The Tracks of My Chopin

It has been a lovely morning. I woke up, did some writing, listened to some Horowitz, listened to Rubinstein playing my Nocturne, and then played for a few minutes myself, all before waking up the kid and getting her off to school.

Considering how little I've played in the past few weeks, and particularly how little I've played in the past 10 years, Op. 9 No. 1 is not sounding too bad. My new teacher may have different opinion, but for now, I'm going with my own judgment. I feel like I don't have too far to go to get this into "recital" shape.

What's left?

Memorize. I have a lot of it by muscle memory, but I haven't actively worked on memorizing it.
Analyze. As a composer wanna-be, I want to look at every single unit of this piece and understand what makes each one what it is. This probably isn't a necessary step, but it's something I want to do.
Learn the notes. Ha ha. OK, so I already know the notes, but there are just a few areas where I'm stumbling. Here is the biggie:

This starts at about 4:13 in the Rubinstein recording linked above. I have the notes, and it's easy as pie to play this hands-separately. But put 'em together? My brain goes haywire.

Once upon a time, I could play this. So I know I have it in me. The tracks have been laid down in my brain somewhere. I just need to find them, or possibly re-lay them.

There are two other similar measures, but both of them are simpler. The second one isn't bad at all, just a series of 2-against-3. The first one, right at the beginning of the piece, is more challenging. I can play it, but I would like for it to be smoother.

As for the rest of the piece ... I have the notes, but I don't have the confidence of having the notes. That confidence will come with practice and memorization and probably those fun little analysis sessions I want to have. And as I gain more confidence, I'll be able to play with expression more consistently.

So maybe I have a longer way to go on this piece than I thought.

I should have three delicious hours for practicing tomorrow night. I'll spend some of that time on voice, but I'm also planning to spend a good chunk of it on this piece right here. I don't start my lessons for another week and a half, so I'm really not sure what to practice ... so I'm focusing on this one for now.

If you are really bored and read old posts from this blog and my A Sort of Notebook blog, you'll see that this piece has been with me a long time. Whenever I start dabbling in piano again, I come back to it. I've never totally lost it, but each time I've come back, I've been acutely aware that I have work to do if I want to get it back into recital shape. In years past, I haven't had the time or the energy to do that work. Now I do. (Not really. But it made for a nice concluding sentence.)

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Picking Up the Pieces

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