Back at It

The good news, in the midst of all this despair, is that the long break from piano doesn't seem to have affected my playing. I got to play throughout the day yesterday, and it was sooo nice to (1) be able to play for so long, and (2) sound really good!

Morning Practice

I tried to work yesterday morning (from home), but I couldn't concentrate. My head hurt, and my eye was (and still is) killing me because I have a scratch on my left cornea. So I told my boss, and she said I have three days of bereavement leave, and to feel free to take some time.

So I did. I turned off the computer, went downstairs, and practiced piano for a couple of hours. Mostly I worked on hymns, starting with the PWJ Amazing Grace that I wrote about earlier, and then moving on to a medley I'm arranging of my dad's favorite hymns. I was going to make it three hymns, but I've decided to just do two: In the Garden and The Old Rugged Cross. I'll play through ITG twice (where the second time is an octave up), and through TORC twice (where the second time is in a punchy gospel style). So my "practice" including arranging both songs.

Afternoon Practice and Piano Lesson

I picked my daughter up from school at 3:00, and then I came back home to practice some more. I worked on "Solace," which I hadn't looked at in a week and a half, and I was able to play through it a few times to reacquaint myself. And then it was time to get to Augusta for my 4:30 piano lesson.

At piano, we talked some about the medley arrangement, but mostly we worked on the Chopin. Remember, I have that masterclass in 24 days. Yes, the masterclass that I was going to spend all of August and September preparing for.

But there is good news: Eric asked me to play it on one of the grand pianos there, and I did play it, by memory, all the way through. I stumbled here and there, but overall it was pretty solid!

Last Night's Practice

Then last night, I played the Chopin for Dan and it was the best I've ever played it. And it was all by memory!

I also played through a few other pieces last night: Bare Necessities, the Rondo, Maple Leaf. They all sound pretty good. You wouldn't think I'd been away from the piano for the better part of the past month.

This Morning

This morning I also resumed my Blues Endings course. I started it before Europe, got halfway through, touched on it for a day or two after Europe, and then never got back to it. So I'm working on that as well and hope to post a video of the endings before long.

I did have to go to work today, so no hours-long practice for me this time. But I'll be playing this evening, just as soon as I'm done with dinner and dishes!

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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

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