So, last February and March I took a break during Ramadan from posting dance videos, and out of boredom I ended up writing and finishing my first novel, a trashy romance called “Northern Lad.” I looked into becoming a professional fiction writer, and I discovered Nicholas Erik's 2022 Double Your Productivity Crash Course: https://nicholaserik.com/double-your-productivity/

In the end, I decided to focus on my music and dance, but I did learn some useful concepts. In one section, he discusses the four types of objectives: long-term destinations, goals, projects, and micro-goals. I definitely agreed with him that time-bound goals can be counterproductive, because individual people progress differently, and those differences can depend on life seasons and artistic development stages. I personally find projects useful for developing skills and as proof of expertise. I've come to use micro-goals as the creative equivalent of the “sewing a handkerchief” meme. In my (aspirational) to-do lists, I set out tasks that move me towards finishing my projects, which in turn move me towards my long-term destinations. So this fall, I'm recording a backtrack or two during my non-college days of the week. I plan to use them for demos. I will be using the demos to apply for grants and opportunities, rehearse songs for livestreams and gigs, and develop into a professional album. I am hoping down the road to use my albums as a proof of expertise to find work as a musician in different ways.

One YouTuber I follow is Kelsey Rodriguez, who has become successful as a business coach for visual artists. In one of her videos she discusses a concept called the Energy Menu, which is especially relevant to chronically ill creatives, disabled creatives, and any creatives dealing with low energy issues. 

I haven't followed the details outlined in that video exactly, but I found the concept of an Energy Menu useful for dealing with the fluctuations of my energy. I have a habit of writing overly aspirational to-do lists, and it's taken me years to come to terms with the fact that some days I will be super-productive and be able to chop produce, clean my bedroom, clean the bathroom, do college homework, practice dance and conditioning, AND work on my music, all in the same day. And some days it's all I can do to watch the 27-second “Drumline” choreography performance talk by Ebony on Datura Online to keep up my 365 Day Streak to qualify for a year's free subscription to the online dance classes. Using the Energy Menu, each day I choose which tasks on my to-do list I feel up to doing. And my morning decision might change after a refreshing nap after lunch, or on the other hand if we've decided to run errands in our neighbourhood. 

I'm hoping to get back into a reasonable movement practice over the next 12 months. One upper-body day of heavy lifting at the gym, one lower-body day of heavy lifting at the gym, and two low-impact HIIT workouts at home each week of about 30 minutes each. I just finished week 1 of the Intermediate Fusion: 6 Months - 20 minutes x 3 x week Training Tool from Datura Online. Three rounds of the Built: Lower Body Flexibility and Built: Flexibility for the Torso workouts from DO each week, with the choice of the workout depending on the needs of the day. I am doing dance and flexibility on a maintenance basis, because I am prioritizing lifting heavy and including intense cardio, the latter of which I have never done before. I cannot blow up a balloon to save my life, which is a bit of a problem if you want to sing well. 

Today I did a few minutes of plyometrics before weightlifting, just some basic pogo jumps, back-and-forth jumps, and side-to-side jumps. I did warm-up sets for all my lifts. My working set weights for wide lat pulldowns were 50 lbs; bent-over rows and bench press 2 x 10 lbs; overhead press 2 x 8 lbs; farmer's carry 2 x 12 lbs; and renegade rows 2 x 10 lbs. I plan to increase reps each week, and increase weights by up to 10 lbs each month. 

What frightens me about SkinnyTok is that in 2003, if GLP-1 medications had been available back then, I would have crawled over broken glass back then to get a prescription. In 2002, I had been prescribed psychiatric medications for a bipolar episode, and as a result, I gained a lot of weight due to a sluggish metabolism and emotional eating cravings.  Now I have made peace with my weight, and if anything,  I want to lift heavy in the gym to get a muscle mommy physique. I am really happy that Kimmortal recently released a song called “SWOLETARiAN” celebrating heavy lifting. At least we have over a decade of history of women being encouraged to lift heavy to help us fight the new oppression of heroin chic.

I just created my first Bollywood Fusion dance tutorial for my YouTube channel! I plan to upload a brand new dance combination tutorial on my YouTube channel every Monday morning at 8 AM, Pacific Standard Time. This one is to a new song, “Jessie's Land”, by A.R. Rahman and Megha. Check it out: 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-WePorYB2lA

In the morning I did Colleena Shakti's 15 minute plank workout, the third and fourth section of Heather Louise's Qanun Over Cairo choreography, the Club Belly Dance: Sonic Jam 4 drill video by Morgan Fay, and a yoga cooldown by Rachel Brice.  I've decided to begin working out at the gym on Monday afternoons before class. Today I did:

1 set of 20 leg scissors

Warm up sets for each exercise

Wide lat pulldowns - 40 lbs, 3 x 6

DB rows - 10 lbs, 3 x 6

DB bench press - 8 lbs, 3 x 6

DB RDLs - 10 lbs, 3 x 6

DB overhead press - 5 lbs, 3 x 6

Treadmill - 10 minutes.

