Paper on Johannes Brahms Done and Preparing for Final

It has been a while since I posted. It has been a busy two weeks since my last post. Truthfully, I did not feel like posting while I was writing my paper for class. That is finished, so now I am back to posting again.

My Beginning Piano class is coming to an end. We are done with all the tests in the class. I finished my paper on Johannes Brahms. I finished the paper well in advance of when it was due. We also had to give a short speech on the composer too. Both went fine. I had to remember how to write in MLA style, but I think I got it and wrote a descent paper. The full paper on Johannes Brahms can be read by visiting http://www.haverty.net/documents/Johannes-Brahms.pdf.

The last part of the class is playing the final piece. As you may recall, I selected Minuet in G by Bach. I have not spent much time on practicing the piece at this point, but will be practicing today and hopefully everyday between now and Monday, May 9. We have to perform our piece for the class on May 9. I still plan to record it to post here on my site. However, I need to practice a bit more before posting anything.

Read through my paper on Johannes Brahms and let me know what you think. Carrie read through it and thought it sounded OK with a few minor changes. Hoping we get it back tomorrow or Wednesday in class so we can see what we got on it. It is a test grade, so see how I do.

First Week of Back into Exercise Done and Thinking of Future Runs

I ran three times this week. I was supposed to run today, but decided to move it to Tuesday instead. Celebrating Carries' birthday today with good brunch and then a movie. So, I decided to not get up early to run.

Last week when I started this process, I said I would run a different route. Well, for the most part I ran the same exact route I have been running the past three years. It is a habit and I like the route. So, instead of trying to change it up and run a new route each time I got out, I will likely stick with this same route.

My first run of this process. It went well. I felt good after wards. My legs were killing me the day after. It went very well though and I felt motivated to get out and run again to keep the process moving.
The second run also went well. I decided to take my dog Oliver with me. Thus, a slightly adjusted route. I ended up only taking Oliver about halfway as he went number two once which I was carrying with me like a respectable pet owner. So, I was doing the Couch to 5K with the leash in one hand and a bag of poop in the other. Oliver was starting to drag behind as I would run and I was headed back toward the house. I decided to go ahead and take Oliver home and I would continue on. Overall, he did very well. He was exhausted following the run. It was his first run of the season (or ever) too, so I know he will need to ease into the running too. Granted, I cannot take him on many runs as it continues to get hot. See how he does though.

Final run of the week was Thursday morning. We had plans that evening, so I got up early to go running. I did not take Oliver on this run. I really enjoyed getting up early and running. I need to do it more often as it really feels like it started the day right.

Other than not running today, it was a good start to the process. I will be out running again on Tuesday and look forward to progressing back to being able to run a solid 5K without stopping.

Piece Selected for Final in Piano Class and Now Practice Practice

The piece I will be playing for my final has been selected. I plan on playing a piece called "Minuet in G" by Johann Sebastian Bach. There were a lot of options provided by our instructor and we were free to select anything. I had some piano books that came with the piano and then some that my Mom had sent home with me one evening. I actually played this same piece when I was young, but it was a long time ago.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period.

The piece was selected because I enjoy the piece and I think it will be challenging for me to site read and play for the final. The plan now is to begin learning the piece focusing on left and right hand reading the music. As I mentioned last week, we do not have to have the piece memorized, but it is fine if we do have it memorized. If I can get to the point, I would prefer to do so instead of having to rely on reading the music.

Piano at Home with Lights ... Need Music Light Instead

Below is a recording of my warm up and then first few bars of the piece. Not a very good recording, but you get the idea. You can hear a vibration sound which is actually coming from the two lamps on the piano. I already told Carrie we are going to have to replace this with something else as I need something where it provides light on the music and then also does not vibrate. The ones she picked out look great, but need more light and no vibration sound.



I am excited to begin practicing this piece and be able to provide a recording in a few weeks with the final product. I have really enjoyed my piano class. We get a third test back in class tomorrow and will begin chapter four. I came out of the last test feeling happy, so we will see how that turns out with the return of the test tomorrow night.

A lot of practice for me and I also need to start working on the paper that is due in a few weeks. I need to get over to the library to do research and write up that paper. I keep telling myself not to procrastinate and yet the days keep going by and I have not started the paper yet. The plan is to start the paper next week and it should not take more than a night or two to write it up and proof.

For now, I will continue working on "Minuet in G" and plan to post a update in a week or two with my progress.

Championship Game is Set with North Carolina and Villanova Facing off Monday Night

The NCAA Championship game is set. The games Saturday were not exciting at all. Oklahoma forgot to show up and Syracuse got close, but could not catch up with North Carolina. Monday night will be Villanova vs North Carolina. The only one seed, North Carolina, will face off against the two seek Villanova.

