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Long, Uninterrupted Practice Sessions on the Horizon!

 

It's rare that I have a weekend that offers potentially unlimited practice time ... but I just may have that this weekend. And if I do? I want to take deep dives into a few different areas.

First Cadenza of Liebestraume

I've already broken down the cadenza theoretically, and it makes total sense--it's just a back and forth between D-flat minor and E-flat major in various inversions. But playing it is not so simple, and I feel like I need a good, long practice session to get it comfortable and automatic under my fingers.

Blues Improvisation

I diligently do some blues improvisation every single day, usually for 10-15 minutes in the mornings while waiting for my daughter to get ready to go to school. But I want to take some time to (1) improvise alongside actual recordings and (2) improvise alongside the backing track provided by PWJ. All of my improvisation so far has been just me and the piano, and I'm feeling a need to add something. I don't need a long practice session to do this, but I want one because I think this would be fun, and I don't want to have to stop after just 20 or 30 minutes.

Scott Joplin's "Solace"

I still need to make my Solace graduation video, and I plan to do that either tonight or tomorrow. It always takes a while to make a graduation video for a piece. I want it to be (mostly) error-free, so there is generally a lot of stopping and starting and re-recording involved.

Bare Necessities

I miss Bare Necessities. I played through it last night and felt sad that I haven't played it in a while. A long practice session for this piece does not fit into my goals or my schedule, but oh ... how I would like to spend an hour or two on this one this weekend.

Amazing Grace (and Old Rugged Cross)

I've also missed my gospel songs since moving them to maintenance. I never did gain the ability to improvise effortlessly with these, but I set them aside anyway since I was working through the major blues course. Now that I've spent a lot more time on the major blues scale, I'd like to take an hour or two to just dig into these hymns again and see if I can apply what I've learned to them.

The Plan

I won't be able to achieve all five of these long practice sessions this weekend, but I do intend to do items 1 through 3. If I find myself with some time Sunday evening, maybe I'll give Bare Necessities and the hymns some attention. It could happen!

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