I used 2 minutes rest between each set with my goal of body recomposition. I added the cardio at the end because I still had some juice in me and wanted to pass the time before class. Next time I will do 8 reps for the working sets. I hope to go up in weights the week after. 

I had a good year. I took a college course in public speaking in the winter semester. I was hoping it would prepare me for a career in keynote concerts. As it turned out, my public speaking skills weren't as strong as I hoped, although I did end up giving two speeches for the non-profit that I work for. I gave a speech about my experience living with disability and a second speech about my experience working as a grant writer, and was well compensated for both. As my instructor said, “Success is a poor teacher.” Since I have three college courses with good grades so far, I'm planning to complete my Certificate in Communications at Douglas College, inshallah by April 2025.

I completed a job prep certificate called Skills For Life, and certificates in WHMIS, SuperHost, and FoodSafe. I completed an office assistant certificate with courses in Word, Excel, Outlook, office administrative procedures, and telephone skills. 

My piano skills have improved a lot over the past year. I started by working with the Alfred Basic Piano book, but didn't like it. Then I started working with the RCM Level 1 syllabus material. Eventually I discovered Brenda Earle Stokes'  online membership The Versatile Musician. I can now play major triads, minor triads, and diminished triads in root position and inversions; seventh chords; and sus chords. I sketched out chord progressions for several of my original songs and started to learn several western pop songs on piano. Unfortunately, I've been playing the piano so much, my wrist started hurting, and I've had to take a break over the last few weeks and do physio exercises most days. But it's getting better. I helped my mother with her ukulele practice, teaching her music theory rudiments. I began practicing harmonica, tambourine, finger cymbals, and body percussion and enjoyed it, although I'll have to take a break from it for a while because of college, work, and volunteering.

I've started doing teacher training sessions in Indian classical music with my vocal coach Neeraja Aptikar. I recently began working on an Indian fusion cover version of U2's “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.”

I was hoping to learn the Rachel Brice and Colette Todorov material on Datura Online and do the 365 Day Challenge, which I had succeeded at last year. I wasn't able to do that - I sprained my tendon and eventually had to see my physiotherapist. It took me a long time to get back into practice. But I took my first ever live Improv Team Sync class with Jessica Roh, who said positive things about my video for Lizzo's “Special.” I'd made a few dance videos on YouTube at the beginning of the year but had given up at the lack of response. This December I started making dance videos again on TikTok. I'm not aiming to go viral, I'm aiming to record my progress as a dancer and as a musician - I'm eventually planning to upload voice and piano covers. I'm aiming to build a body of work, a portfolio.

In June I flew for the first time since 2005. I went to Sarnia, Ontario for my sister's wedding. I had a wonderful time, I wore pretty clothes and ate delicious food. As I previously wrote, I think I like travel, as long as it involves luxurious accommodations. 

All in all, it was an excellent year. I could have done without the ongoing wars and the surge in COVID. Here's hoping for peace and well-being in 2024.

I had my flu shot on Wednesday - I managed to squeeze in ten minutes of vocal riyaz and five minutes practicing riq and five minutes practicing finger cymbals. I also practiced the kathak warmup, including 100 cycles of tatkar footwork, and the flower, bird, and fish mudras. In the evening I watched the sus 2 and dominant 7 sus chord tutorials from Piano Skills For Singers Level 2. I improvised rough chord progressions for “Naive” and “The Dress I Wore.”

I was feeling bored on Thursday because I had to rest my left arm, so I spent the day improvising chord progressions for “Resisting Me,” “The Body Says,” “Bengali Winter,” “The Heart of the Snow Queen,” “Sang With The Tongue of an Angel,” “Seven Layers of Muslin,” “Unfold,” and “Next Winter.”

On Friday morning I worked on a grant application. I had a good teacher training session with Neeraja Aptikar. She taught how ragas involve the five senses, and the nine rasas in Indian aesthetic theory. We did laundry, and I changed my bed linens.

On Saturday, for the first time in a while, I dozed off after breakfast. I did chop onion, garlic, and peppers for Ma's cooking, and peeled prawns for her acorn squash dish. I folded and put away my laundry. 

On Sunday, I dozed off after breakfast again. I did the 10 minute object writing exercise from Pat Pattison's book “Writing Better Lyrics” that Anjalica Solomon had suggested we do as a songwriting exercise.

We had to run an errand early in the morning, and I was enervated. I did do Ashley Lopez's 30 minute “Cute Cardio Combination A” after lunch. The warmup and cooldown were ten minutes each, which was longer than in Kamrah's 30 minute cardio bellydance classes. I used to be impatient about warmups, but as I've grown older my joints appreciate them. This was one of the first videos I worked with when Datura Online first appeared. The arm exercises in the warmup felt harder this time, but I was better able to follow the fancy footwork in the dance combination.

My copy of Meg Casebolt's “Social Slowdown” arrived as an early Christmas gift from my sister. From the opening chapters it looks clearly written and full of knowledgable tips.

