Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

September had a slow start, but I still logged 37.1 hours of practice, averaging about 1.2 hours a day! My top projects were Liszt (7.1 hours), Bare Necessities (6 hours), technique (6 hours), America the Beautiful Rag (3.1 hours), and the PWJ Lead Sheets course (3 hours). I also kicked off Honky Tonk Women and worked on St. Louis Blues/G blues improv. September Highlights In the past month, I managed to: Prepare Liszt for my upcoming Piano With Rebecca performance this Saturday. Master Jonny’s St. Louis Blues Challenge. Keep my maintenance pieces performance-ready. Start reviving Jingle Bells Rag for the holidays. Be seriously inspired by Chuck Leavell’s live performance ! Realize I want to shift focus away from " playing by the dots " and more toward improvising, arranging, composing, and playing by ear. Revive Bare Necessities to near-performance level—check out this video of the first section! (Apologies for the weird angle!)    I also hit my percentage goals and made sol...

Yesterday was the Piano With Jonny annual student awards, and I won a ragtime performance award! It was quite an honor because there are a lot of good pianists, including ragtime pianists, in the PWJ community. Most of the awardees had been in PWJ for multiple years, so I felt particularly honored as a first-year student. Here is the clip where they announced the award! This honor has inspired me to think about my future long-term goals. Barring further issues with my wrist (and elbow), I think I have big plans for 2025. Ragtime First, I want to learn three new Scott Joplin rags: Pineapple Rag, Elite Syncopations, and The Ragtime Dance. I want to learn them in that order--in other words, from the easiest to the most difficult. The plan is to average four months per piece, with the hope that Pineapple Rag will take a little less than that so I have more time for the others. These will be more challenging than my pieces from 2024 (Maple Leaf Rag, Solace, and The Entertainer). Not only a...

  It's rare that I have a weekend that offers potentially unlimited practice time ... but I just may have that this weekend. And if I do? I want to take deep dives into a few different areas. First Cadenza of Liebestraume I've already broken down the cadenza theoretically, and it makes total sense--it's just a back and forth between D-flat minor and E-flat major in various inversions. But playing it is not so simple, and I feel like I need a good, long practice session to get it comfortable and automatic under my fingers. Blues Improvisation I diligently do some blues improvisation every single day, usually for 10-15 minutes in the mornings while waiting for my daughter to get ready to go to school. But I want to take some time to (1) improvise alongside actual recordings and (2) improvise alongside the backing track provided by PWJ. All of my improvisation so far has been just me and the piano, and I'm feeling a need to add something. I don't need a long practice s...

I don't have many words to type today. This morning I decided to return to Bare Necessities, which I haven't really worked on for a couple of months. I've worked on my stride piano technique a lot with Jingle Bells, but I've purposely kept BN in the background, thinking it would be good to take a break from it. I had it to a good tempo, but not the goal tempo. So what better than to let it marinate, or maybe simmer, for a while on low while I worked on other things? So, I returned to it this morning, and it was one big practice session of frustration. Did the practice do any good? Maybe. Maybe not. Am I on the verge of a breakthrough, in the deep darkness that comes before dawn? Maybe. Probably not. I don't know where I am, or what to think, or what to do. There is very little piano-playing in this 5:39 video. It's mostly me whining and being frustrated. I'd planned to make a series of videos this morning of my progress in getting BN back up to speed ... but...

Yes, this is possibly the cheesiest graphic I've ever used on this blog ... and that's saying something. I wish I had a video to share, but I had to practice on the headphones last night. So you get the cheesy graphic instead. Hitting the Speed Wall At my piano lesson Monday afternoon, I lamented my inability to play "Bare Necessities" and "Jingle Bells" at a lightning-fast tempo. I've been particularly frustrated about "Bare Necessities." I mean, I can play it pretty well at 100, but if I get any faster than that, the whole thing (meaning the "B" section, which is the ragtime section, as well as the final section/outro) falls apart. I had made some slight progress last week when I tried touching the keys more lightly; it is, of course, easier to play fast when you're not going all the way down on the keys. But I was still making sloppy errors -- missing notes, accidentally grabbing an inner note when playing an octave , etc. I wa...

As I mentioned yesterday, Bare Necessities is technically in maintenance mode. I'm no longer learning the notes, and I can play through it well enough, and at a good enough tempo, that it will have that "wow" factor for any audience. However . It's not perfect. Certain parts are sloppy. There are still a few parts that I flub more often than not. They're minor, and it's not the end of the world when I miss the notes, but the overall effect is less than dazzling ... and I want my performance of this piece to be knock-your-socks-off dazzling . So there is work to do. Backing Up, Slowing Down Although I can play the entire piece at between 200 and 230, I've slowed it back down to the 160-170 range. My focus for now is repetition, repetition, repetition. And not just any repetition. This is perfection repetition: playing it perfectly, with no missed notes and no pauses, over and over and over again at manageable speeds. Once I've played it perfectly at le...

