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Status: Music (2020 - September)

(Text as at 04/10/2020 00:27:22)

(For earlier versions of this Note, see the table at the end)

Rationale for this Project


Summary of Progress during July - September 2020
  1. I spent 49.77 hours in 20Q3 on this Project, or related work (319.49 hours YTD, where for "YTD" - Year to Date - I mean the (academic) year that commenced in October 2019). That's 54.5% of the planned effort (87.5% YTD). Overall, 7.1% of my Project effort in the Quarter was directed towards this project (making 11.5% YTD) - as against 13% planned (12.3% YTD).
  2. As can be seen, I really lost focus on my music in 20Q3, especially in September during and following our holiday in Norfolk. I only spent about half the time planned.
  3. That said, … currently I’ve been focusing on Grade VII oboe, but have now started to look at Grade VIII. Unfortunately, of late – while I practice almost every day – it has only been for 15 minutes, which just about keeps things ticking over.
  4. In 20Q3 I passed the 1,000 hours mark for oboe-playing (since I started recording my time in June 2005).
  5. Theoretically, I have oboe lessons every two weeks during term-time, but these came to a stop in mid-March 2020 on account of Covid-19. I had the opportunity to continue them via Facebook Messenger in May but decided against it for two reasons:-
    1. I wanted to prepare acceptable recordings for review.
    2. I wanted to try playing by ear, which would take time away from preparing set pieces.
  6. I was making good progress on my own – aided by my friend Dave providing me with piano backing tracks for pieces by Schumann. Unfortunately, I seem to have a couple of cloth ears for music, and attempts at playing by ear are in abeyance after a couple of hours effort. Also, I got “stuck” on the 3rd Movement of the Saint-Saens – it’s supposed to be played at 140 bpm, and I couldn’t manage it at 60 bpm, especially with the piano accompaniment that Dave had prepared for me. This led me to lose heart a bit and hence practice less.
  7. I’ve now decided to leave the above piece in the “must be joking” bucket for the time being until my skills improve so I can manage it. I’ve been practicing the three “studies” by Bach and can now play them pretty well.
  8. I’ve just signed up for the $4 / month version of "Earmaster - Ear Training & Sight-singing", though haven’t used it yet (though I did trial the free version).
  9. The Enigma Ensemble remains in hibernation and I can’t see it reconvening any time soon.
  10. I now record and report time spent practicing individual pieces on my oboe: follow this link2.
  11. Further details follow:-
Music (Total Hours = 49.75)
  1. Music - Administration (Total Hours = 6.5)
  2. Music - Aural (Total Hours = 6.75)
  3. Music - Oboe (Total Hours = 35.75)
  4. Music - Theory

Plans for the Near Future
Progress to Date

The lists of items performed is cumulative, so I’ve hived off the history to a separate document10, which needs a minor update.


In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 4: Footnote 5: Footnote 6: Footnote 7: Footnote 8: Footnote 9: Ie. The following:-

Printable Version:


Table of the Previous 12 Versions of this Note: (of 62)

Date Length Title
03/07/2020 22:09:07 10687 Status: Music (2020 - June)
04/04/2020 00:14:24 9476 Status: Music (2020 - March)
19/01/2020 23:41:17 10111 Status: Music (2019 - December)
10/10/2019 23:58:34 9785 Status: Music (2019 - September)
14/07/2019 20:29:46 7564 Status: Music (2019 - June)
05/04/2019 10:36:29 6821 Status: Music (2019 - March)
06/01/2019 23:36:58 6927 Status: Music (2018 - December)
10/10/2018 16:43:41 6484 Status: Music (2018 - September)
06/07/2018 18:56:10 4990 Status: Music (2018 - June)
05/04/2018 10:48:00 5680 Status: Music (2018 - March)
05/01/2018 00:11:31 6105 Status: Music (2017 - December)
09/10/2017 23:25:26 6792 Status: Music (2017 - September)


Note last updated Reference for this Topic Parent Topic
04/10/2020 00:27:22 812 (Status: Music (2020 - September)) Status: Summary (2020 - September)

Summary of Note Links from this Page

Status: Oboe Practice (2020: November) Theo Todman's Music Page      

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.



Summary of Note Links to this Page

Aeon Papers - Summary Document: 2017-2018 Status: Oboe Practice (2020: November) Status: Priority Task List (2020 - November) Status: Summary (2020 - September), 2 Status: Summary Task List (2020: October - December)
Status: Summary Task List (YTD: 20Q4) Theo Todman's Music Page, 2 Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4    

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.



Text Colour Conventions

  1. Black: Printable Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020
  2. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020



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