The Big East facing off against North Carolina. I expect it to be an exciting game to watch. Both teams have no problems scoring. Sometimes for the NCAA championship game, I will not watch. I will likely watch this game as I am pulling for North Carolina.

Yes, all brackets are busted at this point. I did not have one bracket with either Villanova or North Carolina winning it all. I do have UNC in a few brackets playing Kansas or Oklahoma. Not this match up though. How are your brackets?

Are teams are no longer in the tournament, but it was still a lot of fun watching basketball the past few weeks. A fun season and look forward to watching the game Monday night. It will all start again before we know it in the fall.

Enjoy the game Monday night!

New Subscription via Email and Navigation Added to Site

Option to Subscribe via Email to the Right

A few minor changes to the site that maybe you have not noticed. Added a option to be able to get email notifications with the posts in your email. I use this for some sites that I follow and thought it was a good addition to my site too. It uses Google FeedBurner to deliver the feeds. Easy way to get new posts when they are posted.

Cleaned up the right side of the page to remove unneeded items. The main thing that was added was an About page and a Social Media page. Also cleaned up the image at the top of the site to extend the full length of the content on the site. Also added a link to the top navigation to link back to the Home page.

If you have any suggestions for the site, please post a comment to let me know.

Start the Running Process Tomorrow and Get the Run Bug Again

Finally! It is happening! Finally, I am getting motivation to start running. Not remembering the last time I ran, I had to go look at my apps to see. The last time was July 2015. I ran for approximately three weeks and then stopped. Not feeling like running since that time. It is time again to start running. Finally!

Plan is to get back into running. Starting out slowly using the Couch to 5K app. My plan, is to be able to run the Bow Tie Run which will take place in the fall. Starting now, I should have more than enough time to prepare and be in running form for that event. The plan is to run Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday each week. The Couch to 5K is a eight week process. The focus for this eight week process is to simply be able to run again. Not lose weight, although, that will hopefully happen as part of the process, but to be able to run again. Not be winded walking up the stairs in our house, but be able to do things that I was doing back in 2012 when I was running regularly (see Running Posts from my Blog).

Remembering back to running regularly, I recall how good it felt. How good it felt to run outside listening to music and feeling as though I was being productive. The best part was after a run outside, my dog Oliver would be so excited because he knew that part of my cool down process was to take him on a walk. He would get so excited when I was putting on my shoes because he knew what it meant and that he would be going on a walk.

The worst part is that I have been paying a gym fee each month for the past year and not been to the gym once. Starting the running will at least make me feel like that payment each month is not going to waste. Plus, I will not have any excuse to not run as I always have the gym as a backup in case of weather.


The worst thing I think I did previously was that I ran the same exact route every time I ran. The above being the route that I ran each time. I d not think that I got bored of the route, but I did get lazy and simply did not feel like running. Gradually during the past few months I have been telling myself that I am going to get back into running again and that time is now.

I am looking forward to running again and looking forward to taking my dog on regular walks again too.

Test Three Done and Moving on to Chapter Four

Test three is done. Glad to be done with this test. I was not looking forward to the test being on a Wednesday. Not sure why, possibly because the previous two tests I enjoyed being able to prepare for them over the weekend. Granted, I could have prepared over the weekend for this one, but instead, I spent the weekend procrastinating and then on Monday decided I needed to study for the test. Tuesday night was the real cram session though trying to figure everything out.

I left the class and the exam feeling good about how I performed. In the first part of playing the piano for the instructor, that did not go great. She had me play one piece showing cords three or four times. She told me I was rushing or making the second and forth the same. We left it with we will work on that in the future. Other than that little part of the test, I felt good about the exam.

Following class, I spoke to the instructor and believe I have selected the piece to play for the final. Possibly this weekend, I will record a sample of where I am at currently with learning the right hand which has only consisted of playing out a few lines checking to see if I like it. This piece is by JS Bach. More on this later this weekend and hopefully I will finalize it this weekend with it being the piece.

The next step for this class is to write a 5 - 8 page paper on Johannes Brahms. This is due at the end of April, so I have some time. Originally, I thought that the piece we were to play for the final had to be tied to who I selected to write about in our paper, but I was told that was not the case. Looking forward to writing a paper on Johannes Brahms. It has been a long time since I have written in MLA style for a paper. I might need to go to the library to research that process.

The struggle continues with remembering the treble clef and reading notes for my left hand. I came across a cool app last night for the iPhone that is free called NoteTutor. I used it some last night following studying for the test and then during the lunch time today. Easy to use and it makes it a game to recognize notes on either treble or bass clef. I think it is going to help a lot with being able to recognize notes on the staff.

That is all for tonight. Have a  great rest of the week and I plan to record something this weekend to post by Sunday with the piece I selected for the final.