Friday: Another good day with low expectations.
Morning:
- We started with improvisation. I played a D/G/A/D progression while M noodled on a D scale
- M did a few free strokes with three fingers. Her hand tends to twist, and I tried to help her keep it steady.
- M did some A (1/2 fingers on 2nd fret, 2/3 strings) to E (1 finger on 1st fret, 3rd string) chord shifts, played arpeggiated with i-m-a. We need to work on finger placement.
In the afternoon, M was grumbling about practicing, so we discussed what might be fun to work on. She again picked improvisation and the Canon.
- We began with D scales, played with a metronome.
- Next, she improvised over a chord progression. At my suggestion, she played quite a bit up the neck on the 1st string.
- We finished by working on the Canon.
- We went through once, playing and singing at the same time. This was a nice exercise, and M kept her singing going even when she missed several notes, picking right back up at the right place.
- M did a good job listening to herself. When I asked her, after a repetition, where she made mistakes, she was always able to point to the music and identify the problem. We narrowed our focus more and more to work just on the problem areas.