Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Overcoming the fatigue bug

The "humming queen" continues to hum her way through much of the day, in hope to beat the fatigue bug. The emotional fatigue with the world whose pace is different from mine.

Last night, I declared myself the practising freak in my block. Today, I shall declare as the crazy lady who tries to beat the fatigue bug. The physical and mental fatigue from having worked about 12 hours today in office. By the way, social workers' day is coming this Saturday, on 20 Jan 2007. I wonder what the media would have to say then about this profession that yours truly is in.

When I was back, my body physically protested at my intentions to practise on the double bass. My target is to practise 15 minutes per day, for at least 4 days per week. Once I sat on the chair near my personal computer, my body just felt so comfortable with the chair that it felt like sitting there forever. But, wait a minute, I have planned to practise on the double bass! A normal chair is too low to sit on for playing the double bass.

After much tensions between the body and the mind, I was standing up next to my double bass (whom I affectionately address as my husband), and I started tuning it. Next step was to play the C major scales. And it was already 11 p.m. when I started out playing the C major scales.

While I started playing selected sections from the Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, my body was already sending me signals that my mind is on its verge of blanking out from fatigue. But my mind was shouting that I want to be disciplined and at least practise 15 minutes today. So I decided to adjust my practising plans. Instead of playing "The Storm" movement from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony (which I think requires a lot of concentration to play), I practised on some other passages from this symphony.

Then I went on to play selected passages from Sibelius'Second Symphony just to get the fingerings more registered into my mind. Yeah, I have managed to work one tricky passage out, I hope. I particularly like practising the last section from Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Festival Overture, for I realised I have to play on three different strings within the duration of one single bar.

Before I knew it, it was 11.30 p.m. I decided to be kind to myself, and stopped the practice for the day. I have had enough practice for the day to prime my fingers for the orchestra-rehearsals tomorrow evening.

By the way, in case you aren't aware, I will be playing in a concert held on 16 Mar 2007 (Fri), at NUS, University Cultural Centre, Hall. Please click on this link for more details.

Now, I think I shall go to bed soon. Good night folks. Sleep tight.

2 comments:

mistipurple said...

nitenite humming queen! *hummmmm*

eastcoastlife said...

py, don't push yourself too hard. you can fall sick easily if you don't have enough rest. 12 hours of work? whatever energy you use during your youth you will pay for it when you are in your old age. Yours truly here has so much aches & pains. Take care.