Picking Up the Pieces

Today is the birthday of my beloved J.S. Bach. There are so many things I could share, but since this is my piano blog, I'll share one featuring my old piano, Henry. This is Bach's Allemande from his French Suite in G Major.

Apologies for the very rambling post yesterday. I'm a writer, and you'd my blog posts would be neat, self-contained nuggets of clear writing, but ... well, they aren't even close to that. This blog is where I tend to let it all hang loose, and by "it," I mean entire paragraphs, as well as redundant phrases, misplaced modifiers, overly long sentences, and all the rest. Today's post is different. I've been working on the "10 Lesson Blues Challenge" over at Piano With Jonny . I've been in Lesson 3 for a couple of weeks, not making great progress. But now that I'm in North Carolina for a few days with nothing but a 61-key keyboard, I've set Chopin, Maple Leaf, and even Bare Necessities aside to focus on blues. Lesson 3 begins by teaching the blues scale, which was review for me because I've known the blues scale for literally decades. I never really new what to do with it, but it seems like I've always known the notes. As with mo

Yesterday I wrote a little about my performance anxiety. It's a weird kind of performance anxiety because I don't feel anxious at all before I play. I feel happy and relaxed. But then I start to play and realize my brain has gone on vacation and left me here with this hulking piece of wood and strings and plastic, and these pages with all these weird symbols on them, and this expectant audience ... and then the anxiety hits. And everything falls apart. THINGS THAT HAVE REALLY HAPPENED (I've never been an official church accompanist. I've always been the back-up to the back-up, which has resulted in the following scenarios, after which I've retired, once again, from ever agreeing to accompany anyone in public.) Here are some things that have really happened to me: Key Change I: I'm happily playing in F, but my right hand decides to play in F harmonic minor and starts flatting every E and A (and raising the B) while my left hand plays merrily along in F. And my b

I got very frustrated Monday night. I have been trying for about a month to make a decent video of myself playing the Chopin Nocturne in F minor. I'm not striving for perfection; really, if I could make one that just had a dozen or so unremarkable errors here and there, I would be thrilled. But no. When I play for an audience--whether a real-life one or the imagined one behind the "Record" button on my phone--my mind freezes up and I forget how to play the piano. I become unable to read music. I can literally look at a middle C written in front of me and have no idea what it means. Friends, I have been reading music since 1976. I know middle C. I guess it's fight or flight, and my brain obviously chooses "flight." How do I stop it from doing that? I don't know, but I would desperately love to find out. I can play the nocturne pretty well by memory when I'm not recording. I've been very happy with my progress. But when I'm recording? I get som

I'm watching a Tonebase crash course on dynamics, and the instructor, Dr. Leann Osterkamp He, talks about assigning dynamics percentages to each note in a piece. You begin by determining what volume (i.e., how much weight on the keys) will be your "50%" dynamic. Essentially, this would be the half-way point between what you expect to be your loudest and your softest notes in the piece. From there, you assign each note the percentage dynamic that you want to give it when you play. I have never thought about dynamics and phrasing in this kind of detail! Phrasing was just always what felt right ... but could I guarantee that I would use the same phrasing every time I played something, or anything close to the same phrasing? No. I mean, it would be similar, but I've never played with a number in mind of, "When I play this note, I want it to be at this weight of my arm." I'm traveling this weekend and don't have access to a real (or even a digital) piano,

Each Sunday or Monday, I sit down to think about my piano goals for the week. This week is going to be a little unusual because I'll be traveling Tuesday through Saturday night and won't have a piano handy. I'll have my Yamaha 61-key keyboard, but that's not quite the same thing. Still, I'm going to set some goals.  Chopin and Maple Leaf - Take a break. I've gone at these two pieces pretty hard over the last couple of weeks. I'm happy with the progress I've made (in fact, I'm close to being "done" with both of these), and I don't think a break will hurt. It could even help. Dominant Sevenths - Work on improvising. I've put in a lot of work on exercises, but I haven't done much in the way of improvising on them. I have a few little tunes, plus some lead sheets, so this will be a good opportunity to just have some fun noodling around with what I've learned this month. Blues - Continue working on blues-scale exercises, and a

I had the most wonderful weekend, particularly Saturday, practicing Chopin. I practiced other things as well (more on that in another post), but Chopin definitely got the most attention. I worked on the whole piece, but particularly on the sections I call The Transcendence and The Voice from the Dead. Here they are in the video below. I could write a treatise on what I still need to fix, but to be honest, I'm happy overall with my playing. I'm just thrilled to be able to play The Transcendence.