I practiced the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes - it wasn't as clear today as I would have liked it to be. I practiced threes on finger cymbals for five minutes, this time adding hip infinity loops and hip drops to the hip circles and traveling moves. I practiced maqsoum on riq for five minutes, for the first time ever trying to do a little of dance movement at the same time.

I'm pleased with myself that I completed Day 3 of EPIC Heat, which makes for three days of intense weightlifting in a row so far. I'd checked the description and worried that the squats and lunges would be gruesome, but I got through by modifying extensively - no elevated lunges, no jumping movements, among other things. I find that pushing my hips back during the squats really helps. I slowed down the pace where I wanted to.

I started my day doing the 5 minute warmup, Caroline Girvan's 10 Min BRACED CORE AND ABS workout, and EPIC Heat Day 2, which focuses on the shoulders. I feel that my core has weakened since my gallbladder surgery in 2016 - I used to be able to do plough pose easily, but not anymore. I'm not terribly interested in visible abs, although a flat belly would be nice. But I like the challenge of Caroline's abs workouts, and I think core work is important for posture and back health. I definitely find it easier to engage my abs during other exercises after doing a core-focused workout. I tried a couple of time to do the shoulder workout with 5 lb weights, but 2 lb weights were hard enough. The movements themselves were easy.

I did 20 minutes of vocal riyaz. Today I played threes on the finger cymbals for five minutes while performing different arm and leg positions, and managed to toss in a few hip circles in the process. I played maqsoum and malfuf on riq for five minutes each from memory, which is progress from before. I practiced the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes - I'm hoping to progress to playing the chromatic scale, and then play tunes reading tabs. I practiced the first body percussion routine from Salvo Russo's playlist from memory three times.

I started studying Class 3 in Guru Pali Chandra's YouTube kathak lessons, Padhant - How to say the bols (recitation). This class is about reciting the rhythm syllables while dancing. I'm familiar with the basic teentaal rhythm cycle she began with, because I've learned it at the beginning of my studies in Hindustani classical voice. Next time I'm going to do the kathak warmup I've devised first before practicing with the lessons, so that I can do the footwork fast enough while following along. 

I was feeling tired, so I didn't practice any of the piano exercises. My knees were feeling sore, so I did Ashley Lopez's “Knee Stabilization - Mat Exercises.”

I've discovered a new thing on YouTube, videos of kathak dancers minus their upper bodies performing percussive footwork with ankle-bells to popular Indian songs. I told Anjalica Solomon about this when we were having our second song poetry course. The theme of this week was grief. I talked about how although I know Tori Amos's “Spark” is about her miscarriages, it resonates with me as a song grieving the death of a homeland due to ecocide and climate change. During class I wrote one song about grief and came up with a song idea for the object writing exercise from Pat Pattison's “Write Better Lyrics.”

I got an extra hour of sleep due to the Daylight Savings Time change, which was nice. I was pleasantly surprised that my abs weren't screaming due to DOMS after last night's core workout. 
We went to Walmart to exchange the Saskatoon berry jam we'd bought by mistake for blueberry jam. When we came home Ma made us spiced chai. I usually don't have a second caffeinated drink in the day after my cup of coffee at breakfast, but it was cold and I wanted some nice black tea.

I chopped shallots and garlic for a noodle dish and peeled prawns for an acorn squash dish that Ma cooked. I wrote the previous post on kathak - I had asked a friend for feedback on my blog, and she suggested, among other things, that I go into greater depth into my practice. Slowly, slowly.

I decided against studying diminished 7th chords for the time being - I like my dissonance in moderate amounts. I watched the tutorial on sus 4 chords from Piano Skills for Singers Level 2. The sus 4 chord apparently shows up in a lot of pop and musical theatre, and substitutes the 4th for the 3rd in the major triad. It resolves to the major triad frequently in compositions. When I had viewed this tutorial previously I had noticed that it was easy to play, although Brenda cunningly has you play left hand block chords with right hand broken chords extending to the octave above at the end of the tutorial.

I watched the Week 4 tutorials from Piano Technique and Ear Training Exercises. It goes into A major. Here Brenda does something different, she has you play the chord progressions first singing the bass notes with scale degrees and solfege note names, and then doing the same with the top notes. This week's ear training focuses on singing the tonic triad in solfege, which is what I've been doing this past week as part of studying the Crash Course in Solfege. 

After dinner, for the first time this year, I lifted weights. I completed Day 1 of EPIC Heat, Uncomplicated Complexes, first doing the five minute warmup and the hip/knee/ankle mobility routine I had found on YouTube, and wearing my new supportive shoes. My knees still felt a little sensitive, but in several sections less so than when I had previously attempted this workout. I've learned how to do micro-adjustments to make things easier on myself. By the end I was dripping with sweat, even though it was a cold fall night in Vancouver.

