Ode to Joy, Day 14: Batch 3 is Sounding Like Music!

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B, I’ve reached Day 14 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy. Today’s assignment was to continue reviewing Batch 3 (measures 48-63) and start Batch 5 (measures 72-95).

Day 14

Rebecca didn’t have a video for today. The assignment was simple: keep working through the scheduled batches, using the various practice techniques we’ve learned about.

Starting Batch 5

I worked on Batch 5 early this morning—too early, in my opinion. I barely remember practicing it. But I do remember a few things:

• Passages 1 and 2 (measures 72–87, a repeat of the A theme) are the easy sections. They’re even easier (though longer combined) than the intro. I can sight-read them almost at tempo, even half-asleep at 6:00 on a Sunday morning!
• The risk with Passages 1 and 2 is that I won’t give them enough attention, so I’ll still drill them over the next few days like everything else. There’s some tricky syncopation (not a lot), and my goal this week is to play them smoothly from memory.
• Passage 3 (measures 88-95; repeat of the B theme) is more challenging. It’s a mix of old and new: familiar right-hand ideas and the same chord progression, but with some variations to both hands.
• The first part of the Passage 3 left hand uses pedal points. No matter what chord we’re on, it keeps returning to a D octave between chords. That makes it easier in one sense (same octave every time) and harder in another (the octave doesn’t always match the chord). I’m also used to the usual 1–5 movement, so I have to remind my left hand to keep returning to the same place.

Revisiting Batch 3

This afternoon I spent about 45 minutes on Batch 3. Today is my second day to revisit it after its two-day break ... and it’s sounding good! It’s sounding like music! And as I mentioned previously, the cognitive load has lessened considerably, and my hands are going to the right notes without my having to think too hard.

Transition Practice: Focus/Lead-in/Follow-through

For Batch 3, I worked in interleaved chunks of one, two, and three measures. I numbered all 14 measures and used a random number generator to pick one. Then I practiced:

• That measure alone for one minute
• That measure with the preceding measure for one minute
• That measure with the following measure for one minute

For example, if I got measure 55, I would:

• Drill measure 55 by itself
• Drill measures 54–55, particularly the transition between measures
• Drill measures 55–56, particularly the transition between measures

If I felt confident before a minute was up, I moved on to the next drill in the sequence. If there was time left before three minutes was up, I drilled all three measures together. And if I didn’t feel finished in the allotted time? Too bad. I moved on anyway.

Why This Worked for Me

I liked this exercise for several reasons:

• It forced me to spend limited time on limited material.
• It made me practice transitions between measures and sections, which I tend to neglect.
• Every measure got touched three times: once as the focus, once as the lead-in, and once as the follow-through.

I don’t know if I’ve done this exact kind of interleaved practice before—maybe I have—but I’ll definitely use it again. It took less than an hour to cover all 14 measures, and Batch 3 sounds much better than it did yesterday (and it didn’t sound bad yesterday).

Here is a snippet of Batch 3. I meant to record the whole batch, forgot, and didn't realize it till later.

Where I Am Now

I have one more day with Batch 3, and then I’ll set it aside for three days. Batch 5 will stay in rotation for two more days alongside other sections.

This video feels like my first big victory with this piece. I’m starting to move from learning the sections to playing them. That feels like a very big deal!