Crossing Noise

I'm practicing more and more frequently, and I'm starting to learn how I'm making mistakes instead of just what they are. At first, I was having trouble with my fingers not going back to where they were when I picked them up to make a note, or sliding down below a hole while I was busy trying to make another note. I was playing with my elbows too close to my sides, which significantly reduced my wrist flexibility. Also, I was tending to rotate my wrist on my right hand as I moved up the scale, rather than just lifting the fingers straight up from the knuckle.

"Crossing noises" are extra note sounds heard between the note you were last playing and the next note you play, caused by lifting or lowering your fingers in the wrong order. I have trouble lifting my right ring finger independently of the others, so I get them when skipping notes, say from an A to a C.

Plus, I'm still having trouble sight-reading, trying to get my fingers to move to match the note I see, but I think that will just take practice to instill the muscle memory.

I've been playing with Bagpipe Music Writer some to make my own practice exercises, and I'll post those soon. Mostly they involve jumping around on the scale on each hand and then both hands. Still haven't learned any gracenotes yet, but that will come soon, I hope. In a fit of overenthusiasm, I'm also working on an arrangement of Ashokan Farewell for BMW. Yeah, that should be good.