HI MG,

>>"Your mention of practice started me thinking of some of the exercises I used to have to do. Like a thumb under exercise on a dimished chord with a sixth--up and down the keyboard as fast as possible, one note of the chord higher each time, or lower if coming down, thumb under every three notes, with a quarter balanced on each wrist."

How well I remember that exercise (except for the quarter balancing act). I couldn't hold a pencil in my hand the rest of the day. I did download a bunch of Hannon exercises last year but lost them in the computer crash.

I am learning GPO little by little. I really need to learn how to "tweak" the instruments. I've tried a lot of them in some previous pieces. A few sound a little better, but many don't sound as good as the GM instruments. I know that has to be my fault. I just have to figure out where I am at fault. I hope I don't need another sound card. Well, back to the drawing board!

Cheers,
Fred