the plan.

Blog, you read the couple of paragraphs I shared about my trip to Nashville. I was inspired by my trip and the church I visited. I bet you expected the my excuses to stop!  I received blogging advice that I have yet to implement. I joined Twitter and now follow writers and organists and inspiring folks. Now, I see ongoing advice/inspiration/motivation daily on my Twitter feed. But the excuses to avoid writing continue.

I am BUSY! I work full time and need to actually practice the organ too. I love to read!  I have games on my smart phone to play! Do you understand!?

I've been reading books and blogs and tweets that while help us along in our journey together. I am learning more about myself, writing, and the blog platform. And I am consistently reading that the best way to become a better write it to write! There are no shortcuts.

Thank you, Blog, for waiting patiently for me to return. Together we will succeed (although eventually I will be ditching you for a self-hosted site).

Heidi

P.S. Do you have good intentions? What plans do you want to follow through on?

My cats and the organ

July has been a very busy month. I still have my goals in mind to update the blog weekly and practice the organ at least 10 hours week. I plan to get back on track soon for I need more practice to become a successful organist and writer!

Since I have not done all that much with the organ in July, today I will introduce my 3 cats: Lina, Kilala, and Buster. All three cats occasionally visit me while I am practicing the organ. Sometimes Lina will insist that I hold her while I practice! Other times I find them sitting on the organ or the speakers.

 Lina and Kilala are sisters from the same litter and were born in February 2003. Buster is our rescue cat who we took in January or February 2011 . He is a younger cat and probably about 2 or 3 years of age.

Please enjoy the pictures below!

Kilala on organ watching as I practice.

Kilala next to me on organ bench

Buster stepping on pedals to get into the window.

Lina looking out the window.

Kilala

Kilala and Buster

Buster and Kilala

Buster on speaker

Lina on organ speaker. A few days after this was taken she knocked yellow picture frame in this photo off the speaker which broke the frame and the glass!

One Hour

I have one hour of time. I must decide how to spend that hour. Not deciding is the same as deciding to do nothing. Here are some things that I could do in a hour:

• Play organ
• Open and read the Experiencing God workbook
• Read a book
• Learn more about the features of my new smart phone
• Put away laundry
• Clean something
• Check tire pressure
• Go for a walk
• Pray
• Take nap
• Start a Words with Friends game with each of my Facebook friends.

The list could go on and on. I have many choices. If we are intentional about how we spend our time we will get more accomplished and come closer to reaching our goals. I decided to spend part of the hour writing this post and will spend the reminder of the hour at the organ.

Are you deliberate with your time? 

10 hours of practice update

At the end of March 2012, I set a goal to practice 10 hours per week. For the week ending 6/2/12, I practiced for 7 hours. This is the closest I have come to the 10 hour goal so far. For tracking, I am using calendar weeks. The lowest number of hours for a week, occurred when I had Shingles.

A couple of weeks after setting the goal, I read a post on Jon Acuff's blog about practicing your dream more than you promote it. He suggests that we practice 10 hours for every 1 hour of promotion. It was a great reminder of how important practice is when it comes to reaching our goals/dreams.

My blog could be categorized as promotion, since the idea of the blog is to share about my progress and experiences of becoming an organist (any other random things of my life). Maybe someday I will also become a writer although I suppose that am I writer since I am writing this blog! For now though, I want my ratio of organ practice to blog writing to be about 10:1.

I've wondered how much better my organ playing would be now, if I had set a specific practice goal early on. 

What goals do you need to set?

Blog Updates and Practice Goals

Thank you to those that are reading my blog. I want to let you know that my goal is to add a new blog post about once a week which likely be done on Saturday or Sunday.

Another goal I set recently is to practice the organ 10 hours a week. I started tracking my practice time only to realize that I am not practicing as much as I thought I was. In order to reach my goal I will need to become much more intentional with making time to practice. I'll provide updates on my progress from time to time.

What goals are you working on?