My two-week vacation starts in a few days. For almost the entire time, I'll have zero access to a piano. Isn't that sad? I'm sad. This is one of those times where it would be more convenient to be a guitarist. I haven't made any conscious changes to my practice sessions, but something has changed. I'm not going as hard as I usually do. I haven't watched a new PWJ lesson since last week. I guess I don't want to start something that I won't be able to finish. I'm still practicing, of course, but only an hour or so each day instead of the usual 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Some days it's not quite even an hour. I haven't lost my passion for piano, so no worries about that. I think part of me is just distancing myself. Kind of like you cut back on caffeine for a few days before you have to go cold turkey. That being said, I'll provide an update here, and this will probably be my final update before I leave for vacation (unless, miraculously, I get a few...

Have you ever watched a really good ragtime pianist fly through a difficult-looking piece of music and wondered how their hands know what to do? It's like their hands are pre-programmed machines, and their brains aren't having to do any work at all; the hands just know where to go. How do they do that? Practice Doing Something Else Jonny May suggests forcing yourself to do other things while practicing. This is one way of literally training your hands to play the right notes, independent of your conscious mind. He suggests having a conversation with someone while you play, saying that he got a lot of this kind of practice while at Disney Land, since people were always interrupting him to ask directions. He also suggests talking to yourself, which I'm quite good at doing it (albeit not while playing the piano).  Another suggestion is to read a book while you play. I tried this a few times and could do it (sort of), and then I realized he meant to read a book aloud . I trie...

This video is far from perfect, far enough that I'm hesitant to post it here. But one thing Jonny teaches is that sometimes you have to practice not stopping, because when you're performing, you can't stop. You have to keep going. So this was an exercise in that. Of course, I still managed to stop a couple of times, and I think I even groan once or twice as is my wont. But I got through it. Any piano teacher who listens to this will think, "She needs to slow down." And yes, I know I do. My practice sessions have been a slow creep up the metronome, along with some section play-throughs where I recite my multiplication tables as a way to practice playing without thinking about what I'm playing. So I've done a lot of work there. Occasionally, I will have a fast-practice session, where I speed everything up and play through it at breakneck speed a couple of times. When I go back down to my practice-pace, it's like I can magically play it better at that tem...

Bare Necessities is coming along nicely. I can play the whole thing at 120, and most of it at 140 or 150. It's supposed to be at 200-something, so it's still not up to speed ... but I am definitely making progress. There are a few small "problem areas" where I still struggle. All three of them are in the ragtime section, and they are the focus for today's blog post. Just a warning that the accompanying videos are very boring because they show me drilling these sections. My hope is that they'll be helpful for someone down the road who is trying to learn this same piece. Problem Area #1: Measure 55 This is the end of the verse that goes "just the bare necessities of life." I would put a photo of the measure here, but I don't want to break any copyright rules. So I'll describe it: The right hand is playing octave quarter notes, going down an A minor chord (E to C to A), finishing on G. The left hand is doing single-note jumps: It jumps from a lo...

Bare Necessities is coming along! My dreams of graduating by the end of June seem less realistic than ever, but I am definitely making progress. I've been away from my piano for three days, and I'm hoping the rest has been fruitful. Early this morning, I played through it at a slow pace, the whole thing, and barely missed a note! I turned on the camera and tried again, but of course I missed a few dozen notes. But I still think this video shows that I've progressed. This one features the ragtime and crossed-hands sections. Enjoy, and try not to cringe at the many flubbed notes!

Welcome to Ragtime Thursday! I have no Bare Necessities video to share with you today. Ten minutes into the morning's practice session, I remembered I had a dentist appointment at 8 a.m., so I needed to hit the road. Hence, no videos today. (I may update this post a little later if I'm able to get a video tonight.) Last Night's Practice: Slow and Measured Last night I practiced both the Mozart and Bare Necessities with the metronome, at slow tempos -- not so slow that I got distracted, but slow enough that I felt like I had plenty of time to think about where my hands would go next. It was a wonderfully satisfying experience to be able to play each piece at a slow but recognizable pace, and to play them without missing a note. Of course, I did miss a note every now and then. And when I did, I stopped, backed up a measure or two, and played it again. If I missed the note again, I stopped to drill. If I didn't miss it again, I kept going. I did this several times for each...

I can play through both my main pieces now. Both Bare Necessities and Rondo alla Turca are fully memorized, and I've worked out the various kinks of learning the notes. Even the tricky BN outro has come together ... mostly. It's been a slow with Bare Necessities. The Mozart hasn't been so bad, but it's still tricky because all those 16th notes need to be absolutely even. And I still haven't discovered the secret of playing those broken octaves in the right hand effectively. And both pieces are fast. The Mozart is a nice Allegro that I'd like to have at about 120 to 130. And Bare Necessities? I think the stride section is supposed to be around 200, though Jonny plays it faster. And the whole piece following the stride section is faster, though I don't really like it that fast, so I may keep it all at the same tempo, or at least not speed it up as much as he does in his video . Time for the Next Phase So. Now that I have the notes down and have at least begun ...

