Picking Up the Pieces

I know it's been quiet on this blog lately, so I offer my profuse apologies to my two or three readers. Actually, I'm not sure I have that many readers, but if I do? My profuse apologies! I am truly sorry and humbly repent! Seriously, though. It's been quiet here, and it's been quiet in my piano room too. Poor, neglected Roland Nicholas (my piano) had to take a back seat to weight-training this month. Between volleyball season and my doctor's osteoporosis warning, I've been motivated for the past four weeks to get back into shape. I dusted off my old Beachbody DVDs and am on my way to feeling strong again! Roland Nicholas got love in October, just a little less of it. Still, I had a few wins last month. October Wins Liszt's Liebesträume No. 3 is now a true maintenance piece! I play it effortlessly (most of the time) and love being able to focus more on dynamics, voicing, and rubato, and less on memory worries and wrong notes. Bare Necessities is back in my...

For about six months, I've been doing regular "hand yoga" exercises that I've developed, partly based on Sara Davis Buechner's Tonebase series on the technique work of Alberto Jonas. Back in May, I was able to reach a tenth with my right hand, but just barely, and I couldn't play the notes at the same time. I had to play a note with the thumb, and then stretch, stretch, stretch so that my pinky could just catch the corner of the note a tenth up. Last night I played the two notes at the same time with either hand! I tried to do it again on this video and couldn't. But you can see that the reach has become doable if I play one note and then the other. Will I ever be able to play stride piano, which uses lots of tenths in the left hand? Probably not. But I can keep trying. The best part of these exercises, I think, is that my octaves are much more solid than they've ever been!

For the past three years, the period from mid-November to late March has been devoted, in part, to volleyball, as my daughter played on a club team. She’s never been a power player, but she enjoyed being part of the team and making friends along the way. My husband and I loved it too—the parent friends, the travel, the memories, and, of course, watching our kid play! And as a volleyball enthusiast, I always looked forward to the games. My #34, on the court with her 15s teammates last season. A Time for Change This year, I knew things would change. I’m now on the coaching staff for her club and had asked to be the assistant coach for whatever team she was on, provided she decided to try out (which was uncertain) and made a team. She had been waffling all year about whether to try out. A bad experience with her coach last year made her swear off volleyball, but a good JV season at school gave her some renewed interest. When two of her good friends said they were trying out, she decided...

I'll be playing my Liszt at the next performance workshop on the Piano With Rebecca B platform. The workshop is November 1, and I'm happy with this piece is for now. My focus between now and then will be on practicing to perform . I think I know what to do, but I'm still going to review Molly Gebrian 's  chapters on performance, as well as Rebecca's own video . I'm sure there are tips I've forgotten. For now, here is the "progress post" I shared with the PWJ community today. It's not perfect, but I still think it sounds beautiful. What's the Beethoven quote? "To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable"? I do play this piece with passion. And love. Listening dispassionately right now, I see a few spots I'd like to improve (aside from the missed notes), so I'll work on those as I prepare for the performance. Can't wait!

(Warning: Cheesy Metaphor Below!) This weekend was glorious for piano. Despite my wrist hurting, I managed to put almost four hours into piano on Saturday and Sunday. I never spent more than about 30 minutes on a piece/project, and most of my sessions were just 10 or 15 minutes. In other words, I practiced in bits and pieces. With several projects this month (including three new ones), I'm taking the approach of planting seeds and watering them regularly. The Cheesy (or Flowery) Metaphor It doesn't take long to plant a seed, and it takes even less time to water it. Yet, with sunlight, good soil, and regular watering, the plant will grow. The good soil is my foundation of music and piano knowledge and experience. The sunlight is the goals I'm working and growing toward. And the watering? Those are my short but focused practice sessions. The invisible growth of the plant is my brain working on everything when I'm away from the piano. In my non-piano life, I trust that the...

One unexpected benefit of this little practice blog? It’s like having a time machine. Sure, I can hear how much I’ve improved (always encouraging on those days when progress feels invisible). But the real surprise is this: I can stumble across ideas I once played, loved ... and then totally forgot about. Case in point: today. I uploaded yesterday's take on the You Are My Sunshine Rag to YouTube. Then, out of curiosity, I went back to my version from two months ago , just to check that I wasn’t repeating myself. (Before yesterday, I don't think I'd touched the piece since then.) Here's what I found: The rag roll section is much more solid now. The little curlicue ending ... still shaky. The best part: I had completely forgotten that, in August, my right hand arpeggiates up an octave halfway through the chorus. It is delightful, and I can't believe I'd forgotten about it! So I'm going to bring back that little arpeggiation next time! For now, here’s yesterday...