It's Friday! And I have three delicious hours for piano work this evening! I may not use all three hours for piano--I mean, I do need to take breaks to pet the cats and pour another glass of wine--but I love just knowing that I have three uninterrupted hours ahead of me. I should also be able to get some good practice in on Saturday and Sunday. My only other planned activities are to work out, go to volleyball practice (I'm coaching a rec team), and do some weeding. And that's it! Another reason I'm excited is that two of my pieces (the Chopin Nocturne and Maple Leaf Rag) are ready for the next level. It's time to get these fully memorized so I can stop depending on the score and really begin to interiorize them both. Maple Leaf is almost there. I could probably write the score from memory (not that I would want to), but there are just a couple of spots where I still get a little lost: one near the end of Section C, and the other near the end of Section D. So I'

I mentioned a while back that I've started playing scales again, and that I'm working on getting them back up to speed while keeping them smooth and (hopefully) beautiful. I've managed to get my major scales up to 76 on the metronome. My first big goal was 80, but I'm going to celebrate early by sharing this video of them at 76. B-flat went and gave me a little trouble, but not too much. I'm happy with where I am on the majors. I'm going to stay at 76 for a few days because they don't quite feel automatic enough at this tempo. But they will soon. So here they are -- major scales in similar and contrary motion, in all keys, going around the circle of fifths. (Now if I could just learn the secret of playing the blues scale in triplets against the medium blues shuffle in the left hand ...)

As I mentioned last week , I'm doing a deep dive into dominant seventh chords during the month of March. Here are a few of the exercises I've been working on. I haven't worked too much on speed, but I'm planning to focus on getting these a little faster/more automatic during the final week of the month. Exercises include: Block chords, counter-clockwise around the circle of fifths Block chords, clockwise around the circle of fifths Broken chords, counter-clockwise; straight eighth notes Broken chords, clockwise; swung eighth notes Block chords, ascending chromatically Broken chords, descending and ascending chromatically Block chords in inversions, counter-clockwise My broken-chord inversions are still a little sloppy, and I still need to work on the V-I movement with inversions. If I do another video on these at the end of the month, those will be included. Enjoy this otherwise very boring video! I do talk a bit in it. I've found that it's much easier to go fr

 I've gotten back into playing scales every day, alternating between majors and harmonic minors. I play both in parallel motion for two octaves, I play them in contrary motion for two (actually four?) octaves, and then back to parallel motion for two octaves. Here is an example (F# harmonic minor): I don't know why I insist on continuing them to play my scales the way Deborah taught me ... but I do. I think my brain likes it. I can play these scales in all keys ... but there are a few keys where I stumble a bit. So I've started spending a little extra time on a different problem scale every three or four days until I have it. I started with B harmonic minor, and then I went to F# harmonic minor, and now I'm on C# harmonic minor. After that, it will be G#, E-flat, B-flat, and F (all harmonic minors). I can play the majors pretty well, though I do tend to trip up on B major, so I'll probably give that one a few days of extra attention, too. Current speeds? Majors at

This weekend, I decided to (finally) figure out the tempo at which I can play Maple Leaf Rag (MLR) without missing notes in the octaves. It looks like 72 is the magic number. I can play parts of MLR at a faster tempo, but Section C, along with the final line of Section D, keeps me stuck at 72. Now that I have all the notes and the piece is memorized, today begins the journey of picking up speed, just a few metronome notches every few days. As I'm doing this, I'll work more on articulation and working a few ornaments into the repeats. Here is MLR at 72. The goal? Technically 100, but I'm going to push it a little higher (120?) so that (1) 100 is easy, and (2) I'm prepared to play a fast "show off" rendition for an audience if I so desire. It will be a long journey even to 100, but I'm on my way!

As mentioned in a couple of previous posts, I'm planning to spend one week per page learning Jonny May's arrangement of the Disney classic song "Bare Necessities." I started Week 3/Page 3 today(the ragtime section) and realized I'd never posted a video for page 2. So, friends, here is page 2. I'm playing slowly, still working on muscle memory and getting the notes right.

I am so excited about this weekend! It's weird to think that just a month and a half ago, I dreaded waking up every day, even if it was a weekend. Now? I'm so excited about getting home from work this evening because I know that Roland Nicholas the Piano is waiting for me! Goals for This Weekend: Make a video of me playing the F minor nocturne beautifully. Practice Maple Leaf at 80, multiple times, and don't go any faster. Do similar slow practice on page 2 of Bare Necessities, also combining with page 1. Start Lesson 3 of the 10-Lesson Blues Challenge. Work on dominant sevenths. Work on shell chords with several lead sheets. By the end of the weekend, I hope to have at least three videos to share: Chopin F Minor Nocturne Bare Necessities Progress Video A nice arrangement of one of my lead sheet songs In addition to that, we have volleyball practice tonight, team pictures tomorrow afternoon, church on Sunday, and a short hike in the woods to celebrate my husband's birth