I've made a practice plan for the next couple of weeks - I have a flu shot on Wednesday, so I'm taking a little more time to work on stuff:

1. kathak - learn how to speak the bols or Indian rhythm names while doing the basic footwork;
2. Bengali dance - practice the flower, bird, and fish mudras;
3. fusion bellydance - continue studying the Datura Style Focus program and practicing freestyle dance;
4. weightlifting - work on the EPIC Heat program, skipping the HIIT workouts;
5. body percussion - study the second tutorial and revise the first tutorial from Salvo Russo's YouTube playlist;
6. riq - practice the maqsoum and malfuf rhythms, hopefully in the same sessions so as to keep them fresh;
7. finger cymbals - practice the gallop and Masmoudi Saghir pattern, using the tips from Shira's article and eventually playing them with an Arabic song;
8. harmonica - practice the C major scale;
9. piano - practice singing moving notes to rest notes with solfege note names and hand signals. Practice the Week 4 Piano Technique and Ear Training exercises. Practice improvising the mini blues scale over the blues progression. Practice major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 7th, and sus 4 chords. Clap the beat of songs in ¾ time.
10. voice - practice vocal riyaz. Listen to the ragas that my teacher suggested.

I'm mostly resting on the weekends. Although I did chop up onion and garlic for Ma's basa steak dish, one of my favourites. I watched and sang along to Lesson 4 of the solfege course in The Versatile Musician, which focused on transitioning from moving notes to rest notes using the solfege note names and hand signals. I started creating a body percussion routine for one of my songs, “The Return of Shyama Mojumdar.” I learned the fish mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials.

The trailer for “Hadestown” had kept showing up as an ad in my social media - they're touring in Vancouver right now. I'd been interested in learning “Our Lady of the Underground” as a song when I was considering auditioning for the Douglas College Music Diploma. I decided to check the songs out on YouTube. I was blown away by the performance of “Wait For Me” at the 2019 Tonys. I would have loved to see the show, but two tickets cost upwards of 230 dollars.  I remember when I was doing the Basic Musicianship program at Douglas I got to see “Rigoletto”, “Eugene Onegin”, and “Sleeping Beauty.” 

Today I watched the first 38 minutes of the American Ballet Theatre's staging of “Swan Lake” on YouTube. Ma told me she had watched it performed by the Russian Ballet in Dhaka with my brother when we were young. I hadn't gone to a lot of live performances back then, but I did see “Amadeus” and “Tasher Desh” performed by the drama troupe of my school Scholastica.

My glutes were sore today, probably from doing two sessions of dance yesterday, one with leg extensions that I haven't used in a long time. So I decided to work on my core with Ashley Lopez's “Powerhouse” from Datura Online after dinner. It still had its difficult parts, but a lot of it was easier than the previous times I had worked with it. My left thigh, however, cramped up at one point.

I was feeling tired, so I started my morning by practicing the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes. I practiced riq for five minutes. I practiced 3-5-1-3 on finger cymbals for five minutes. I'd found an excellent article on Shira.net  on finger cymbal patterns to play with Arabic songs in 4/4 time, including examples of songs to begin playing finger cymbals with. She includes information on how to speak the sounds associated with each pattern in ME rhythm terms, and how to count the patterns as musicians and as non-musicians. Later I saved all four of Suhaila's “Belly Dance Rhythm Identification” albums to my Spotify.

My energy levels picked up after I practiced the kathak warmup. Today I tried doing it without referring to the namaskar and general warmups video. I did miss a few steps in the namaskar, but I'm getting a handle of it. I also did Salvo Russo's first body percussion routine from his playlist from memory correctly.

I did 30 minutes of vocal riyaz. Today I tried an exercise that starts from Re, instead of the usual Sa, and it was so hard to do correctly. But it's good practice for training one's ear.

I was really hoping to start EPIC Heat today wearing my new supportive shoes. I did Caroline's five minute warmup, then a hip/knee/ankle mobility routine from YouTube - her team had suggested I do such a mobility drill prior to lower body workouts when I had posted on the FB group about my knee issues. But when I tried the first set of exercises from Day 1 my knees protested. 

I did manage to fit in a cardio bellydance class from Kamrah's YouTube channel and a brief piano practice before we went out to get groceries. When we were out I had some chocolate marzipan, so after dinner I did 20 minutes of freestyle dancing to “Wild Winds” from Suhaila's “Remix” album. I worked on my three quarter shimmies on the up and on the down, and incorporated some leg extensions from ballet.

Today has been an exhausting day. I practiced the second tutorial from Salvo Russo's body percussion playlist, “Rock - Pop - Funky”. It was challenging, but I think I'm learning how to actually snap my fingers. I did the kathak warmup, two physio exercises, and “Maya, Jewel, and Arcs”, completing Week 2 of the second month of the Datura Style Focus program - I noticed details in Rachel Brice's video that I hadn't picked up before, such as how to transition the foot placement while doing the Arc. I practiced the malfuf rhythm on riq for five minutes. I practiced the 3-5-1-3 pattern (mostly) correctly on zils for five minutes. I practiced the C major scale on harmonica for five minutes. I chopped a bunch of aromatics and vegetables for Ma's cooking.

I had a good teacher training class with Neeraja Aptikar. She gave some information and raga examples of the last four thaats in Hindustani music, Poorvi, Asavari, Bhairavi, and Tori. She talked about how Hindustani ragas have to have a minimum of five notes, including Sa and at least Ma or Pa, and how ragas by definition must evoke feelings. She talked about how raga names derive from place and season.

