The Transcendence: A Bass Line Eureka Moment!

Thursday night I had a not-particularly-satisfying practice on the Transcendence, mainly working in rhythms. (See this post for the gory details.)

Friday morning, I decided to see if a good night's sleep had helped at all. And, surprise! I had a small breakthrough. Or maybe just a realization.

I've consistently played the wrong note (a B-flat instead of a D-flat) in this one measure, and even though I'd drilled it to death the night before, I was still missing it in my morning practice.

So I decided to play through the section, saying the name of each bass note out loud as I played them.

By doing this, I realized that the bass uses the same five-note pattern twice in a row.

Eureka! (For something that should have been obvious to me from the beginning!)

Ah well, better late than never. And now I'll have my eyes and ears open for patterns like this as I learn future pieces.

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Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

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