Picking Up the Pieces

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I've Changed.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I asked Eric to suggest a not-long piece that would stretch me to just a little beyond my current capability. He suggested this. Oh my. That looks and sounds hard. I looked up the level, and it is listed as Grade 11 on the Piano Syllabus site . For comparison, Maple Leaf Rag and Chopin's F Minor Nocturne are both Grade 8. The Mozart that I want to learn is Grade 7. [Note: I think "grade levels" are often arbitrary because simple pieces can have difficult elements, and vice-versa. But at the same time, they can be useful to get an idea of what I might enjoy learning, and what I might be able to learn in a set amount of time.] Am I Ready for a Grade 11 Piece? My gut answer is "no." Even though my other piece will be a Grade 7, I don't know if it's wise for me to take on something so difficult. (Also, keep in mind that I'm working on "Bare Necessities" too, which has its own challenges.) If I really, really

First Piano Lesson in Six Weeks

I had a piano lesson yesterday. It was my first lesson in six weeks, thanks to multiple planned and unplanned schedule changes. Six weeks ago, I was still working on how to interpret the "Mad Chase" section of Chopin, and I hadn't put any serious work into the final page yet. I was still fine-turning "Misty" and was just noodling around with Bare Necessities. I was crawling through Maple Leaf Rag and working to memorize the D section. And my adventure into minor sevenths was still three weeks into the future. A lot has happened in six weeks. Forty-five blog posts' worth of stuff! We went a few minutes over at yesterday's lesson, which is supposed to last a half-hour. I was glad Eric could go over because I really wanted the opportunity to cover both Chopin and Maple Leaf. Chopin and Piano-Lesson Piano Woes I played Chopin first. I'll begin by saying that I don't like the piano used in the lesson. It's a Kawai (I think) spinet, and it always s

Sad, Slow Minor Moodling

A few days ago, I wrote about my lack of enthusiasm for minor sevenths , my Level 4 Foundations focus for the month at Piano With Jonny . At the end of that post, I wrote that I might try to "improvise/compose something, maybe, that manages to be based in minor sevenths without sounding lost and listless." Sunday night when we got home from the volleyball party, I myself was feeling a little lost and listless. I'm not sure why. Part of it is I'm sad that yet another club volleyball season is over. I was also tired, and my teen daughter and I weren't getting along, and ... I just felt sad. Even though it was after 9pm on a Sunday night, I sat down to practice for a few minutes ... but nothing was working. Not only that, I didn't feel like practicing anything. I wasn't in the mood for happy, bouncy ragtime, so no Maple Leaf Rag or Bare Necessities. My Chopin Nocturne would have matched my mood, but I didn't want to think that hard. I just wanted to play

Fun with Friends

In my goals last Friday, I mentioned, half-jokingly, that I dream of the day when I happen to be in the vicinity of a grand piano with a ready-made audience . Well, readers, that very thing happened last night. And the others wanted to play "Heart and Soul" ... so we played "Heart and Soul." It was fun, as I don't think of any of us had participated in a "Heart and Soul" duet (or trio) since we were kids. But the ready-made-piano-dream-in-my-head-with-an-audience didn't happen. I did get to rush through "Maple Leaf Rag" at the very end. It was almost time to leave, and I was tired and made all kinds of mistakes, so that was a little disappointing. But it did feel good to play a real, acoustic grand. This party was an end-of-season party for my daughter's volleyball team and families. In the video, I'm playing the melody in the treble. Our middle blocker's dad is in the middle, and our outside hitter's mom is in the bass. (

Practicing Chopin Like It's Stride Piano

In my quest to build muscle memory as well as ear/mind memory in the Transcendence, I'm engaging in fast-practice techniques. Friday morning I worked with the metronome and found myself focusing so hard on the notes that I forgot the pedal ... and realized I was playing Chopin like it was stride piano. Readers, it was fun. As I increase the tempo on the metronome, I continued to play stride-style. There is a time and a place, certainly, for working on dynamics, rubato, pedaling, and such ... but there's also a time and place to simply get the hands used to playing the right notes, regardless of all those other things. And it was fun. Here's the video, in case you ever wondered what Chopin sounds like as a stride piano piece! (If Chopin in stride style makes you cringe, be comforted in the fact that I play it properly at the end of the video!)

The Transcendence: A Bass Line Eureka Moment!

Thursday night I had a not-particularly-satisfying practice on the Transcendence, mainly working in rhythms. (See this post for the gory details.) Friday morning, I decided to see if a good night's sleep had helped at all. And, surprise! I had a small breakthrough. Or maybe just a realization. I've consistently played the wrong note (a B-flat instead of a D-flat) in this one measure, and even though I'd drilled it to death the night before, I was still missing it in my morning practice. So I decided to play through the section, saying the name of each bass note out loud as I played them. By doing this, I realized that the bass uses the same five-note pattern twice in a row. Eureka! (For something that should have been obvious to me from the beginning!) Ah well, better late than never. And now I'll have my eyes and ears open for patterns like this as I learn future pieces.