I practiced singing the solfege scale up and down starting on low C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, and on middle C, D, and E flat - I tried going up to E natural, but my voice cracked on the high E. I practiced the solfege tonic triad with Do Mi Sol and hand signals in C and D. I practiced five note scales on the piano and technique exercises in D major. I tried improvising on the mini blues scale over shell voicings in a blues progression in C.

I was planning to start Rachel Brice's “Rib Up Study” today, but didn't feel up to it. I tried doing Heather Stants' “Dance Flow Yoga: Spiral & Fly” from Datura Online before dinner. I had trouble doing a pose in the opening floor sequence. But I could do Fallen Triangle, which I couldn't do the last time I tried this class. I tried practicing the sequence on my own without looking at the screen. So I was able to do the first 30 minutes, but didn't feel up to the challenge of learning the standing sequence, which I had never worked on before.

I'm trying to exercise after each main meal of the day to regulate my blood sugar. Yesterday after lunch we went to Metrotown - and yes, I totally count mall walking as exercise, especially when carrying a bunch of toiletries from Walmart and several pounds of groceries from TnT. After dinner I did Rachel Brice's “Daily Dose: Arabic Shimmy #1”. It made sense why “Low Back Love” was included in Month 2, Week 1 of Datura Style Focus, because the yoga warmup worked the low back a lot. I've done this video a few times before - I'm not fond of it, but I'm improving. I tried to fake out the last drill by alternating the bodywaves with the three quarter shimmies, since doing them simultaneously was beyond my capabilities.

I still have trouble doing the body percussion routine with the music at the end of Salvo Russo's tutorial. I did four physio exercises and lower body foam rolling this morning, followed by the kathak warmup and “Daily Dose: Pinball #1”. My grasp of the shimmy drills is improving. Because of my knee sensitivities I have trouble doing even slight level changes. I practiced the flower and bird mudras.

I chopped an onion, garlic, and Chinese greens, and helped Ma on the ukelele. I did 35 minutes of vocal riyaz - I'm going to progress to the more difficult exercises in my notebook, some of which I have never tried on my own. I played harmonica for five minutes - for some reason I get a more distinct tone playing the B before high C than playing the B before middle C.

I played the pattern 3-5-1-3 on my zils for five minutes, but kept fumbling. I'm going to work on this further. I played malfuf with fills on riq for five minutes. I'm getting better at playing the different sounds in the correct order, but I still need to work on this rhythm.

I spent an hour finally finishing reading “Grant Writing for Dummies.” I was feeling tired, so I didn't get much of a piano practice done - I did practice five note scales, technique exercises in D major, blue shell voicings, solfege scales up and down in E, F, G, A, B,C, and D, and the solfege tonic triad in C and D.

After dinner I worked with Ashley Lopez's “Kick Butt”. It's an excellent no-impact Pilates strengthening routine for the legs, which is useful for those with knee sensitivities like myself. I intend to return to it in the future.

I started my day with the body percussion tutorial by Salvo Russo. I'm finally learning how to do the third exercise correctly, although doing it with the music at the end is still difficult. 

I then did the flower mudra and then the bird mudra, which is easy-peasy. I did the four physio exercises and the kathak warmup. I practiced a total of 35 minutes of vocal riyaz. 

I practiced the solfege scale in F, G, and A, and the solfege tonic triad in C. I clapped along to the beat of Parliament's “Flashlight.” I practiced piano five note scales, and scales, block triads, broken triads, arpeggios, and chord progressions in D major. I practiced a blues progression in C of chords in shell voicing, and tried to improvise using the mini-blues scale that Brenda had given in the Piano Improvisation course. I practiced minor 7th b5 chords up by half steps on the right hand. It's a weird sounding chord, so I might choose not to practice it after this week.

I practiced the malfuf rhythm with fills on riq for five minutes - I'm getting better at it. I practiced the 3-1-3-1-3 pattern on zils for five minutes. I consider it a triumph that my mother did not complain - I tried to play as softly as possible.

I've decided to track the total number days I get in a good practice. I saw that after 21 days of practicing the riq a few minutes a day, I was able to do a decent job of playing the maqsoum rhythm. I've been practicing bellydance, voice, and piano for far longer than that. Now, I won't be practicing 365 days in a row - I intend to take off at least one day, and mostly two days a week. So here goes.

I begin my practice with four physio exercises - side leg raises, clamshells, glute bridges, and figure four stretches. I did the kathak warmup consisting of the namaskar, tatkar footwork, mobilizers, and stretches. I intend to work on just this the rest of this week, and add on more material gradually.

I finally completed the last 36 minutes of “Datura Style Fundamentals”. The Cherry Moon combination is a genuinely advanced movement which made me understand why the Datura Style Focus program was recommended for intermediate to advanced dancers. After lunch I did a cardio bellydance class by Kamrah from YouTube.

