Yesterday I went up to Logan to have a lesson with Professor Amano.  It was a great lesson.  We worked on my Bach Variations and we decided that I am going to use it to compete with in February for the Utah Symphony Youth Guild competition.  The Bach is going really well and basically I am just working on "polishing" it.  As the competition gets closer I will definitely be needing people to play for!

This week has been the best week!!  On Sunday, my mom told me that no matter what I had to get a minimum of three hours a day Monday through Friday.  I had many late nights but I managed to get three hours each day.  Since I got fifteen hours during the week I get to have a relaxing weekend!  One thing I learned is that no matter how hard it is to do something and no matter how easy it seems it would be to quit, just keep working hard because you will be rewarded and feel happy in the end. 

I love piano so much but it can be so frustrating sometimes! I have been working really hard on one of my pieces and I felt like I almost had it, but then I played through the entire thing and it went all wrong. I kept messing up and it sounded terrible! I know that when I have moments like these I just have to keep plugging away and I have to remind myself that it will all come together....so that is what I am going to do.

I have decided that I love accompanying!  I love to compete and perform for people, but I also really enjoy accompanying for singers or instruments.  It gives me a chance to meet new people or get to know people better and it also is really relaxing for me.  It is completely different from competing and just performing because I am not the soloist.  I have to learn how to follow whoever I am accompanying.  It is a different skill that I am glad I am able to learn and develop as I accompany more and more!