Skip to main content

In Other Piano News ...

I just scrolled through the blog and realized that it's been so focused on Ode to Joy and the 28-Day Challenge that I've failed to give updates on the other things I've been up to.

Foundations: Major 2-5-1 Progression: This is going well. Right now I'm just in Lesson 1 (root-position chords), and I can play them, but not at the recommended tempo. I'm spending about 10 minutes a day on this, and I expect I'll be ready for Lesson 2 before the weekend.

Jazz Soloing I: I just started this learning track on the Piano With Jonny site. So far, the first couple of courses have been review for me (diatonic chords, guide tones, etc.). I'm excited to be on a new learning track after completing Analysis, which I loved. I hope to love this one just as much! A lot of this course focuses on soloing over the 2-5-1 progression, so I'm hoping to work some of that into my Foundations practice.

After You've Gone: As I mentioned a few days ago, I brought this one back from a two-month break, and it's sounding a lot more solid after just a few days of work. I'm still struggling with the solo section, though. On yesterday's Ask Jonny live Q&A, I asked Jonny about it, and he gave me some suggestions for a simpler way to improvise (simpler than switching chords every half measure while trying to keep up with the stride 10ths). I tried it at home, and it didn't sound nearly as good as what he did in the Q&A, so I'll wait for the video so I can rewatch what he's doing. He also said there's nothing wrong with writing your own solo and playing it the same way every time. I can do that, and I do have a few riffs that I can fall back on. But I also want to be able to improvise without a note-for-note plan.

Edelweiss: I'm using Jonny's stride waltz arranging tips to develop a simple arrangement of Edelweiss. I say "simple" because I don't want it to become a major project on the level of You Are My Sunshine. But I do want something nice that I can play and say is my own. I also think I can use some of yesterday's tips for a solo section.

Impromptu: I have a new category I'm calling "Impromptu." This is for exploratory work that I do each day (or at least try to fit in each day). It may involve playing from a lead sheet, working on a technique within a song, or coming up with a song (from ear or lead sheet) using rag rolls. My only rules are that (1) it has so be creative/exploratory, and (2) I use the same mini-project for Impromptu three days in a row—long enough to become familiar with the song, but not so long that it turns into an actual project (though I may get some project ideas from it). This week, I've been putting the Star Wars theme into ragtime, as requested by my TikTok Live friend Chris. It's kind of fun and kind of weird, all at the same time!

Maintenance: I was out of town all weekend, so I am behind on my Maintenance work. To make up for it, I'm playing through one or two maintenance pieces each day. Monday was Solace and Bare Necessities. Yesterday was You Are My Sunshine. Today will probably be St. Louis Blues and Amazing Grace.

Technique: I've been doing about 10 minutes of technique work a day. That can include major and/or minor scales, hand yoga, chromatic tenths, rag roll exercises, regular arpeggios, five-finger arpeggios, etc.—not everything every day. I also found my old Czerny School of Velocity book from college. I remember loving those exercises and am thinking they might be fun in stride ...

And that's it! So now you know that Ode to Joy hasn't been my only focus for the past three weeks!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Rusty Lock and Key

I'm in a room. There's a door in front of me. On the other side of that door is a whole world of adventure and imagination and joy and delight, but for the moment, I'm locked in this gray little room. The door itself has a lock that is all rusted. I've tried to open it in the past, but I've never gotten very far. Sometimes I try to scrape the rust off the lock. I also have a rusty old key that I occasionally try to polish. Each time, after I've made a little progress, I'll put it into the keyhole in hopes of opening the door. It turns a half a millimeter or so, but the brief excitement at my progress dies quickly when I realize, once again, the lock isn't opening. I set the old key aside, and from there I can forget about the door, the lock, and the world outside, for months—years, even. But then something happens—I hear birdsong, or I catch a glimpse of color—and I pick up the key and start picking away at the stubborn rust. That dark little room is my ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Amazing Practice Tracker 2.0: Leveling Up My Piano Game

(Apologies for the cheesy clip art. I needed to come up with something, or the Blogger template would show a fuzzy, overly-enlarged snippet of the first chart below.) When I showed my husband my piano practice tracker, he said I should market and sell it. Ha. It’s not for sale, but I’m excited to share how this tool has transformed my practice—and why it might inspire all three of my readers. Since my last post about the Amazing Practice Tracker, I’ve made it even better. Here’s a peek at how it works, using my June data. All The Pretty Colors, All the Pretty Winners My tracker now sparkles with color: darker shades for active pieces, lighter ones for maintenance, technique, and sight-reading. Each day, the piece I practice most gets a bright yellow highlight—a little “gold medal,” if you will. (Click image for a slightly larger view.) A leaderboard automatically shows the day’s top piece and time. And if that isn't enough, I keep track of the month's leaders--specifically, ho...
1 comment
Read more

Eureka! Secondary Dominant!

I am such a nerd, and I love being a nerd! Today I was working on Section 5 of You Are My Sunshine, specifically on getting this section up to performance level. In other words, I was practicing being a performer , not an arranger . But then, of course, I came up with another idea. I had just played the delicate sixths and descending rag rolls of "when skies are gray" (I chord) and then moved to the parallel octaves of "you never know, dear" (leading to  IV). The shift sounded abrupt to me. Harsh. It needed something. It needed musical WD-40. Something to ease the hinge between textures. And then I stumbled upon it! Right before moving to IV, I can slip in a V7/IV — a secondary dominant! So I tried it, and it sounded so good that I actually yelled "Secondary dominant!" out loud in my house like I was Archimedes discovering water displacement in the bathtub. It's such a small thing. One little chord. But it smooths that transition, leaning the harmony ...
Post a Comment
Read more