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Several-Day Update

I've managed to squeeze in several short practices over the past few days. None of them were "worth writing home about," but I do want to keep track of my progress here, so this will be an all-in-one update.

Scales

I must say, I am so happy to be focusing on scales and not arpeggios right now. We'll return to "arps" in good time, but for now I'm working diligently at getting the scales back in my fingers and my brain. I'm playing 24 scales a day: 12 majors plus 12 harmonic minors, all in parallel and contrary motion. I still doing the majors at 60 and the minors at ♪ = 50. I do all of the majors plus six minors (C, C#, D, Eb, E, and F) in the morning, and then the remaining six minors (F#, G, G#, A, Bb, and B) in the evening.

And they're getting better! It really doesn't take that much time, either, particularly now that I'm becoming comfortable with the scales again. I imagine I will move up a degree on the metronome for next week.

Hanon

I'm doing #3 in Hanon. Oh, I love Hanon. In the morning, I play through it very softly at legato, staccato, and syncopated. In the evening, I play at a normal volume (since no one is sleeping). I'm spending a lot of time this week working on softness + evenness, which is a challenge, particularly on an old piano.

Bach

I have worked through the notes of the whole piece. That was, for the most part, the easy part. Now I get to start working more on tone and evenness and ... speed! Yay, speed! But I am determined to take this so slowly that, by the time I'm playing at the recommended speed, it doesn't feel like any kind of effort.

Schubert

I can now play a little over half of the penultimate page. I was expecting this page to be challenging, and parts of it are ... but not the very end section! It's actually fun, even at the creeping, crawling pace I'm currently using! Here are my impressions of the parts I worked on this week:


Hopefully that's readable! The "more challenging" part--the chromatic stuff on the first two lines--is where I need to focus my next few practices. I think it's one of those "deceptively simple" things--nothing is hard to reach, and the timing and rhythm are straightforward ... but it will just take time to get it all in my head and in my hands.

Chopin

I have avoided drilling anything in the Chopin--after all, I know the whole piece! Right?

But last night as I played, I realized I need to drill. The realization came with some degree of disappointment, but once I dove in, I was all in. Last night I looked particularly at the crescendo/decrescendo sections here:


And here ...


I think I've been playing everything too loud, and too much at the same volume. I'm working really hard to pay more attention to dynamics. I keep forgetting to do that, which is why I think lots of drilling is now in order.

I have a lesson on Thursday ... can't wait!
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