I watched several videos from the Versatile Musician to give myself material to practice on the piano this week. I watched Lesson 3: The Blues from the Piano Improvisation course. I reviewed the Tonic Triad lesson from the solfege course. I watched the lesson on minor 7th b5 chords from Piano Skills For Singers Level 2. And I watched the Week 3 lessons from Piano Technique and Ear Training exercises.

For the first time in a while I practiced harmonica for five minutes, working on the C major scale. I think I'm getting better at playing the B before high C.

 I practiced maqsoum rhythm with fills for 10 minutes on riq. Tomorrow I might start working again on the malfuf rhythm.

I practiced the gallop - LRL - on the zils for five minutes. I'm thinking that tomorrow I might start practicing the 3-1-3-1-3 pattern, because I've learned that before.

I studied the body percussion tutorial from Salvo Russo, and finally figured out what I needed to do in the third exercise.

And I remembered to practice the flower mudra -  I was in the bathtub at the time, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Tonight I had the first class of the online song poetry course, Every Day Is A Love Song. Anjalica Solomon was kind enough to gift me a scholarship. I did some free writing for five minutes on a prompt she gave from a lovely pop song.

I thought doing Ashley Lopez's “Low Back Love” from Month 2, Week 1 of Datura Style Focus after all this would be too much for me, but it was actually highly restorative.

My mother and I went to the Parade of Lost Souls last night at Grandview Park on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. I had fond memories of it from when I discovered it many years ago, and I was disappointed. There were several good bands, but they were all playing at exactly the same time, resulting in a cacaphony. We did have a lovely conversation with a mother and daughter at the bus stop. My mother said it reminded her of the time we went to the flow arts jam at Trout Lake last year. I like my fun to have some structure to it. I told her I don't want to go to mainstream rock and pop concerts anymore, I prefer classical, jazz, and folk (defined broadly). She said the Anvil Centre in New Westminster looked like it had some good shows, which I had been telling her about.

Today I sewed up the elastic of my thumb zil to make it tighter. I'd been dreading this, but it wasn't actually that frustrating this time. I must have become a more patient and persistent person. I'm hoping to start practicing finger cymbals regularly tomorrow, and I'm going to try to play them quietly so as not to disturb anyone. Hey, if I can get away with body percussion and kathak…

For the first time in a long time I cut up and trimmed chicken pieces, and chopped half an onion for Ma's cooking.

I discovered a performance of North Indian ragas played on the piano by Utsav Lal on YouTube. I liked it a lot, especially when it got more lively towards the end.

I discovered a European musician named Edoardo Giachino who has made a YouTube video extensively demonstrating how to use the headed tambourine to perform the sounds of Western classical orchestral music. It was fascinating, but unfortunately his book is only available in Italian.

Looking back on last week, I've had a good practice. I'm learning how to play four note block chords, and got back into creating ostinatos, practicing solfege, and I learned how to tap the beat of songs in 4/4 time. I've learned some nifty body percussion moves in three days. I'm getting better at performing the flower mudra. I've devised a kathak warmup incorporating the namaskar, 10 minutes of tatkar footwork, mobilizers, and stretches. I practiced vocal riyaz four days in a row, and I've learned some basic facts about six of the ten thaats in Hindustani classical music. I found a Wikihow page on playing chromatica harmonica, which I hope to get back into tomorrow. I helped my mother learn how to play the ukelele. 

I helped Ma learn the ukelele after breakfast - she had her class today. Afterwards I practiced with Salvo Russo's body percussion tutorial. I'm getting better at the third exercise. It's a bit different - I need to pay attention to how the movements alternate.

I practiced the flower mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials. I'm getting better at curving my hands at the beginning to create the blossoming effect.

I studied Pali Chandra's kathak namaskar video. Then I did 10 minutes of tatkar footwork. Then I did the mobilizers and stretches from her general warmups and cooldowns video.

I practiced the maqsoum rhythm with fills on riq for 10 minutes.

I played five note scales on piano, and for the first time played major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th block chords up by half steps in all 12 keys.

I had an excellent teacher training class with Neeraja Aptikar today. She gave me some facts about the thaats Kalyan, Khamaj, Kafi, Bhairav, and Marwa, including the notes they use and examples of their ragas. She suggested that I do some research on them and listen to Prabha Atre's thumri in Khamaj and Vasantrao Deshpande's rendition of Marwa, which I did later this afternoon.

I decided to start working on some of the other courses in The Versatile Musician again. I tapped my feet to the beat of U2's “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For” and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messenger's “Moanin'” as part of the homework for the course Rhythm Workout's Lesson 3, “Time Signatures.” I practiced singing and doing the hand signals for solfege. I practiced creating some ostinatos on the piano for the course Piano Improvisation For Everyone.

I practiced the flower mudra and did five minutes of basic kathak footwork. I practiced with Salvo Russo's body percussion tutorial, the first on his playlist. I was able to do the first and second exercise easily, but found it difficult to combine the percussion moves with the sideways travelling steps in the third exercise.

I reviewed the Ken Shorley riq basics video. This time I was almost able to keep up with him playing maqsoum on the riq at full speed at the end.

