Another "Getting Acquainted" Session

There was a ladies’ luncheon going on outside of Thuddy’s quarters, so I headed over to Zan the Grand’s sanctuarial abode today.

There’s something wrong with Zan. Sure, he’s a Steinway, but there’s something even more wrong with him than that. The high notes are sticking. As in, I try to play several notes in a row, and it sounds like I’m using the damper pedal for a foot-rest. Sigh.

Enough complaining. The kind folks at the church are letting me use Zan, Thuddy, and any other piano I desire for free, every single day, for an hour a day. I appreciate them a thousand times over.

Today was another “short bits and pieces” practice session.

After warm-up scales, inversions, and arps, I started with Shosti. I worked on the “A” section yesterday, so I went straight to the “B” section. A bit more of the “oom-pah-pah” in the LH—pretty simple—and lots of repeated notes (but some tricky fingerings) in the RH. I spent more time on the RH, playing and re-playing slowly, getting my RH fingers comfortable with what was being demanded of them.

Next: Kenny, a.k.a. the Beethoven. I love this piece so far. I love the “call-and-response” feel of the playful motives. I played HS, stopping at places that didn’t feel so natural, and, again, working to get comfortable with the fingering and the notes.

Then it was onward to the Bach Bb fugue. I played through each individual voice and made notes about the sections that seemed like they would be the most challenging. Tomorrow I’ll think more about that, and Thursday I’ll probably begin working on the “hardest” measures.

Last but not least: The Bach Bb prelude. I didn’t have a lot of time left, so I played through the first two pages (slowly), then went to the last page and played through individual measures several times each.

Yes, I’m still in “getting acquainted” mode with each of these pieces. Haven’t started anything HS (except for the prelude), and haven’t really started drilling anything yet. If all goes well, I’ll begin more intense work on all of these as the weekend approaches.

Comments

Stephen LLG said…

I am rather worried about Thuddy. I'll bet he feels really down to have been deserted at such short notice. Can we have a picture and / or description of his manly charms please ?

3:38 AM

The Rusty Lock and Key

I'm in a room. There's a door in front of me. On the other side of that door is a whole world of adventure and imagination and joy and delight, but for the moment, I'm locked in this gray little room. The door itself has a lock that is all rusted. I've tried to open it in the past, but I've never gotten very far. Sometimes I try to scrape the rust off the lock. I also have a rusty old key that I occasionally try to polish. Each time, after I've made a little progress, I'll put it into the keyhole in hopes of opening the door. It turns a half a millimeter or so, but the brief excitement at my progress dies quickly when I realize, once again, the lock isn't opening. I set the old key aside, and from there I can forget about the door, the lock, and the world outside, for months—years, even. But then something happens—I hear birdsong, or I catch a glimpse of color—and I pick up the key and start picking away at the stubborn rust. That dark little room is my ...

The Amazing Practice Tracker 2.0: Leveling Up My Piano Game

(Apologies for the cheesy clip art. I needed to come up with something, or the Blogger template would show a fuzzy, overly-enlarged snippet of the first chart below.) When I showed my husband my piano practice tracker, he said I should market and sell it. Ha. It’s not for sale, but I’m excited to share how this tool has transformed my practice—and why it might inspire all three of my readers. Since my last post about the Amazing Practice Tracker, I’ve made it even better. Here’s a peek at how it works, using my June data. All The Pretty Colors, All the Pretty Winners My tracker now sparkles with color: darker shades for active pieces, lighter ones for maintenance, technique, and sight-reading. Each day, the piece I practice most gets a bright yellow highlight—a little “gold medal,” if you will. (Click image for a slightly larger view.) A leaderboard automatically shows the day’s top piece and time. And if that isn't enough, I keep track of the month's leaders--specifically, ho...

Eureka! Secondary Dominant!

I am such a nerd, and I love being a nerd! Today I was working on Section 5 of You Are My Sunshine, specifically on getting this section up to performance level. In other words, I was practicing being a performer , not an arranger . But then, of course, I came up with another idea. I had just played the delicate sixths and descending rag rolls of "when skies are gray" (I chord) and then moved to the parallel octaves of "you never know, dear" (leading to IV). The shift sounded abrupt to me. Harsh. It needed something. It needed musical WD-40. Something to ease the hinge between textures. And then I stumbled upon it! Right before moving to IV, I can slip in a V7/IV — a secondary dominant! So I tried it, and it sounded so good that I actually yelled "Secondary dominant!" out loud in my house like I was Archimedes discovering water displacement in the bathtub. It's such a small thing. One little chord. But it smooths that transition, leaning the harmony ...

Picking Up the Pieces

Search This Blog