Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

Schubert has gotten the short shrift for a couple of days. Not that I'd planned it that way, of course. It's just that I'm at a place in the Schubert that isn't lending itself to micro-practices. I need time to work through a whole section. Plus, it's kind of hard. I focused on measures 230 to 238 today. It's where the familiar scale-y E-flat theme takes an interesting turn in the chromatic section (specifically, measure 232). I was having a little trouble with the fingering in the left hand (5 or 4? 5 or 4?) and was stumbling a little on the chromatic stuff. I played with the fingering in both hands and finally figured out my 5's and 4's in the LH. It's not that different from what I did with the Bach earlier today: arranging the fingering so to allow as little effort as possible for me. I also think I have a good fingering pattern worked out in the RH. Another challenge for today was switching from the chromatics to the downward F-mino...

I usually have a wide-open morning for practicing on Saturdays, but that hasn't been the case today, mainly because I was exhausted after a long, stressful week and slept in (a rare thing for me) this morning. But I did have time for some scales and Bach. At my lesson on Thursday, Carol said that I'm going to need to play more lightly if I ever want to get this prelude up to speed. I'm "punching" the keys and playing them with more weight than I need to. I think this is partly because I'm going at such a slow speed (♪=40). It's a plodding pace, and I'm tempted to plod and "punch." So today I practiced playing it more lightly, but with equal intensity, starting at ♪=40. My goal at this point—now that I have the notes and the fingering figured out—is to play it perfectly at this tempo. Once I can play it perfectly at ♪=40 (and by that, I mean that I can do it consistently, not just once), I'll move to ♪=42. I won't move to ♪=44 unti...

I'm going to be working on the first few measures of Debussy's "La fille aux cheveux de lin." I thought I would be learning the whole piece, and maybe I will ... but for the moment, the focus is on phrasing and "softness control" (my word for it), on using weight (rather than tension) to get the sound just right. This piece (these few measures, or maybe the first couple of lines) will be more of an exercise than anything else, for now. This will definitely be one of those "deceptively easy" things. I had a lesson yesterday, and we worked some on the Bach. I needed to change a bit of the fingering, but other than that, it is definitely time to start racheting up the speed, little by little. I'm going to have several days off of work next week, and I look forward to spending a lot  of time with Bach! And Schubert. And Chopin. And Debussy. Such delightful companions! Life doesn't get much better than that.

I've written several times about how I've been playing my Chopin Nocturne mostly from memory for years, and have totally ceased to think seriously about all the little dynamic instructions that poor Frédéric so painstakingly wrote down throughout the piece. I've been focusing very hard on, you know, paying attention to them now. The result is that I'm playing the piece much more slowly than before ... but I also think I'm starting to play it better. For my own reference (and for anyone who might be learning this piece and Googling "chopin noctrne op 9 no1 help what dose poco rallent mean"), I'm writing down some definitions here, in the order in which they appear in the nocturne*: p - piano , soft espress.  - espressivo , expressive smorz. - smorzando  - dying away (both tone and speed) legatissimo - very smooth and connected; more legato than legato appassionato  - with passion cresc. - crescendo , gradually getting louder con forza  - with...

I'm a little hesitant to share this recording, for several reasons. I'll get those out of the way now: My piano is not in perfect tune. I cannot play this piece perfectly because ... The tempo is too slow throughout, but a little faster than I want in places. The polyrhythm sections are still a little wonky. I accidentally turned two pages in the middle of the piece and had to stop and turn back to the correct page. The final note of the piece wouldn't play the first two times on my 100-year-old piano, so that final note sounds like it's showing up to the party really late. The recording isn't a professional one, and (I think) the left hand sounds louder and more plodding than it does in real life. (I will let my new piano teacher be the judge of that tomorrow.) I'm sure I could think another half-dozen reasons if I gave myself two or three more minutes, but I'll stop there. Why am I posting this? Because I want to capture a moment of time as ...

I've managed to squeeze in several short practices over the past few days. None of them were "worth writing home about," but I do want to keep track of my progress here, so this will be an all-in-one update. Scales I must say, I am so happy to be focusing on scales and not arpeggios right now. We'll return to "arps" in good time, but for now I'm working diligently at getting the scales back in my fingers and my brain. I'm playing 24 scales a day: 12 majors plus 12 harmonic minors, all in parallel and contrary motion. I still doing the majors at 60 and the minors at ♪ = 50. I do all of the majors plus six minors (C, C#, D, Eb, E, and F) in the morning, and then the remaining six minors (F#, G, G#, A, Bb, and B) in the evening. And they're getting better! It really doesn't take that much time, either, particularly now that I'm becoming comfortable with the scales again. I imagine I will move up a degree on the metronome for next we...

I have been dealing with a lot of anxiety lately. I've had issues with the depression in the past, but anxiety has never been that much of a problem for me ... until now. Some of it has to do with work stress, some has to do with money stress, and some is just plain old life stress. While the cost of piano lessons adds somewhat to the money stress, the escape of practice and the anticipation of the next lesson have helped me make it through these last few weeks. I'm finding that I tend to hit a low point on Wednesday evenings. Let's see why: On Tuesdays, I have a full day of work, including a required meeting at noon. On Tuesday evenings, I am the leader for a combined Tiger/Wolf/Bear Cub Scout Den. On Wednesdays, I have a full day of work, including a required meeting from 12:30 to 2:00. On Wednesday evenings, I volunteer to teach a pre-school class at church. On Wednesday nights, I have choir practice. So, as you might imagine, I can go two days without touching...