Micro-practice on the F Harmonic Minor Contrary Motion Scale

I woke up late this morning. Not only did I not have time to work out, but I didn't have time for the usual 20 minutes I've been devoting to piano in the mornings before work.

I still managed to squeeze in about ten minutes. I spent those ten minutes working on the F harmonic minor contrary motion scale.

Playing it in eighth notes at 60 wasn't working. I was getting through the scale, but never without stumbling. And when I did get it right, it felt more like luck than anything else. So I slowed down. Really s-l-o-w-e-d down. All the way down to where I was playing a single note on each beat of the metronome ... at 40!

At that pace, I could anticipate where my fingers would go next. I was anticipating three and four and five notes ahead. I had time to think. I felt like I could breathe. I felt like ... I knew what I was doing.

I played the scale at that pace several times, and then I inched the metronome up to just a little faster. And then a little faster. As it turns out, I still feel like I have time to think when I play it at one note per beat at 50. And then I tried two notes per beat at 40. Still good.

I was tempted to try two notes per beat at 50, but I stopped for two reasons:

I had a good thing going.
I was out of time.

I really think that, when you play something for the last time in a practice, that "version" gets imprinted in your brain. If I play the scale badly, or even just miss a note here and there, I imagine the "bad" version is what my brain remembers the next time around. So I played the scale perfectly at a slow pace several times, and then I moved on.

Until next time ...

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Picking Up the Pieces

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