Let's Celebrate

I was in North Carolina again this weekend, which meant yet another short break from piano practice. I brought my 61-key keyboard, but I purposely only played it for my dad for a half-hour or so each day and didn't do my usual routine and stay up until the wee hours, practicing. I really was at a low point last week, and I needed a break.

A Brief "Bare Necessities" Update

The break was good for me. I was too tired to practice much after getting home last night, but I did managed to squeeze in about 40 minutes on Bare Necessities, and the ragtime section is coming along. I'm staying at a manageably slow pace (using the metronome so I don't cheat), and just playing it over and over again, thinking about what chords I am playing, and getting to the notes just a hair before I have to play them. It is a very focused, "in the zone" kind of practicing.

By the time I finished last night, I played the whole ragtime section at 100 bpm three times in a row without pausing or missing a note. I'll keep doing this for the next week or so, speeding up no more than 10 or 12 bpm each day. I call it "laying tracks" -- if I can play it slowly but perfectly a million times, my hands will automatically know what to do as I get faster.

But this post isn't supposed to be about Bare Necessities. It's supposed to be about celebrating.

Why I'm Celebrating!

First of all, I worked out last night! I've been needing to work out, but I keep finding excuses not to. But here is a picture from the gym, to prove I was there!

Second of all, I discovered a new musician: Sammy Price! Like all of my exciting new discoveries, this guy is from a long time ago, and he's been dead for a while ... but wow! His blues and boogie-woogie is so great. I listened to him all weekend!

And finally, this morning when I logged my practice on PWJ, I learned that I have practiced 100 consecutive days since joining PWJ! I missed a couple of days early on, but I haven't missed a day since early February!

So, today is a good day. I'm rested, refreshed, and ready to dive back into piano work!

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