Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

This morning I worked on the fugue for two hours . Got the last two pages of it smooth as silk (well, maybe not THAT smooth, but they sounded much better at the end of the practice session than at the beginning). I'm still playing it hands-separately, of course, but I can tell I'm nearing the point at which I can take the next step and actually start playing it hands- together . No time for details, as usual. But it was good to have a date with Bach. Liszt wasn't even allowed. I'm hoping for a second practice session this evening. A hot Friday night date with Franz Liszt. Sounds ideal to me. Too bad he's dead.

Practice for three hours (so far) today. Just a few minutes on scales, inversions, and arps . I'm playing them faster, so I'm actually able to play more per day and not feel like I'm spending all my time on technical exercises. About 30 minutes on the Bach Prelude . As I've mentioned before, I'm not really "supposed" to be starting on it. However, the Fugue and Standchen are both so hairy ... it's nice to have an easy ("easy" being a relative term) piece to warm up on. I've also been reviving some of the 2- and 3-part inventions that I've learned in the past as ways of warming up my hands and mind before diving into the harder stuff. About 30 minutes on the Fugue . I've spend a lot of time lately on Liszt, so I'm planning a nice, long date with the Fugue later this week, probably tomorrow or Friday. I have the entire thing hand-separately, but it's not very polished sounding. I'm going to keep working hands-separat...

Note: I've expanded significantly on this post over at my other blog, A Sort of Notebook . I am loving Liszt. I love the way my hands have to "share" the melody. I have so much to write on that, but I'm borrowing a computer and don't have enough time to do it justice. Suffice it to say that I've practiced three and a half wonderful hours today, and about two hours on Liszt alone. What I find wonderful about Liszt is that it pushes one hand hard, but not too hard. Then the other hand gets a turn to be pushed. But it's never both at the same time, and never one hand for too long. It's hard to explain. When I have more time to write, I'll word things rather more eloquently, I'm sure. All I can say now is that my fingers feel like they're dancing a wonderful, graceful dance. I've been trying to "play with my body," as my piano teacher says to do, so all of me is dancing. And Standchen, though it still need a lot of work (like, um...

I'm on a trip to my home state of Louisiana and will have intermittent internet access all week. So, I won't be posting much on this blog or my other one. However, I will be practicing for hours upon hours on the piano at a local church. I'll post a great big practice log after I get back home to North Carolina.

Today was lesson day. I'd planned to practice this evening, but I had a nasty bout with insomnia last night and am too tired to do much of anything tonight. So I just played through everything once (including Gb and eb scales at 76 and Db and bb arps at 60) and called it a night. If I have another insomnia night, I'll spend it answering e-mails and responding to comments on both this blog and my other one. But I hope to sleep well tonight. It's been a while since I've slept. So good night!

I had my lesson today. It went pretty well, despite the fact that Deborah (my teacher) and I both went into it feeling frustrated (due to non-piano matters). Scales sounded beautiful at 76. I played B-major and G#-minor for her. (I play one major and one minor at each lesson--whichever she happens to ask for. Keeps me guessing.) Played 'em without a hitch, I did. With the chord inversions , she wants me to use my arms more. I'm being all spidery-fingered, but she said to play them more as a motion of the body and not a technical feat of the hands only (my words, not hers). She's very graceful as a pianist--imagine a ballet dancer, only using all of her gracefulness at the piano--and I can tell that her use of the "whole body" movement in playing contributes to her gracefulness. So I'm really going to focus on the motion that I use to play the inversions this week--and not just getting the notes right. I'm past the point of trying to figure out the notes a...

I'm very sad about this. This is one of the times I wish I could be a music student and just say "no" to all of the other life responsibilities, claiming that music is more important because I'm paying for my education and I don't want to waste my money. Alas, music is not my vocation or my primary course of study in a conservatory. It's a mere hobby (she said bitterly)--or, as Julia Cameron writes in The Artist's Way , "fluff around the edges of life." It is difficult to feel so passionate about fluff. Commitments, responsibilities, and my own dark moods kept me away from piano yesterday, and I have several appointments this morning before my piano lesson. One is actually a lunch I'm looking forward to, so perhaps I shouldn't complain. Also, I practiced more in the past week than I was able to practice in a month when I was teaching. So I'll just be thankful for the practice time I did get. Balance. Balance. Balance. Acceptance, ac...