Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

For about six months, I've been doing regular "hand yoga" exercises that I've developed, partly based on Sara Davis Buechner's Tonebase series on the technique work of Alberto Jonas. Back in May, I was able to reach a tenth with my right hand, but just barely, and I couldn't play the notes at the same time. I had to play a note with the thumb, and then stretch, stretch, stretch so that my pinky could just catch the corner of the note a tenth up. Last night I played the two notes at the same time with either hand! I tried to do it again on this video and couldn't. But you can see that the reach has become doable if I play one note and then the other. Will I ever be able to play stride piano, which uses lots of tenths in the left hand? Probably not. But I can keep trying. The best part of these exercises, I think, is that my octaves are much more solid than they've ever been!

In mid-December of last year, I posted my first real piano post since 2019. I was feeling very tentative about coming back to piano. I've taken lessons over the years and have become a pretty good pianist ... but would I ever be able to play jazz? Could I ever learn to play the blues? Would I be stuck playing the same broken chords in the left hand for the rest of my life? My, how things have changed. When I posted, I had just joined Tonebase . A month later, I would join Piano With Jonny , and that's when my piano life would take off. Here are my piano hours from February (when I started tracking my hours using the PWJ log). July and August were not good months for piano. I spent part of July on vacation, and much of August in North Carolina when my dad was sick. September and October also took a hit, thanks to Hurricane Helene and ten days with no electricity. How I wished I had an acoustic piano during that time! Anyway, onward to my 2024 accomplishments ... 2024 Accomplish...

My scales for this week are Gb major and Eb harmonic minor. I don't think I've ever played anything in either, though I would like to learn Schubert's beautiful  Op. 90, No. 3 Impromptu in Gb major someday. Tonebase TWI This week and next week, I'm participating in a Tonebase Two-Week Intensive (TWI) on improving scale speed and accuracy. For my scale, I've chosen to work primarily in Eb harmonic minor, and for two reasons: (1) it's one of my two scales o' week, and (2) it's possibly my weakest scale. Maybe I should have done A major or A minor, or F# minor, since those are the main keys of the Rondo alla Turca. Or Ab major (Maple Leaf Rag) or F minor (Chopin). Bare Necessities is in F, C, and G ... but those are the easiest scales, and I wanted a challenge. So, Eb harmonic minor it is, though I'll also be putting in some focused work on Gb major as well. For the TWI, I made this "baseline" video, which was a little embarrassing to share ...

If you were reading my blog back in January/February, you might remember that those were heady days of trying to figure out what learning resources I wanted to use. Here's an update on that. Option 1: Private Classical Teacher This was the obvious first choice because ... well, it's always the obvious first choice. Every time I "get back into piano," I immediately look for a good teacher. And I've found some great ones: Deborah  worked some serious magic with my technique for a few years starting in 2004, and Carol was the stickler I needed to bring even more precision and musicality to my playing in 2019-2020. But this time around, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the time or money for an hour a week of lessons, along with the hour or more a day for practicing. Sure, I wanted to play classical music, but I also wanted to (finally) learn other styles, primarily jazz, blues, ragtime, and gospel. Option 2: Private Jazz Teacher So, I wondered, should I find a jaz...

  I have signed up for a 14-day free trial of tonebase , a music-learning program. I discovered their YouTube channel a few days ago, and, after some research, decided to try it out. It's geared toward intermediate to advanced musicians (though there are also resources for beginner to early intermediate). It begins with a series of questions so they can determine your level and give you a recommended path. Levels range from beginner to advanced. You could only give one answer per question, but there were some for which two answers could have been correct for me ... so I took it twice. The first time, I landed in Level 7, and the second time I landed in Level 6. I thought this was a pretty good assessment--both levels contained a few pieces I've played before, along with a few that I'd like to play. For now, I'm staying in Level 6 since I'm rusty from a few years of not playing. Plus, I could definitely use some review in the areas of music history and style, scales...