I listened to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's rendition of Raag Bilawal. I then did 40 minutes of vocal riyaz. Singing the first exercise in akar was difficult, but I improved in singing the rest of the exercises in akar.

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th broken chords up by half steps on piano. I'm planning to start working on the minor 7 b5 chords next week, and possibly some of the other courses.

I did four physio exercises - I didn't feel up to doing any lower body foam rolling.

I did four physio exercises and some lower body foam rolling.  I practiced with a body percussion tutorial by Salvo Russo. He speaks entirely in Italian, but I was able to understand the movements and rhythm without difficulty - it helps that he has the sheet music for the rhythm in western notation at the bottom of the screen. I was able to memorize the first part easily.

I practiced the flower mudra from Riya's Dance Tutorials. This time I was able to figure out the placement of the elbows as the hands transitioned, which had been bothering me.

For the first time I practiced the maqsoum rhythm with fills at a higher tempo for ten minutes. I'm going to check with the Ken Shorley video this week to make sure that I'm doing it right.

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th,  and minor 7th broken chords up and down by half steps in all 12 keys. I want to work on playing them around the circle of fifths.

I did 30 minutes of vocal riyaz. I was having trouble doing the last exercise in akar, so I'm going to work on that this week.

In 2017, I had subscribed to the first year of Pali Chandra's Learn Kathak Online. I barely studied it because my stomping disturbed my downstairs neighbour. Today I watched a dance improvisation by her to Raag Bihag and a video by her talking about how the 50s are the best time to reconnect to dance. When I worked with Salvo Russo's body percussion video today, I was able to do the footwork softly. I tried doing the footwork in Lesson 8 and 9 of Pali Chandra's free Youtube classes, and I was able to do it softly. So now I think I'll study Pali Chandra's free kathak classes on YouTube, to at least see how far I can progress with a home practice.

And in the evening I put away my laundry.

We did three loads of laundry in the morning. In the afternoon Ma baked a breakfast oats cake, for which I grated an apple and finely sliced some carrots.

I did four physio exercises in the morning - side leg raises, clamshells, glute bridges, and figure four stretches - and some lower body foam rolling. I will have to do these for a long time. I danced along with a 10 minute Tagore dance performance from YouTube, trying to copy as best as I could the poses and arm pathways. I've decided to study regularly Riya's Bengali dance tutorials from YouTube - I'll be starting by improvising with one mudra a week. Today I learned the flower mudra. In the morning I had listened to Kishori Amonkar's performance of Raga Alhaiya Bilawal from her album Sangeet Sartaj, Volume 1 & 2. Tonight I did some freestyle dance using the Bengali poses and arms to Moumita Mitra's Raag Bilawal with tintal bandish from YouTube. 

I played five note scales, major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th broken chords up by half steps on the piano. I played maqsoum rhythm with fills on the riq for five minutes. I practiced vocal riyaz for 20 minutes. Today I found a YouTube video detailing modern ways to play the tambourine. The teacher, Arlyn Deva, had a video on his channel where he performed body percussion. This lead me down a rabbit hole of body percussion performances and tutorials on YouTube. I've decided to study body percussion - I found an excellent website called PassTheSound.com. I'm one of those rare people who can't snap their fingers, and it's not wise to stomp your feet if you live on the third floor of an apartment building, but there is a lot I can do. 

So, it's been a while since I updated my blog. I was taking online classes in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook, and office administrative procedures and telephone skills five hours a day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over August and September. I got my office admin certificate from the school with excellent grades.  

I learned that I need a total of 15 recent transferable credits to transfer from Douglas College to Vancouver Community College, if I want to take the Music Diploma there. Of the three college courses I did at Douglas last year, only Academic Writing transfers to VCC. But all three do count towards the Certificate in Communications at Douglas, and I only need 21 more credits to obtain that credential. So I'm planning to take the courses I need for the certificate and hopefully graduate from Douglas finally by the summer of 2025. At least this way I have more time to build my songwriting chops and music theory knowledge by the time I audition for the September 2025 intake at VCC.

I managed to keep up a minimalist piano practice while doing my office admin courses. I recently started four note chords - I'm working on major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th chords on the piano. I'm working on building hand strength and flexibility to do the four note chords by doing them broken first, and once my hands stretch out, to try doing them solid. Although it might be easier to do them in inversions, because the 1st and the 7th are then next to each other.

I've started to learn how to play the riq. I bought one in 2012 but struggled to play the ka/tk on the jingle until last year. I buckled down last month and decided to aim to practice playing the riq for at least 100 days. So far I'm up to day 17. I've been practicing the maqsoum and malfuf rhythms, which I've been learning from Ken Shorley's videos on YouTube. Once I've gotten some chops down, I'd like to start studying the late Faisal Zeidan's videos from Datura Online, and then begin studying Karim Nagi's DVD, which I'd bought when I bought the riq in the first place.

A week ago I started Hot Pot Improvisation Team Sync classes with Jessica Roh. It was wonderful. She was very encouraging and said I did an amazing job of picking up the cues and the ground zeros for Hip Figure Eights (the corrected term for Taxeem), Floreo Poses, and Upper Undulations. 