I promise to post on other areas of my piano journey soon. But since I spent so much time on Bare Necessities this weekend, I have progress to report. I also was able to get a few decent videos this morning. And by decent, I mean "not horrible." They are by no means perfect, and all three of them required more takes than I'd like to admit. I was just about to give up when I finally, finally got a decent outro. I did give up before getting a decent video of the stride section at tempo. I felt frustrated (partly because by then I was going to be late for work), but at the same time, I'm so close to getting a video of myself playing the stride section at tempo! At tempo! This is a huge accomplishment that has been a couple of months in the making. Below is the ragtime section. As with the stride section, I can feel myself getting frustrated and discouraged by it, but then I have to remind myself of how far I've come. Parts of it have gotten sloppy due to my obsessiv...

It was a good weekend. I put in almost four hours of practice on Saturday, most of it on Bare Necessities. I also worked in the yard with the hedge clippers, which caused my forearms to be extremely sore Sunday morning, so I didn't practice much before church. After church, we left for northeast Georgia to drop my daughter off at summer camp. I didn't practice when we got home Sunday night, even though I had time. I felt really tired, for some reason, and my forearms were still very sore, so I watched some TV with Dan instead. I couldn't sleep last night because of this stupid menopause-induced eczema, so I finally got up around 3:30 and ended up practicing for a little over an hour, most of it on (yet again) Bare Necessities. I'm only three days into June, and my goals are already seriously out of kilter! I think it's been worth the imbalance though, at least for these few days. The memorized crossed-hands section of Bare Necessities is much smoother, and I've ...

I was going to title this one "Bare Necessities Woes," but I apparently already have a blog post titled "Bare Necessities Woes." I worked on Bare Necessities for two hours today. Two hours .  Actually, let me rephrase that. I worked on the Bare Necessities outro for two hours today. Forty minutes this morning, and then in little 10- or 15-minute intervals throughout the day. And I still don't have it. It's better, but I can't play it with any semblance of confidence. When I do play it perfectly (at a snail's pace, always), it always seems like a stroke of luck. I finally had to stop practicing. Not because I wanted to, but because my forearm was screaming. I had to keep resting because the reaches are hard on my hands/arms. Even though I've taken out some notes to make them easier. I'm tired and I feel like I'm making my way through darkness. I still have not managed to wrap my brain around this passage yet, and it feels brand-new to m...

If you've been following my Bare Necessities posts , you'll know that I spent the first two months of this piece dilly-dallying. I'd put in a good practice, and then I'd take a few days or even a week or two off, and then I'd return to it for another practice, and then I'd take a few more days off. In short, I wasn't taking it seriously. I was viewing it as "fun side project" while focusing primarily on Maple Leaf Rag and the nocturne). Not surprisingly, I was stalled for most of March and April. Putting In the Work As May approached, along with my graduation from Joplin and Chopin, I was determined to give Bare Necessities the time and effort it needed. And I've done it. I've been ... well, "obsessive" may be too strong of a word. But I was focused . Very focused. Other than when I was in piano-less in North Carolina, I worked on it every day. And for the past week or so, I've worked on it twice a day: the outro in the mornin...

Good news! I was right about the crossed-hands section of Bare Necessities: It isn't hard at all! What a relief after struggling through the stride, ragtime, and outro sections! A real breath of fresh air! No crazy hand stretches, either! Yay! I still want to put a good bit of work into it to ensure that I have it properly memorized. The temptation here is to blow it off because it's so easy. As I mention in the video, I could literally play the whole right-hand section with my forefinger. But I did go through and figure out the fingering I'd like to use. Anyway, I share a few more thoughts in this video. I also play the crossed-hands section, slowly. I'm so excited about finally getting to this part!

For the past three mornings, I've spent 20-30 minutes on the Bare Necessities outro. The outro is both very simple and very tricky. It's simple in that the left hand is pretty basic, and the right hand follows a very straightforward, upwardly chromatic pattern. It's tricky in that the chromatic pattern sometimes emphasizes notes that aren't in the chord (for example, playing an Eb in the right hand while playing an A7 in the left hand ... or working toward a resolution to C, and playing C in the right hand, but having to play a D7 in the left hand instead). With each measure, I'm very aware of what chord I'm in, so when the right hand emphasizes notes that aren't part of the chord ... it kind of throws my logical mind for a loop. Also, despite the "simple" elements I mentioned above, this section is not very intuitive. For three mornings in a row now, I've felt like I've had to re-learn each instance of the pattern (there are three). At the...

I had just a few minutes this morning after practicing Mozart, so I decided to play through the Bare Necessities coda/finale/outro. As I explained in my previous post , I've skipped ahead to this section, opting to tackle the easier-looking crossed-hand section and kiddie section after I have the outro down. I've been scared of this section. If you listen to Jonny May play it (link takes you to the beginning of the outro), you can see that it doesn't sound like a walk in the park. And it's not. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's not the big, scary challenge that I thought it would be. The hardest part is the syncopation. I wrote in the beats, circling the melody beats, and clapped out the rhythm a few times. It took a few times before I "got it," but once I figured that out, it was just a matter of learning the notes ... which aren't that hard. It's basically chromatic octaves with inner notes that don't change that much, while t...