Picking Up the Pieces

March has been a whirlwind, and I am often too tired to practice more than 30-45 minutes each day. But I'm getting back into the habit, and once volleyball season ends (our last tournament is this weekend), I'll be back to playing regularly. My sister's father-in-law, whom the girls called "Pop Pop," passed away suddenly earlier this month. His celebration of life service will be in April, and his wife, Brenda, has asked me to play "Misty" and "What a Wonderful World." I've been working on John Proulx's arrangement of "Misty" from the PWJ February challenge, but I didn't have "What a Wonderful World." I dug through the PWJ site and found a Quick Tip from Jonny that was just what I needed. Here is what I have so far. I'm playing (more or less) Jonny's version for the first part and the repeat, and my own improv/arrangement from a lead sheet for the second part, and then we're back to Jonny's arrang...

February practices are going pretty well, particularly considering I haven't had as much time for piano this month. I've done a pretty good job of balancing things, and my percentage goals have guaranteed that I would spend more time on You Are My Sunshine and Amazing Grace -- two songs that I fiddle around with now and then, each time thinking, "One of these days I need to really work on this." This morning I focused on Amazing Grace. Here is a video where I explore some of my improv ideas. I'm having so much fun.

For years I have wanted to write a ragtime/stride arrangement of "You Are My Sunshine." Years ago, I came up with a very basic ragtime arrangement that I've long enjoyed playing, but I wanted to come up with something more interesting than just the tune and the oom-pah bass. Thanks to PWJ , I now have the tools to do that! One of my February goals is to take this song ("YAMS") more seriously, to put some good, focused work into developing a lasting arrangement. I've fiddled with it a couple of times since the start of the month, and this morning I was able to put about a half-hour into it. In this video, I explore some of the ideas I've come up with. I'm shamelessly stealing from some of Jonny May's ideas in "Bare Necessities," but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? At this point, I'm using training wheels, and both "Bare Necessities" and "Jingle Bells Rag," as well as my Scott Joplin rags, are t...

That's my sweet #34. February started on Saturday. So did the volleyball tournament several hours away. My daughter didn't play until Sunday, but we still had to leave by mid-day Saturday since we had an early team dinner. I managed to log a whopping 40 minutes of practice Saturday morning--22 minutes on the Bible of Blues Riffs, and 18 minutes on Pineapple Rag. We got home from the tournament at about 9:30 Sunday night. I unpacked and changed into my pajamas, and then I went downstairs to practice for a few minutes, even though I was bone-tired. I never made it to the piano. Ruthie Cat was on the couch next to the piano, meowing at me to please come and cuddle with her. So I lay down on the couch to cuddle with her ... and we both woke up an hour and a half later. By then everyone was in bed, so I just went upstairs and went to bed myself. This morning I worked on Liszt (30 minutes) and the Bible of Blues Riffs (15 minutes). Tonight the plan is to work on arranging and improvi...

January was not a great month for piano practice. By the time I go to bed tonight, I hope to have reached the 40-hour mark. I normally practice at least 50 hours a month, sometimes 60. Despite my mere 40 hours, I did have a few accomplishments. Learned the entire Liszt piece and can play it, slowly, from beginning to end. Memorized about half of the Liszt. Became much more proficient at playing the two quasi cadenza sections of Liszt. Learned all four sections of Pineapple Rag. Memorized the first two sections of Pineapple Rag. Practiced Bare Necessities enough that I can play it again Learned Czerny Ex. 2. Made it through Lesson 4 of the Bible of Blues Riffs course. In addition, my blues improv of a few weeks ago was recognized yesterday as one of five "standout performances" on the PWJ Members Facebook page! So, it wasn't a terrible month for piano. And I knew going into it that it wasn't going to be a heavy practice month. And it wasn't--I ended up with not one...

This morning, I had exactly 30 minutes to practice. I set my timer to 30 minutes and got to work. The goal? Play through the first cadenza 25 times, and then play through the second cadenza 25 times. I've put so much work into the grand middle section that I feel like I've neglected the cadenzas a bit, so I wanted to make sure I didn't lose them. As I completed my 25th play-through of the second cadenza, my timer buzzed. Perfect timing! I'm very happy with how far I've come with these. They were both pretty difficult to learn; just figuring out the best fingering was a time-consuming challenge in itself. It's still not at the speed that you hear on recordings, but the movements are becoming more and more automatic. I will get there! This video shows the two cadenzas. I did one take of each and then combined the videos into one. Enjoy!

 I feel like I could write so many blues songs about this past week! "First-World Blues" would probably be the most appropriate title, but I have so many more in mind. Six-head Blues Alopecia Blues Itchy Back Blues Outta Zoloft Blues Home Alone Blues Working Mom Blues Leave Me Alone Blues Leaky Coffee Pot Blues Car-In-The-Shop Blues Bloaty Prednisone Blues Silent Desperation Blues No-Time-For-Piano Blues Dirt-On-The-Carpet Blues Lost-My-Hearing-Aid Blues God's-Given-Up-On-Me Blues There is just so much to choose from! This video doesn't have a title. It's not a song. I'm just noodling at the piano, feeling these melancholy blues that have set in. Sad as I'm feeling these days, I'm grateful to be able to play this way.

