Ode to Joy, Day 6: Chunking, Patterns, and Classical Mode

I'm continuing with Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy as part of Rebecca Bogart’s Learn New Repertoire Faster challenge in the Piano With Rebecca B community.

Day 6

The theme for today's challenge is "Try Something New." Ironically, that led me back to something very old: a tried-and-true classical exercise—practicing in chunks of 2, 3, 4, and even 5 notes to smooth out scale and arpeggio passages.

The "new" part was shifting into classical mode. Or at least what I think of as classical mode—that focused, nose-to-the-grindstone mindset that says, "I'm going to do whatever it takes to make this two-measure section perfect." I set aside the part of my brain that wants to analyze, improvise, and arrange, and just focused on the notes.

It was refreshing. I've been doing so much improvisation and arranging lately that it felt good to sit down, look at the page, and say, "Music, just tell me what to do, and I will do it!"

Passages 2 and 3, Solo "A" Section

I started with the solo A section. The B section hurt my feelings yesterday by being harder than expected, while the A section pleasantly surprised me by being easier. Naturally, I chose to hang out with A first.

OK, enough anthropomorphizing of musical passages.

The solo section has a couple of scale-type passages and one downward arpeggio run. I approached them the same way I would in classical repertoire: working in chunks of 2, 3, 4, and 5. In the video, I demonstrate this hands separately, but I practiced hands together.

Passage 1, B Section

Feeling encouraged, I returned to the B section—cautiously. Would it still feel as difficult as yesterday? Would I have to upgrade it to red?

Fortunately, no. It still has its challenges, but I made solid progress and even started to enjoy it. Chunking and rhythmic variation helped here as well, even without the same scale/arpeggio patterns.

In the video, there’s a clear miss near the end—that pesky right-hand downward leap I mentioned yesterday. That will get more attention tomorrow.

Where I Am Now

In both videos, I play the respective passages through, and I can definitely tell that they're getting smoother and more natural under my hands. I'm not even thinking about tempo at this point, but it feels like tempo work isn't all that far away. I've just been really happy with how these two sections, which were quite difficult yesterday, are feeling a lot more manageable today.

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Picking Up the Pieces

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