October 30, 2020--Practice Blog in the time of the virus

It has been a while, but I finally got around to hopefully returning to blogging a little more regularly. I am teaching on online class, and that has filled most of my days for the past couple of weeks. I think the hardest part is done now. So I can hopefully get more practicing in.

Today, I worked on my class for about an hour and a half--re-recording segments and arranging slide presentations for the online format. Loaded three lectures (each about 10-15 minutes) onto the platform. The church I am now employed at has cancelled the last three weeks due to a COVID outbreak--so that hurt the budget. Took a substitute job at a small church in South Dakota for this Sunday on a neat little tracker organ with a total of twelve stops. You get to be creative with registration on it! I went to practice this morning and realized I had left my bag with music and shoes in my office. The secretary was running out at that time, so we agreed to meet after an hour so she could take care of some errands. Went into work and spent another 45 minutes scanning over quizzes to make sure the key was correct. Went back to the church and got about two hours of practice time in. My wife has agreed to let me make a "Dungeons and Dragons" themed dinner tomorrow night. I purchased a cookbook that tries to recreate the cuisines discussed in the game. I figured out what the meal is going to be and went grocery shopping for it. Took longer than I expected--Surprisingly, it is difficult to get ground lamb here. Got home in time to watch some Judge Judy before teaching a half-hour online lesson. Then, got some piano practice in and came down to type this up.

On the organ, I worked on the Krebs Prelude in F major (recording above), The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon by Handel (for a wedding next week), Air from the Suite in D major by Bach (also for the wedding--needed to see if I could learn it in the short amount of time as the couple asked me to do it yesterday), and all of the service music for Sunday. It's a hefty liturgy with it being All-Souls day and in COVID. Full liturgy and six hymns.

On the piano, I got tired of playing the three Beethoven Sonatas that I have been working on and a second book I have been learning I forgot at work. I pulled out a Mozart Sonata I have wanted to bring back for some time, K. 533/494. Such a wonderful piece.