I started Czerny Ex. 2 (Op. 849) a few weeks ago but had to stop because of the ganglion cyst in my left wrist. I started it again this week, and it is such a delightful piece! It's not particularly hard (as long as you don't play it at breakneck speed). Here is a not-perfect performance of it. I had just played it slowly and decided, on a whim, to try to play it at close to the recommended tempo. As you can see, I'm not quite ready for that! But I still think it turned out OK.

I learned both "Solace" and "The Entertainer" in 2024, but I haven't made an official video of either. Why? It's partly that I haven't had a lot of opportunities--to make a good video, I need to be alone in the house (no background noise), and I need at least an hour for all the various takes. Another reason is that I've taken on new projects. In delegating both "Solace" and "The Entertainer" to maintenance, performance videos haven't been a priority. But I need to make these videos. I can't officially graduate from these pieces until I've made the videos! "The Entertainer" Practice Video Here is a practice video of "The Entertainer." It's full of mistakes, and I'm still experimenting with pedaling in a few places. Because the camera was running, I made a lot of mistakes I don't usually make. But it's a start. It always does seem necessary to make a few bad videos before I can make a...

Joplin's "Pineapple Rag" isn't sounding smooth and beautiful yet, but I'm getting the notes! The smoothness and beauty will come as my hands get more comfortable with this piece. So far, I've learned Sections A and B and have both by memory. Onward to Section C!

Good morning! The volleyball tournament was canceled this weekend because of the weather, so I got to enjoy some bonus practice sessions. Between Friday and Sunday, I practiced almost eight hours ! Snow in Georgia! I have no videos to share (as usual), so I'll just give a recap of my progress, along with this week's goal. Liszt, Liebesträume I can play the second cadenza at a decent (slow, steady) tempo! I found it much easier to learn than the first cadenza. So I have both of those and now just need to work on getting them up to speed. I also spent a lot of time on the difficult middle section (between the two cadenzas) this weekend. It's sounding a lot smoother, and I can play the whole thing by memory. This morning I started working on the final section, following the second cadenza. This week's goals: Drill the final part of the middle section (right before the second cadenza); continue drilling both cadenzas; learn the final section. Joplin, Pineapple Rag I can now...

So far, 2025 has been terrible for piano practice! January 1st was great. I put in almost three hours and was excited about such an auspicious beginning to the new year. I didn't practice on January 2nd (boo), but January 3rd was good, with just a little over two hours of practice that Friday night. But then ... volleyball tournament season started, and I wore my volleyball-mom hat all weekend. In fact, I left my piano-player hat at home and didn't put it on until Monday night. The best news? My daughter's team got second in Silver, coming out 8th out of 12 teams! I know that doesn't sound great, but it's a lot better than any of her other teams have done. I'm hopeful for a good season (or at least a better one) this year! Here is her team winning their final game of the tournament. Back to piano: I ended up not practicing at all on Saturday (January 4th) because we were so busy packing everything, and then we didn't get home until late Sunday (January 5th)...

Yesterday, January 2, I didn't practice piano at all. Horrors! I was so tired yesterday morning and didn't wake up in time for a morning practice. I'd planned to practice after work and before driving my daughter to her 7:00 volleyball practice, but then they moved her practice up to 6:00, which meant I had to pick up a fast-food dinner for her, rush home from work, and get her to practice. I went for my run while she was at practice (as planned), and then went to pick her up at 8:00. She didn't get out of her practice until almost 8:15, and then I had to stop by Kroger on the way home. When we finally got home, I had to take a shower because I was covered with dried sweat from my run. By the time all that was done, it was almost 10:00 and I was beat. I went to bed. So, no piano practice yesterday. That's the bad news. The good news is that I have kept up with my running plan for six weeks now! Yesterday's run (run 12 minutes, walk 2 minutes, X 3) was my longest...

December was a good month for practicing! Even though I lost some time with traveling and working out in the evenings, I still managed to get 54.9 hours in. I also was within range for all of my percentage goals! I did change the goals toward the end of the month. Both classical and ragtime review were at 10%, and I changed them to 8% and 12%, respectively, because I felt that ragtime needed more attention. Jingle Bells Rag was over range for most of the month as I worked to have it ready in time for Christmas. Once I posted the video  to Facebook on Dec. 24, I focused on other projects, though I did revisit it a couple of times as a new maintenance piece. The Stats Here are the stats: (The "# of wins" category refers to which pieces got the most practice time each day.) Here is a chart showing time allotted to my main projects and maintenance categories: I also graduated from one piece this month (Jingle Bells Rag). Some 2024 Stats I wrote a little about my 2024 practices he...