That Exasperating Transcendence!

The last few times I've played through the Chopin Nocturne, I've felt a bit of uncertainty creep in with the Transcendence. Instead of stopping and focusing on the source of uncertainty, I've just been playing through it in the hopes that it will go away.

Of course, it doesn't go away.

So last night I decided it was time. I needed to deal with the Transcendence. I mean, it's the most beautiful, and the most difficult, part of the entire nocturne. Why does Chopin do this to me? "Yeah, you can play this beautiful, transcendent passage, but you're going to have to put in the time. A lot of time."

I made a series of videos that I'm just going to share in a few separate posts on this blog. They involve several different approaches to practicing/learning this section (which I thought I had already learned!!). The videos in this post are from last night, and the videos in the next two posts are from this morning. Last night's focus was on practicing in rhythms.

The rhythms did help, though I was still playing a B-flat when I should have been playing a D-flat in the left hand, and I still didn't have a sense of mastery over the second part of the Transcendence. But I did make progress.

Video 1: Introducing the Transcendence and Rhythms

Video 2: Progress: 10 Minutes Later

Video 3: Rhythms Make Me Tired ... But They Help

Comments

Rethinking Bare Necessities

Today's breakthrough moment (there are actually two of them) focuses on "Bare Necessities." As you'll remember, I discovered Jonny May's arrangement back in early March and immediately decided to learn it. I printed out the music, started the course, and proceeded to learn the stride section, posting a few videos of my progress. Ha. I bet those videos make it look like I was making progress. I guess I was ... but not really. And I realized something this weekend that I hadn't before: Because I was thinking of "Bare Necessities" as a "fun" piece, I wasn't practicing it seriously or diligently. I wasn't treating it as something I wanted to master. This mindset might work with an easier piece, but this arrangement isn't easy. The result: despite a little progress at the outset, I wasn't moving forward. I was stalled. Breakthrough #1 The first breakthrough was realizing that if I truly want to learn this piece and play it well,

March Goals Recap/Looking Ahead to April

It's April 1, and time to revisit the goals I set for last month. I practiced a total of 50.45 hours in March, averaging 1.62 hours (or just over an hour and a half) per day. Realistically, I practice about 45 minutes to an hour a day on weekdays, and I usually get at least one longer practice (or multiple shorter practices) in on one or both days of the weekend to bring the average up. CLASSICAL GOALS Chopin, F Minor Nocturne March Goal: Have entire piece by memory and performance-ready. I have about 90% of the piece by memory, but I still have some work to do before it's performance-ready. The only two sections that I don't quite have are "The Agitation" and the "stretto" section with the seventh chords. I'll work on both this week and will have them both memorized before the weekend. April Goal: Finish memorizing, and polish, polish, polish! My focus now is really on phrasing and dynamics. I have the notes down, even in the difficult passages. Fro

Maple Leaf Rag Breakthrough

Oh, Maple Leaf. Where to begin? At the Beginning I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I learned the A and B sections of Maple Leaf Rag back in the 1990s. I can’t tell you if it was early, mid- or late 90s, but it was during those 10 years after I’d graduated college, when I was playing a good bit of piano but not taking regular lessons from anyone. I don’t remember teaching it to myself at all. I just know that, at some point, the first half of Maple Leaf Rag was part of my two- or three-song repertoire of pieces I’d be able to play by memory over the next 25 years. It was always sloppy and I knew it, but people loved it, and so I played it if there was ever a piano around. Back in January, I decided to properly re-learn those two sections, and to finally learn the C and D sections of this wonderful piece. I worked on these over the next month or two, learning (and-relearning) the notes pretty quickly ... but it took time to memorize, and also to get everything to tempo surpassing a

Picking Up the Pieces

Search This Blog