Skip to main content

A Very Brief Year in Review

In mid-December of last year, I posted my first real piano post since 2019. I was feeling very tentative about coming back to piano. I've taken lessons over the years and have become a pretty good pianist ... but would I ever be able to play jazz? Could I ever learn to play the blues? Would I be stuck playing the same broken chords in the left hand for the rest of my life?

My, how things have changed. When I posted, I had just joined Tonebase. A month later, I would join Piano With Jonny, and that's when my piano life would take off. Here are my piano hours from February (when I started tracking my hours using the PWJ log).

July and August were not good months for piano. I spent part of July on vacation, and much of August in North Carolina when my dad was sick. September and October also took a hit, thanks to Hurricane Helene and ten days with no electricity. How I wished I had an acoustic piano during that time! Anyway, onward to my 2024 accomplishments ...

2024 Accomplishments

After more than 500 practice hours in 2024, I've accomplished a few things.

  • I have two new classical pieces by memory (Chopin's F minor nocturne and Mozart's Rondo alla Turca).
  • I have three Scott Joplin rags by memory (Maple Leaf Rag, Solace, and The Entertainer).
  • I have two PWJ ragtime pieces by memory (Bare Necessities and Jingle Bells Rag).
  • I have a fun gospel arrangement by memory (Amazing Grace) and wrote another arrangement (The Old Rugged Cross), which I also have by memory.
  • I can play and improvise on the blues (at a basic level) and am learning more every day.

In addition to all of that, I am in the midst of learning Liszt's Liebestraume No. 3 and have made it through the most difficult parts.

A Change in Dreams

My dream of learning jazz and mastering jazz theory is no longer there; I lost interest in jazz as soon as I realized that it's really the blues that I love. I still want to learn enough of jazz to be able to play interesting arrangements from lead sheets, but that isn't my priority at this stage of my life.

My priorities for now are more in the area of blues and ragtime. And, of course, I always want to be working on a classical piece.

Bring on 2025!

I am so happy about my piano progress over the past year. I am so thankful for Piano With Jonny and the community that comes with it. I love learning music and challenging myself to become even better at playing, arranging, and creating. I'm excited about what 2025 will bring!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thursday, July 13

I worked in a short practice today. Had piano this afternoon. The short practice involved the usual scales and arps, and a run-through of my pieces. It wasn't so much a practice as a review. Piano was good. She said that the Bach sounded very musical. I asked what I should do next, practice-wise--continue drilling and memorizing HS, or start HT? She said that I "shouldn't hold off any longer" on playing HT, and to keep drilling HS if I want but to begin working HT on whatever I find to be the most difficult passage of the fugue. That's easy. I don't have the music in front of me, but in the Alfred edition, it's the bottom of page two. I played the Liszt pretty well, if a bit timidly. I'm playing it with emotion and paying attention to all of the dynamics and all of that, but I'm still also trying to make sure I get the notes right in several sections. She had all kinds of nice things to say about the Liszt. The 9-against-4 is sounding much better (...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Need an Intermediate Piece

Deborah wants me to pick out an intermediate piece to start learning next week. I went to the ARCT Syllabus guide that Robert so graciously sent me and looked up all of the pieces that I considered "intermediate." They were mostly Grade 6 and Grade 7. Not intermediate enough. I looked up my Beethoven Sonatina in G, my most recent intermediate piece. It's a Grade 3--a very early intermediate. So I'm looking for something in the Grade 4-5 category. And I'd kind of like to work on one of those pieces that everyone loves to hear--Fur Elise, Chopin's Em prelude, the Brahms waltz in Ab--all pieces I learned in junior high, but pieces that I'd like to re-learn, and learn to play well , and not like my junior-high self, whose heart wasn't in the music. And they are pieces I love, and that others love hearing as well. Hmm. Fur Elise is Grade 7. The Chopin Prelude is Grade 8. The Brahms Waltz is Grade 8. Too advanced for an intermediate piece? I'll talk it ...
3 comments
Read more