Did I mention I also want to learn blues piano? To be honest, I'm feeling more of a pull from blues than from jazz. It was a little disturbing to realize this, as I've wanted to learn jazz for such a long time. But blues feels much more like my music, for some reason. Jazz feels ... like a person I don't know that well, and who might not like me all that much anyway. Blues, on the other hand, feels like family. In a good way. Maybe it's because I spent so much of my life in Baton Rouge, going to those blues festivals every year, and hitting Tabby's Blues Box whenever I could in my early 20s. Maybe that's why blues feels like home. But playing the blues has been a whole new thing for me. I might be at an early advanced classical level, but I'm a rank beginner when it comes to playing the blues. Here is a video of me playing something called an "easy blues shuffle" ... which I didn't find easy at all! It felt more natural with practice and repeti

Here is a wonderful quote from Chopin from the book Chopin: Pianist and Teacher , as read by pianist and teacher Josh Wright: The passage was written by a student of Chopin's, regarding how Chopin responded when the student felt inhibited and unable to express himself (herself?) at the piano. "With what delicate nuances of behavior he adapts his own being with that of another," they write about Chopin as a teacher. "Imagine you're at the conservatoire ," Chopin said, "listening to the most beautiful performance in the world. Make yourself want to hear it, and then you'll hear yourself playing it, right here." He told the student, "I see that timidity and lack of self-confidence form a kind of armor around you, but through this armor I perceive something else that you don't always dare to express, and so you deprive us all." "Be bold and confident in your own powers and strengths." There are good reminders, from the mouth

 "Maple Leaf Rag" continues to be coming together . I have reached a point where I'm thinking about style -- which octaves I will bring out, where I'll play forte or piano , where which notes in a chord I want to bring out most -- but I'm still also focusing on playing cleanly, without missing notes, without accidentally hitting more notes than anticipated, etc. This video is an example of that. I'm still playing at a moderately slow tempo, and I'm focusing hard on playing cleanly and with an even tempo. I still have memory lapses here and there (particularly in the D section, which I learned most recently), and I still plunk a few notes I shouldn't, but it's coming along. I'm not worried that it sounds a little wooden; that's all part of the process. This weekend, I'm going do another brief fast practice  of it, and then I hope to spend most of next week continuing with "clean practice" while upping the tempo. I'm also pl

  Yesterday was my mostly-classical piano lesson. As a reminder, I meet with this teacher for a half-hour once every other week. It really isn't enough -- I mean, it's enough time for me to play something and get feedback, but there really isn't time for a lesson that covers more than one piece. While I've enjoyed the lessons and really like the teacher, I'll have to think about whether to renew the lessons later this spring. At yesterday's lesson, I'd hoped to spend a few minutes on Chopin and then move on to Maple Leaf Rag for the bulk of the lesson. I played through the Chopin, quite badly I might add. I have so much trouble adjusting to an acoustic piano after doing all of my practicing on a digital. Nothing sounds or feels right. Anyway, I made it through the piece, and, as usual, he made some observations and gave me some valuable feedback, as well as a few things to think about regarding interpretation. And that was it. No time for Maple Leaf. Time to

The Level 4 Foundations course at PWJ focuses on sevenths: major, dominant, minor, diminished, and half-diminished. For most of my piano-playing life, if you had asked me to define one of those, or at least play one, I could have done it. I might have had to think about it for a moment, particularly in a key like Gb or B, or I might have had to think  hard about which is diminished and which is half-diminished, but I would have been OK. But did I really understand what made these different types of sevenths unique? More importantly, did I understand their unique sounds and effects? Could I discern the difference between a C minor seventh, a C diminished seventh, and a C half-diminished seventh, just by listening? Maybe? If someone had put me to the test, I probably would've made a few correct semi-educated guesses. But they would mostly have been guesses. So when I joined PWJ back in February, I decided to start at the early intermediate level because I knew my understanding of sev

 The Chopin nocturne I am working on has a section that I refer to as "The Mad Chase." This nocturne is a mix of relatively easy passages (i.e., the first sections) and several different, more challenging passages. "The Mad Chase" is one of the harder ones, mainly due to hand stretches (and chord changes) in the left hand, and, to a lesser degree, the brief counterpoint in the right hand. It took me several weeks to start feeling confident that I even had the notes worked out. I experimented with the fingering, trying one for a few days before trying another, and then another. I'm still not confident that I've worked out the best fingering. Here is where I am as of this past weekend--I still have some work to do, but this section has come along a lot in the past few days. Yes, there are a few missed notes, and yes, I started the big climactic section of The Mad Chase and decided not to go through with it, but ... a big milestone is that this section has sta

