Ode to Joy, Day 22: News Flash: Beethoven Works as Romantic Music!

In my journey through the Learn New Repertoire Faster Challenge at Piano with Rebecca B, I’ve reached Day 22 of Jonny May’s stride arrangement of Ode to Joy. Sorry I missed a couple of days of updates. I was in North Carolina for the weekend and did quite a bit of mental practice, but it wasn't the most exciting thing to write about (or video)

Day 22

Today’s focus is variable practice, where you intentionally change something each time you repeat a passage instead of playing it the exact same way over and over. You might vary the tempo, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, phrasing, and so on.

The idea is to keep your brain actively engaged rather than letting it slip into autopilot. Apparently, besides being kind of fun, this kind of practice improves learning, memory, flexibility, and consistency in ways that regular repetition doesn’t.

Today’s passages were Batch 2 (revisiting after 7 days away) and Batch 6 (revisiting after 2 days away). I experimented a bit with tempo and dynamics, though there’s only so fast I can currently play this piece (not very). And while there are some louder and softer sections, the dynamics are fairly consistent overall. Everything is pretty staccato, and there’s very little pedal.

So I decided to try playing it like an emotional Romantic piece, which somehow turned into 3/4 time... and it was so pretty! It sounds like ... if not a Chopin waltz, at least a Scott Joplin waltz!

As I mention in the video, it’s not easy to make the switch to Romantic-era waltz, but the process definitely helps solidify the notes under my fingers. I may try this, along with other variable practice exercises, on the remaining sections.

Where I Am Now

I’m in a good place, despite a couple of days away from the piano. This feels like the right point to introduce variable practice because now that I know all the notes, it would be very easy to drift into mindless repetition while trying to build tempo.

Tomorrow I continue revisiting Batch 6, and I also begin my Batch 3 revisit after its 7-day break.

Comments

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...

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 ...

The Tyranny of the Dots

In the Billy Joel documentary And So It Goes , Billy talks about "reading the dots." He didn't want—or need—to "read the dots," meaning the music notes on the page. He had developed his own rock 'n' roll piano style and, after a few years of classical training, he left the dots behind. I didn't want to read the dots, either, once upon a time. As a little kid, I had a good ear and could quickly figure out just about any tune on the piano. But in first grade, I finally started piano lessons, thus beginning my life with the dots. The Wall of Dots Between Me and Music I hated the dots! I wanted to learn them, sure, but it was so hard. If my teacher played what was written, I could play it right back for him. But if he asked me to play it from the dots, I felt like I would pop a blood vessel in my brain. It was so frustrating for my six-year-old self to have the code to a simple tune sitting silently before my eyes and not be able to crack it and bring th...

Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

Search This Blog