So I am trying out Notion, so far it looks ok. With all the fancy templates it looks like it can do much more than Bear, but I have also heard rumors about how it can get pretty messy after you have a lot of stuff. It’s free for personal use anyway so I thought I want to give it a try, at least the table structure is pretty useful for me.

On to something more related to the category topic, I am officially on the 8th consecutive daily piano practices today, that’s probably the longest streak in maybe 16 years. I felt a slight resistance before starting today, but once I have put my hand on the keys it went away immediately. I realised I kinda enjoy practicing and perfecting the piece like solving a challenging problem:

  • divide and conquer (I have only progressed one page per piece in two weeks)
  • practice slowly and then speed up
  • practice with variation in tempo
  • practice similar and basic techniques in order to be able play what’s needed

Back in the days when I was still playing in the orchestra, I imagined I was practice for some PvE dungeon raids in FFXIV. You need to practice and fail so many times with 7 other strangers in order to pass the dungeon. Music practices, well I guess just like other forms of practices, are the same. It’s about how closer you are to the perfect state in your mind.

Recently I am also asked to play with flatter fingers. This is a big change for me since I did not have much systematic finger training ON PIANO, and any form of finger practices in a very long time. I am spending the first 10 to 15 mins everyday to warm up + practice my fingers. I can’t really tell whether it has been helpful so far, or whether I am in the correct direction, but I think I am doing better.

Last thing, my piano starts to have weird metal sound again. This is the sad thing about second hand piano, you will bump into weird problems more frequently. I planned to ask for help when I moved in a few month, hopefully I can get a better room with less reverb. My Beethoven Op 31 sounds horrible to my ears, but when I recorded it and played it back it actually sounded better. So I am pretty sure it is the reverb.