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Bluesy June

I've been thinking a lot about my "Looking Ahead to June" post from a few days ago. I had just about decided that I would set aside my non–PWJ projects (other than the usual maintenance) and focus on my three PWJ courses: Bare Necessities, Blues 10-Lesson Challenge, and Lead Sheets/Seventh Chords. Those three courses focus on ragtime, blues, and theory/improvisation, respectively, but my mind is kind of thinking June is going to be very blues-oriented. A bluesy June.

And then my every-two-or-three-weeks piano teacher/consultant went and suggested that I take on Gershwin's Prelude II. 

I honestly don't know if I want to do this. It's not an easy piece, and it's going to take a lot of time away from my PWJ stuff. I'll also still be working on the Rondo alla Turca. I'm not quite ready to graduate from it just yet; I can play it start to finish, by memory, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be with the tempo. (I'm at about 80, and I want to be around 124.)

Still ... I love this prelude. I love how bluesy it is, and I'd love to learn it. Even though I know those tenths are going to give me headaches. I think it will be a good experience, and, more importantly, I think it's going to bring my technique up a notch. And the tenths practice will be good for helping me with stride/boogie-woogie. So there are a lot of benefits to learning this. And if June is going to be the Bluesy June I'm imagining, it will fit right in.

Also, I performed the Prelude I in high school, and it would be kind of cool to play another one now that I'm ... well beyond high school.

So ... I may start working on the Prelude II ... and I may not. I have a piano lesson tomorrow, and we'll talk more about it then.
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