Ode to Joy Day 18: I'm Making Music!

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B, I’ve reached Day 18 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy. Today’s assignment is threefold: continue reviewing Batch 4 (measures 64–71), continue learning Batch 6 (measures 96–123), and continue reviewing Batch 1 (measures 0–23).

Day 18

This morning I focused primarily on Passage 1 of Batch 6, which is almost identical to Passage 3 of Batch 1, so I got to revisit Batch 1 at the same time. This eight-measure passage is the opening A phrase, repeated, and after seven days away from it, I was hoping I’d sit down and magically be able to play it.

No such luck.

I had to play it through six times (three times, a short break, then three more), followed by a five-minute Batch 4 review before coming back to it.

It didn't exactly sound bad, but there were a few stubborn half-measures, and I took a few minutes to drill each of those.

At the end of my short practice, though, I was playing it, and at a tempo faster than a slow crawl! My fingers knew what to do, and my brain felt like it had time to think about what my hands were doing, where they were going, what chords we were playing, and where we were in the harmonic progression.

Oh, goodness. I just used "we" to refer to myself, my brain, and my hands.

Ah well, I guess piano really is a group effort.

Where I Am Now

Despite an unpromising start this morning, I'm very happy with where these eight measures stand right now! Instead of feeling disappointed that it took a while to get them back, I'm encouraged by how quickly they finally settled in and how good they sound after seven days away. In fact, they've begun to sound like music!

In the video below, I talk through some of the challenges and play those eight measures, along with part of the intro (which is also most of the outro) ... and it sounds like music too!

Today is the first day that I've really felt like I was making music and not just striking keys and making sounds. The rest of it still feels like work, but I think the boundary between the two is starting to fade.

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Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

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