 I recently read Timothy Gallwey's The Inner Game of Tennis , a good that gave me many good insights into how I can be a better volleyball coach. (Not that I coach anything more than rec ball, but still ...) I knew there was a book called The Inner Game of Music , based on Gallwey's book, so I listened to part of it on my commute. It's not as engaging at The Inner Game of Tennis , but I'm still gleaning some good things from it. One was this: Friday night when I was trying to record a "perfect" version of "Misty," I decide to stop worrying so much about the notes and just focus on playing it beautifully. After all, I'd learned the notes. I'd drilled the notes. I knew the notes. I was just getting nervous when recording, and that was causing me to forget the notes. I was also sounding a little wooden and not playing as beautifully as I knew I could. So I focused on beauty as I made video after video of my getting to some point or another befor

I had so much fun last night. I learned that I tend to be less stressed if I can talk to the camera and just have fun with the fact that I'm making a video. Here is my most recent progress on "Bare Necessities. I'm planning to start page 2 tomorrow (Sunday)!

 Maple Leaf Rag is coming together for me. It's been coming together for a while. I'm ready to graduate from "it's coming together" to "it's performance-ready." But I'm not there yet. I still have a few areas to attend to: The D section (I have this section down pretty well, but I'm still stumbling a little at the very end.) Sloppy left hand , particularly in the B and C sections. Weakness in the 4th and 5th fingers in my right hand in one small part of Section A. Transitions (I'm really close with these, but I'm not quite there yet.) Consistent speed . (The C and D sections are new to me, so I tend to slow down when I get to them. I've also noticed that I'm speeding up in the B section without meaning to.) Consistent tone . (Listening to this recording, I can hear that I don't press some of the keys down far enough, which results in a kind of spottiness of tone.) For my most recent practice session (shown in the video b

I'm planning to give regular updates on Bare Necessities . This version is a real showpiece, and it will be a challenge to learn it, memorize it, and get it to a good performance tempo. Translation: I'm going to be living with this one for a long time. How long? I have no idea. I'm guessing anywhere between 3 and 6 months, though it could be a year. I started learning the piece on Monday, and I've been encouraged by how (relatively) quickly I've picked up the first page. I can now play it through, hands together, at a slow pace. I'm going to stick with this for a couple of days, playing it over and over again until it feels completely natural under my hands. Throughout this process I'll be working on memorizing as well. I won't have access to a piano for most of the weekend, so I'm thinking I won't start the B section until late Sunday, or early Monday morning. In fact, I'm wondering if I can learn this at a rate of one page a week. The piece

 I stumbled across a series of videos by a Dr. Molly Gebrian yesterday. In them, she talks about the importance of taking breaks when you're learning something. The mind needs time to put structures in place to accommodate the new learning, so we need to take breaks to allow it to do that. She compares it to road work: You have to shut down the road in order to repair it. I also think of it as being like pouring concrete. Once you've poured the concrete, you absolutely need to stay off of it for a while so it can harden and thus become useful. If you pour it and then you keep walking on it, trying to even it out here and there, you'll end up with a mess. Similarly, we need to let our brains "cement" the new information before we can build on it. Forced Practice Breaks I think there could be something to this idea. When I was in college (and even during COVID), I would practice several hours a day, sometimes several times d day, but I was often frustrated at how sl

My "Bare Necessities" adventure has begun! Here is a video of the right hand only at a very slow pace. I'm going to stick to this for a few days, mainly so I can build muscle memory as well as mental memory, and then I will begin work on the left hand for this section.

Well, if the "Misty" course for the February challenge was a course in school, and my ability to play it constituted the final exam, I would say I made a good, solid B+. Below is the video I posted on the PWJ Facebook page. It does have a few pauses and missed notes in the second half, but ... I'm playing from memory. I kept going. It sounds nice. I would like to make a video where I play it perfectly, or at least with fewer obvious goofs, and that's why I'm calling this a "progress video." The more I play this, the smoother it will get. Meanwhile, here is my end-of-the-challenge video:

 Oh, man. So, I have always loved the Disney tune "The Bare Necessities." Baloo the Bear is one of my favorite characters in all of Disney, and his song is one of the best. I also love, love, love just about anything Jonny May (of Piano with Jonny ) does, so I got onto Spotify to see if he has a rendition of "Bare Necessities." I thought he might, since he was once-upon-a-time a Disneyland pianist. Well, what do you know? He does have one! And it's amazing! And even better, he has videos on how to play it ! Along with the sheet music! So, friends, my goal for March, once I'm finished with the "Misty" challenge, is to learn this magnificent arrangement of "Bare Necessities." Looking at the music and watching Jonny's teaching videos, it doesn't look too terribly hard, but when I watch this video of him playing it, I'm convinced that it's positively virtuosic and that there's a chance I won't be able to play it, no