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Goals, Week of 6/28/24

I am weirdly not in a mood to write about weekend piano goals today.

Part of it is that I've been away for most of the week (for an unplanned trip) and have had very little actual practice. I say "actual" because, in the absence of a real piano, I did quite a bit of ear training. Using my 61-key keyboard, I made exercises for myself and quizzed myself for several days ... and I'm getting better at recognizing intervals!

I also did some sight-reading as I played hymns and other songs for my dad on the keyboard.

So, I did get some work done. But I didn't really practice. So it's hard to think about goals when I feel like I'm already behind.

Add to that, I'm leaving for vacation in a few weeks, which means I have a piano-less two weeks in my near future. I'm not looking forward to being away from my practice routine. I fear all of my progress this month will disappear after two weeks of no practice.

Also, I won't be home for most of Sunday, so chances are I will get very little (if any) practice that day.

Still, I have tonight and tomorrow, and I need to think about goals.

Scales

I have gotten out of the habit of practicing scales every day. Not to blame Tonebase, but it all started with that Tonebase intensive that I did last month. It was a good couple of lessons, but it took me out of a routine that had been working pretty well for me. Anyway, I was supposed to work on E-flat-major and C minor all of last week, but I barely practiced scales at all. So my goal for this weekend is to spend just 5-10 minutes each day working on the E/c scales.

Lead Sheets

I really enjoy the lead sheet work, but I'm not good at making time for it. Part of the problem is that (as usual) I have too many piano projects going on. I know both the Circle of Fifths and Turnaround progressions pretty well, but I haven't done anything with them ... and I'd kind of like to post a video to PWJ. I also want to practice both of these progressions with the PWJ backing tracks. This weekend's goals? Practice with the backing tracks and be ready to post a video later next week.

Bare Necessities

This piece is my practice hog, in that it hogs up all my practice time! But I'm getting so close with it. The slow practice is definitely paying off. I can play the whole piece comfortably at 150, and I even feel my hands wanting to speed up a little--a sure sign that I'm ready to move up a notch or two on the metronome. I've actually been moving up five notches each time, though I'll move up fewer if I have to. But my goal for this weekend (or possibly for this week) is to get my tempo up to 180. The goal tempo (for the stride section, at least) is 200. I don't see myself getting there this week, but I'd love to reach 200 by the time I leave for vacation.

Mozart

I haven't given Mozart near the time I've given to Bare Necessities, and it shows. So I do want to devote at least a couple of hours to Mozart this weekend. I'm doing the same basic routine with it as I am with BN: slow practice. with lots of repetition so that the movements are automatic. I've also been working separately on the broken-octaves and coda sections, and they are sounding better. Not great yet, but better. My goal? Let's plan to have this one sounding great at 120. (At the moment, it sounds pretty darn good at 100.)

Blues

I feel stalled with the blues! I can play all six runs, but they aren't as smooth or automatic as I'd hope they would be by now. A big reason is that I've failed to devote much time to the blues for the past couple of weeks. And I really need are a few hours of really focused work. Or maybe even just an hour or two. I think a good goal for the weekend (or the week) is to get the runs in good enough shape that I can make a good video to share.

Chopin & Maple Leaf Rag (Maintenance)

I barely touched either of these pieces all week, as they're particularly hard to practice on a small keyboard. So my goal for these two pieces is simple: play through both a few times this weekend.

And that's it! Hoping to have more opportunities for videos this week than I did last week.

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