Rondo alla Turca Progress

As I've written in this space before, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I learned Mozart's Rondo alla Turca. When I mentioned to my piano-store friend (who is a fellow pianist) that I wanted to learn it, her eyes got big, and she said, "No! Stay away from that piece! It sounds so easy, but it is a bear! Avoid! Avoid!"

Well, maybe she didn't use those exact words, but you get the idea. Of course, I wasn't going to let her warning stop me, but it did cause me to pause and think, "OK, do I really want to learn this? Even if it takes me six months or more?"

The answer, thankfully, was "yes." And so I began to learn it ... and found that it wasn't so hard.

That's not to say there aren't hard parts. The section with the broken octaves is not easy. Keeping them balanced, both dynamically and rhythmically, is a feat I haven't yet mastered. And the scale passages are tricky. They are sounding pretty good now, but I've had to put a lot of rhythm work into them. The coda, as well, has its challenges.

When I played it this morning, at a tempo of about 100bpm, I was surprised and delighted at how good it sounds. I wish I'd recorded it, but it's summer, and the kid was still asleep, so I had to use the headphones to play. I think what surprised me is that it sounded so good, despite the fact that I haven't put a ton of work into it. I mean, I just started learning it on May 1, and I missed two weekends in a row of focused practice because I was going back and forth to North Carolina. (Which, by the way, was fine. I love my North Carolina trips!)

And then, this morning as I entered my time into my practice log, I realized something.

I've actually put 13.7 hours into this piece. That's almost two work days.

That still doesn't seem like a lot of time, but it's more than I would have thought.

Here is a video of just the first couple of sections that I made for Instagram. It's from a week or so ago, so it's slower and not as polished as I have it now. But it's all I have for the moment, so consider it very much a progress video.

Comments

The Rusty Lock and Key

I'm in a room. There's a door in front of me. On the other side of that door is a whole world of adventure and imagination and joy and delight, but for the moment, I'm locked in this gray little room. The door itself has a lock that is all rusted. I've tried to open it in the past, but I've never gotten very far. Sometimes I try to scrape the rust off the lock. I also have a rusty old key that I occasionally try to polish. Each time, after I've made a little progress, I'll put it into the keyhole in hopes of opening the door. It turns a half a millimeter or so, but the brief excitement at my progress dies quickly when I realize, once again, the lock isn't opening. I set the old key aside, and from there I can forget about the door, the lock, and the world outside, for months—years, even. But then something happens—I hear birdsong, or I catch a glimpse of color—and I pick up the key and start picking away at the stubborn rust. That dark little room is my ...

The Amazing Practice Tracker 2.0: Leveling Up My Piano Game

(Apologies for the cheesy clip art. I needed to come up with something, or the Blogger template would show a fuzzy, overly-enlarged snippet of the first chart below.) When I showed my husband my piano practice tracker, he said I should market and sell it. Ha. It’s not for sale, but I’m excited to share how this tool has transformed my practice—and why it might inspire all three of my readers. Since my last post about the Amazing Practice Tracker, I’ve made it even better. Here’s a peek at how it works, using my June data. All The Pretty Colors, All the Pretty Winners My tracker now sparkles with color: darker shades for active pieces, lighter ones for maintenance, technique, and sight-reading. Each day, the piece I practice most gets a bright yellow highlight—a little “gold medal,” if you will. (Click image for a slightly larger view.) A leaderboard automatically shows the day’s top piece and time. And if that isn't enough, I keep track of the month's leaders--specifically, ho...

Dance of the Digits

Note: I've expanded significantly on this post over at my other blog, A Sort of Notebook . I am loving Liszt. I love the way my hands have to "share" the melody. I have so much to write on that, but I'm borrowing a computer and don't have enough time to do it justice. Suffice it to say that I've practiced three and a half wonderful hours today, and about two hours on Liszt alone. What I find wonderful about Liszt is that it pushes one hand hard, but not too hard. Then the other hand gets a turn to be pushed. But it's never both at the same time, and never one hand for too long. It's hard to explain. When I have more time to write, I'll word things rather more eloquently, I'm sure. All I can say now is that my fingers feel like they're dancing a wonderful, graceful dance. I've been trying to "play with my body," as my piano teacher says to do, so all of me is dancing. And Standchen, though it still need a lot of work (like, um...

Picking Up the Pieces

Search This Blog