Liszt Liebesträume Progress Videos

I finally have some progress videos to share! There were all one-off videos because I had no time to re-record things until they were perfect. These are progress videos anyway, so you'll hear a few unplanned pauses, wrong notes, and tempo inconsistencies. But it's sounding like music! And that is my current low bar for this piece!

I am focusing really hard on bringing out the melody notes throughout. That is a harder task than you would think, but I'm getting there.

Here is the first section, which introduces the theme:

I don't have a video of the second section because I accidentally deleted it. But below is the first cadenza, which follows the missing second section. This seemed to take forever to learn, but now that I have it, it feels very natural under my fingers. I'm still playing it slowly and deliberately; speed and expression will come, but not just yet.

Here is the B-major section that follows the cadenza. It includes the gorgeous modulation to C major. It was difficult to learn, but, like the cadenza above, it feels more natural the more I play it.

So, none of this is perfect, but it's progress. And that's all I'm asking for at this point!

What's Next

The next section is in C major, and I thought it was going to be really hard. I started working on it yesterday, mainly just writing in some fingering and labeling the different chords. This morning I played it using block chords in place of the written arpeggios. After about 30 minutes, I could play it through pretty well with the block chords. As I finished up my practice, I realized: "This isn't as hard as I thought it would be!" It's definitely not easy, but it makes sense. And if my brain can understand it, my fingers will follow.

I am so excited about learning this piece. It's been a challenge so far, but I have loved my practice sessions, where I get so focused that 30 or 40 minutes will just fly by. It feels like work, but it also feels like play. I love it.

Comments

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

Search This Blog