Prepping for the MBOTMA Duet and Guitar Contests at the MN State Fair (Cont')

Well, I was hoping to get back to this before the day before the contests, but...

We've been more or less rehearsing songs and tunes daily, usually catching the last speech or two of the Democratic Convention (we'll watch Obama tonight). Last night we started late, and didn't get through everything. I've been working from home and taking 'breaks' to practice. Lynn has finished changing her guitar strings and I will change mine later this afternoon.

For the Flatpicking Contest, you need to prepare a total of 4 tunes - 2 for the 1st round and 2 if you are in the final round of 5. Since I only made the final round in 2004, I usually use the '2nd' round tunes from the year before as my first round tunes. No exception this year: I am using arrangements of 'Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine' and 'Ragtime Annie' for my first round selections: I've been working on them for over year since they were 2nd round picks last year. 2nd round tunes this year are 'Rounding the Horn' and 'Arkansas Traveler'.

I usually play a slower tune as the first tune, then pick up the tempo for the 2nd tune. First started doing this in 2004 (when I placed 4th overall).

The idea for flatpicking is to repeat the tune with different variations each time. This year I am just doing 3 variations for each tune - in the past, I've tried doing 4 for the faster tunes. Since there is a 5 minute limit for BOTH tunes, this means I am giving myself a bigger grace period (at least 30 seconds more).

At Carleton I took piano lessons from Mr. Nelson (who was also Lynn's teacher). One of the techniques he taught was to use a metronome - especially for fast passages: the idea was to start with a slow setting then gradually increase. I use the same technique for the flatpicking tunes, althought in truth, I usually don't start until a couple of weeks before the contest - this year was no exception. One thing metronome work gives you is the chance to go over the tune 6-8 times instead of once or twice.

The 1st round tunes seem comfortable - 2nd round tunes are still works-in-progress so if for some reason I make it to the top 5, I'll be a little rough. (It'll depend on who shows up and who chokes etc.). Last year, as I looked at the people signed up it was pretty clear that if they played well I didn't have a chance - I was a bit nervous and the good players didn't choke so once again I didn't have to worry about playing in the 2nd round.

Lynn does the accompanying on these so it's important that she gets comfortable too. Again, we'll both be a little rough if we do the 2nd round.

Hopefully, I'll post something after the contests, but that's all for now.