Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

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Ode to Joy, Days 24 and 25: Ode to Anger

I had a great practice on Batch 3 yesterday and a good one on Batch 1 today. To remind you where I am: it’s now Day 25 of the 28-day Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B , where I’m learning Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy . The challenge schedule currently has me on my third day revisiting Batch 3 after a seven-day break. At the same time, I’ve started my Phase 2 schedule, which overlaps with the challenge schedule for a few days. That’s OK. For Phase 2, today was Day 1 of Batch 1 , which includes the intro and A section . Whew. That sounds more complicated than it really is. I’m just glad I have spreadsheets to keep me organized. Day 24, Batch 3 Yesterday I focused on Batch 3 . One of the day’s suggestions was to play the passages with emotion : anger, sadness, joy, whatever. So naturally I picked anger, which seemed like an appropriately strange fit for a piece called Ode to Joy. What surprised me was that channeling anger made me forget th...

In Other Piano News ...

I just scrolled through the blog and realized that it's been so focused on Ode to Joy and the 28-Day Challenge that I've failed to give updates on the other things I've been up to. Foundations: Major 2-5-1 Progression: This is going well. Right now I'm just in Lesson 1 (root-position chords), and I can play them, but not at the recommended tempo. I'm spending about 10 minutes a day on this, and I expect I'll be ready for Lesson 2 before the weekend. Jazz Soloing I: I just started this learning track on the Piano With Jonny site. So far, the first couple of courses have been review for me (diatonic chords, guide tones, etc.). I'm excited to be on a new learning track after completing Analysis, which I loved. I hope to love this one just as much! A lot of this course focuses on soloing over the 2-5-1 progression, so I'm hoping to work some of that into my Foundations practice. After You've Gone: As I mentioned a few days ago, I brought this one back ...

Ode to Joy: Phase 2 Begins Tomorrow!

I am now on the cusp of Phase 2 of learning Jonny May's Ode to Joy. Phase 1 was all about learning the notes, locking down the rhythms, and refining the fingering. In Phase 2, I will focus on: Dynamics Articulation Phrasing Voicing Tempo (starting at a very comfortable 60 bpm) Memorization Dynamics This is a relatively short piece when played at tempo (about two minutes; less if you're Jonny May), and it would be easy to just play everything loud. But I want the left hand to be a steady presence—not too loud, not too soft—while the right hand does its thing. And the four-on-the-floor sections should, I think, naturally be a little softer than the boom-chick sections. The fun, crunchy transitions between sections should also be just a hair louder than what came before. So I have work to do there, though the dynamics do make sense and mostly come naturally. I just want to make sure they come naturally in performance, and that will take deliberate practice. Articulation and Phrasi...

Ode to Joy, Day 22: News Flash: Beethoven Works as Romantic Music!

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B , I’ve reached Day 22 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy . Sorry I missed a couple of days of updates. I was in North Carolina for the weekend and did quite a bit of mental practice, but it wasn't the most exciting thing to write about (or video) Day 22 Today’s focus is variable practice, where you intentionally change something each time you repeat a passage instead of playing it the exact same way over and over. You might vary the tempo, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, phrasing, and so on. The idea is to keep your brain actively engaged rather than letting it slip into autopilot. Apparently, besides being kind of fun, this kind of practice improves learning, memory, flexibility, and consistency in ways that regular repetition doesn’t. Today’s passages were Batch 2 (revisiting after 7 days away) and Batch 6 (revisiting after 2 days away). I experimented a bit with tempo and dynam...

Ode to Joy, Day 19: Technically Simple, Mentally Demanding

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B , I’ve reached Day 19 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy . Sadly, I have no video from this morning's practice because I was short on time. Day 19 At this point in the challenge, I am spinning three plates: Continue learning Batch 6 Continue reviewing Batch 1 after its seven-day break Begin reviewing Batch 5 after its two-day break It's a lot, and it feels like a lot. But I'm getting it done, little by little. Batch 6 Learning/Batch 1 Overlap This morning I worked on Batch 6, Passage 2, which I'm calling the A section tag: a short restatement of the A theme before the outro. It's another one of those "not technically hard but mentally demanding" passages that are all over this piece. First there's the left hand, which follows a new descending pattern, and any departure from "1-5 boom-chick" takes adjustment. Then there's the right hand,...

Ode to Joy Day 18: I'm Making Music!

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B , I’ve reached Day 18 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy . Today’s assignment is threefold: continue reviewing Batch 4 (measures 64–71), continue learning Batch 6 (measures 96–123), and continue reviewing Batch 1 (measures 0–23). Day 18 This morning I focused primarily on Passage 1 of Batch 6, which is almost identical to Passage 3 of Batch 1, so I got to revisit Batch 1 at the same time. This eight-measure passage is the opening A phrase, repeated, and after seven days away from it, I was hoping I’d sit down and magically be able to play it. No such luck. I had to play it through six times (three times, a short break, then three more), followed by a five-minute Batch 4 review before coming back to it. It didn't exactly sound bad, but there were a few stubborn half-measures, and I took a few minutes to drill each of those. At the end of my short practice, though, I was playing it...