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Practice Update, 1/31/24

Dear readers,

After blogging about the F minor nocturne for a few weeks, I finally have the first two pages to share. My playing isn't perfect -- I miss a note (and add a beat) right after third instance of the main theme, and my grace notes and trills aren't exactly as they should be -- but those are minor issues, and I'm happy with how the recording turned out. The biggest negative is that I stop at one of the more dramatic moments of the piece, and I probably won't have the next page ready to play for another week or two, at least!


I had a piano lesson yesterday with my in-person teacher, Eric. He gave me some good feedback on fingering and articulation. I had fallen into my tendency to play the treble too softly. It's a problem related to my hearing aid, which amplifies higher sounds over lower sounds, so what sounds fine to my hearing aid sounds too soft in reality, and I'll often play the LH and the RH at the same volume when I think the right hand is louder. For this reason, I often prefer to play without the hearing aid ... but then that opens up the potential for other listening/hearing problems.

My lessons with Eric are only thirty minutes, so we never got around to "Maple Leaf Rag" yesterday. I'll still put a little work into that one every day (of courses), as well as work on the next page of the Chopin.

I've also been working on my jazz chord progressions and shell chords every morning. I'm hoping to spend some time tonight on some lead sheets, practicing playing tunes with the different rhythms in the left hand.

That's about it for now. I'm planning to make another video soon, probably of ragtime (maybe page 2 of Maple Leaf), possibly of something jazzy. Stay tuned.
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