Beating the physical pain

The headache is strking again. To add to the woes, my leg muscles have been giving me muscle cramps from time to time today. Fainting spells strike occasionally making me feel disoriented.

Time is not on my side. I am still behind my practising schedule. I have managed to figure out the rhythms and the fingerings for the first movement of Dragonetti's Solo in e minor. However, my target was to play the first movement and at least half of the second movement of Dragonetti's Solo in e minor.

As such, despite the physcial pain, I urged myself to practise at least for half-an-hour on the double bass. It turned out that I have been practising on it for at least an hour tonight. My legs were killing me when I played the double bass in the standing position. As such, I had to get a stool, lower my double bass end-pin and play the double bass while sitting. This enabled me to better withstand the pain from the cramps of the leg muscles.

Perhaps the good thing is that playing the double bass tends to help in the release of some endorphins (which works like natural pain killer), so practising was bearable though not optimal.

Pain, pain, go away. But its presence is not entirely within my control. I can only learn to devise simple strategies to help myself cope with the pain so that I won't have to fall further behind in terms of my practising goals.

I will be taking leave from work next Wednesday to next Friday to participate in the orchestra's music camp. Hopefully I would get more time to practise then. I saw the music camp schedule, and I must confess that I am not keen at all on the recreational activities. I would rather practise or rest.

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By the way, I like to take this chance to mention a post on Jason Heath's blog: Simandl-Plus® - Rabbath versus Simandl follow-up discussion. I actually have a copy of Mark Morton's Miraculous! Scale Fingerings for the Double Bass but I realised that I have yet to even try it.

When the pain goes away, maybe I could be in a better position to decide how to better make use of the method books that I already have on hand.