Last year my vocal teacher Neeraja Aptikar had given me her blessing to teach singing. I had hesitated, but finally I decided to undergo teacher training with her when Jessica said she would be interested in trading dance classes in exchange for lessons in Indian singing. So far I've done two teacher training classes. I'd told Neeraja that I was interested in learning sound healing, because I thought it would be easier. Hah! Neeraja started by having me sing dhrupad with her in the first class. I'm proud of myself that after all these years I was able to follow along with her with ease. She suggested I listen to dhrupad performances by Uday Bhawalkar in Yaman and Bhairav on YouTube. In the second class she focused more on music theory and history, started with information about three ragas in thaat Bilawal, Durga, Bihag, and Alhaiya Bilawal, and suggested I listen to kheyals and bandishes in Alhaiya Bilawal. 

I recently started studying the Datura Style Focus program. I probably won't be able to take Initiation because it's either in March or September and I will be in college at that time for a few years. But I still want to learn Rachel Brice's material. I've finished most of Month One, except for “Shoulder Love”, and I've completed the first hour of the “Datura Style Fundamentals” video.

I finally got stabilization shoes from SportChek yesterday. A lovely salesclerk steered me away from the ASCIS shoes, which my physiotherapist had recommended, to the Saucony brand. He said that because my feet were very flat I need a lot of support, and I need wide shoes in a size 7.5 or 8. He's only completed high school but has run lots of marathons. I hope they pay him well, because he's so knowledgable and helpful.

I'm surprised by how much I got done in the past few days. I wrote, practiced, and submitted to my teacher and class meeting chair the outline for my mini voice lesson, which I'll be presenting as the second speech for my college course next Wednesday - it's supposed to be a demonstration speech. I do have to create a document with the visual aids, that is the vocal exercises and song lyrics. I submitted my reading response video and the self evaluation for last week's workshop presentation. Yesterday I rewrote my song “Naive” using western style chord progressions in D minor at a practice session with my friend Tracey. Afterwards we went to a live band karaoke benefit for the Vancouver Tenants' Union. It started late, so after singing “You Oughta Know” Tracey drove me home. 

Over the last three days I filmed seven full-length dance videos for my YouTube channel - unfortunately one of them was struck down right away due to a copyright claim, sigh. But I'm hoping to keep making dance videos for my YouTube channel over the coming weeks. A video that I filmed for an Arabic pop song yesterday has already got 122 views. I was just listening to an old podcast from over two years ago that talked about the many benefits of doing a 30 day/50 day/100 day/365 day creativity challenge - getting better at one's craft, pushing past perfectionism, putting oneself out there, building a community around one's art, creating a body of work. I hope I can keep it up.

I managed to squeeze in my dance practice between breakfast and my online grant-writing meeting at 10 AM. Class 2 focused on the Rib Up movements in Datura Style - rib cage lifts, chest lifts, bodywaves, undulations, Wave Step (formerly Arabic), and Inverted Wave Step. It was good to go over these movements and distinguish between the rib cage lift and the chest lift. When I first started studying bellydance many years ago undulations came easily to me, so I didn't practice them as diligently as I should have, and now they're rusty. I'd like to do the 90  x 90 practice with bodywaves as Rachel Brice recommended, especially in order to prepare for deep backbends. I was doing that at one point but I fell off the wagon. No matter how hard I try, the timing for the Inverted Wave Step just doesn't seem to click in place for me.

I'd been dreading today's grant writing meeting because I had been working on a challenging grant writing application, and instead of emailing my coworker to help me out, I emailed my boss over the weekend and never heard back from her. Today she told me she never read my email, and as it turned out the application required complicated documents that my coworker would probably not have been able to help me with.

We went out afterwards to run some errands. My mother picked up an activity guide from the local seniors' centre. I went to the library to pick up my USB drive, which I had left there a couple of weeks ago, and a couple of self-help books - as I told the librarian, I didn't have the bandwidth to read “real” books. I met up with my mother at Shoppers Drug Mart in the mall. We discussed whether we should pick up milk and eggs from there - Ma gets a seniors' discount on Thursdays which makes them cheaper than from the supermarket. We decided to go to the Shoppers at the skytrain station to pick up some other items that weren't at this location. We had lunch in the food court. I had Italian hash and Ma had grilled boneless chicken thighs with potatoes and vegetables. The restuarant was run by a single Asian man who was nice enough to give me free green onions and cheese sauce. Ma was wavering over which soft drink to get. I steared her away from the Crush cream soda, which I knew would be too sweet for her tastes, and suggested she get the Fresca. She liked it. She picked up a few things from Walmart, and then we took the bus to the skytrain station. I waited at a bench while she shopped at the drugstore. Someone had left a blank passport application on the bench. A woman came up to me and asked if the bags on the bench were empty and if she could have one. When I replied no, she apologized for being scattered and repeatedly said she was having a terrible day. She took the envelope and said she would drop it off at the police station nearby. At first I was suspicious, but I realized that she just wanted to be a good citizen, and who was I to deny her that. Ma and I took the bus home.