Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

I was able to record and share Jonny May's Silent Night Rhumba on Christmas Day. I’d hoped to have it finished by Christmas Eve, but Christmas Eve itself turned out to be unexpectedly full, and I didn’t get much time at the piano. That familiar feeling followed. I'd had a goal, missed it, and was disappointed. So I tried again the next morning. I woke up early on Christmas Day (before the kid!) and practiced SNR quietly with headphones. Things felt solid enough. Not perfect, but playable. Good enough to record, I thought. After presents were opened and the house settled, I went back to the piano and pressed “record.” I played. I messed up. I stopped. I pressed “record” again. I messed up again. Stopped again. Pressed “record” again. Banged on the keys. Pressed “record” again. Made it half a measure. Messed up. Stopped. Considered crying. (I may have actually cried.) Such is the part of the process that never makes it into the final video. I know the piece well. My hands know w...

I am absurdly excited today. The kind of excited where I sit down at the piano “just to try something” and suddenly it’s 45 minutes later and I’m pacing around the room narrating my own ideas out loud. I have two videos to share, which means two musical updates! Update #1: Silent Night Rhumba Has Become a Thing This Jonny May arrangement is ridiculously fun. I daresay it's even more fun than Bare Necessities , probably because Bare Necessities, no matter how fun it is, is still hard to play. Silent Night Rhumba isn't easy, but once the groove locks in everything else kind of happens naturally. Like the music knows where to go and I just need to get out of the way. My plan for the full piece is: Simple version first ( video here ) More interesting version next (video below) Solo section that I'm still working on Either a repeat of the more interesting version or go straight into the outro Here's the more interesting version, which I shared on social media last week: My...

I’ve finally nailed the intro, outro, and first full run-through of Jonny May’s intermediate/advanced “Silent Night Rhumba” arrangement. Here it is! I flub a few notes in the middle (as usual), but I’m proud of myself for powering through without stopping—or making any primal frustration noises. Coming soon: Part 2 (up an octave with extra embellishments) Part 3 (full solo) Fingers crossed I’ll have everything finished—and maybe even stitched together into one complete performance—before the year ends!

 Now that the doctor has cleared me to play piano as much as I want, I sat down last night to work some more on the bluesy Silent Night from a few days ago . I just turned on the camera and started to play. I ended up cutting out about half of the video (the first half, where I was still working things out), so here is the second half. I want to give it more of a boogie-woogie bass (broken octaves, walking up and down), but for now I'm just using the familiar old blues shuffle. You can tell as the video progresses that I'm loosening up more and more. By the end I'm practically dancing in my seat. It is so good to be able to play like this! And I didn't even delve into the many runs and riffs I've learned! There will be time for that later!

Once upon a time, almost a year ago, I wrote about feeling like I was locked in a "gray little room," worlds away from feeling freedom at the piano. I'd had many years of lessons and could play, but I was tied to the sheet music. Or if I was improvising, I would fall into the same old pattern in the left hand and could hardly advance beyond the actual tune in the right hand. I felt trapped, and I'd felt trapped for nearly all of my piano life. I wanted to play jazz. I wanted to play blues. I wanted to be able to "ragtimify" any song. I could hear the arrangements in my head, but I didn't know how to play them. Last night, I started picking through "Silent Night" with a blues shuffle in the bass. And ... I improvised. I riffed. I rocked. I had so much fun. I hated having to go to work today because all I wanted to do was stay home and play this bluesy, boogie-style Silent Night. I feel like I am walking on air. That rusty lock has broken, and ...