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January Accomplishments + Finish-It-Up February


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, not two, not three, but four zero-practice days in January. It's rare that I even have one.

Looking Ahead To February

Sadly, February may see even less piano practice than January did. Not only is it three fewer days, but I will be gone for part of every single weekend due to volleyball tournaments and visiting my mom in North Carolina. In addition to that, I've signed up for a grant-writing course online that starts Feb. 12 and will take up some time in the evenings.

Knowing these things, I have been thinking about how I might adjust my practice schedule for February. I'm already working on too many things, so an even tighter practice window adds to the challenge.

Part of my problem(?) is that I have so many maintenance pieces now! Five ragtime, two blues, and two classical. And none of them are particularly easy! So keeping up with them all takes time.

Finish-It-Up February

I'm thinking of shelving all of the maintenance pieces except one (Amazing Grace) for February, and primarily focusing on Liebesträume and Pineapple Rag. Getting a little less time will be Amazing Grace and a ragtime arrangement of "You Are My Sunshine" that I've been wanting to write for years. Getting a little less time than that will be the Bible of Blues Riffs (BOBR). As always, I'll probably adjust the time allowances as the month takes shape.

I came up with an alliterative moniker for February's practice schedule: "Finish-It-Up February." The goals for the month? Finish Pineapple Rag, finish Liszt (or at least get it as far as I can without a teacher), finish my ragtime arrangement, and finish Amazing Grace, complete with the gospel blues solo. As for the Bible of Blues Riffs, I'm going to use that as warm-up/technique exercises, both for the right hand (the riffs) and the left (the various accompaniments).

Once Finish-It-Up February is over, I'm honestly thinking I'll move on to "Maintenance March," where I devote the entire month to re-upping my maintenance pieces (which, by then, should include Pineapple Rag, my ragtime arrangement, and Amazing Grace ... and possibly even Liszt).

And then maybe I'll plan to perform them all in "Audience April ..."

Hmm. We'll see.
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