RB Piano Forte Chronicles

WELL, THE PLAGUE APPEARS to be abating – I’m feeling more or less human, again. Still have a residual cough, but I’m not knocked down, and I’m not constantly interrupted by hacking fits at the keyboard.
Harpsichord vs Piano

I started out playing the Bach Inventions and the Scarlatti K380 with the keyboard set to the [...]

THIS UPPER-RESPIRATORY GOOMBAH has knocked me down for three days, with no end in sight. It tends to leave me pretty exhausted.

I’m still practicing, but one night I carried it too far and finally went to bed amid an explosion of hacking, coughing fits.

Perhaps I shouldn’t do that, until I get better.

Something that I’ve [...]

I’m still woozed out with anti-cold/flu drugs. Listening to some improvisational piano, trapset, bass playing on NPR gives pause for reflection about the genre. And why I hate it [...]

SOME RESPIRATORY SOMETHING or other has nailed me, and knocked me down for a few days.

In general, I find myself reclined on the couch with no motivation, energy, or will to ever do anything, again.

But, the keyboard always calls, and I always manage to get in an hour or two of practice, even through my [...]

After a nice two week break in the Caribbean, I’m anxious to return to the piano. Not faring too badly after a two week hiatus, it seems [...]

SITTING AT PHOENIX SKY HARBOR AIRPORT at 11:10pm, waiting for a 12:50am flight to Atlanta and then Puerto Rico. The proverbial ‘red-eye’.

It will, of course, be two weeks of wonderful sun and water (we’re going to Viecques), but likely no piano. Which means likely no practice.

So, I’ll miss that, as things have been [...]

I’M FINALLY TO THE POINT WHERE I have run the Bach Invention #4 (D minor) completely through – no sticking points.

At least twice, so that’s real progress. So, the intense metronome practice has really paid off.

The Scarlatti K380 is coming along nicely, as well – only one sticking area, and that in the second [...]

IN THE PREVIOUS POST I reflected on my dismay that the Bach #8 Invention (F major) seemed to be deteriorating.

Now, last night, I was working on the #4 (D minor), and, to my continued dismay, it seemed to be deteriorating, as well. A lot of slurring, indistinct notes in the passages.

Time to knuckle down.

The [...]

SIGH.

I seem to be ‘unlearning’ things – yesterday’s practice was less than stellar, to be sure, particularly with regards to the Bach Invention #8 (Fmaj), which seems to be getting worse as I play it more, not better.

Part of the issue is I’m sore: running this thing just strains the hell out my wrists and [...]

MUSICAL NOTATION HAS ALWAYS been an area of ‘creative inventiveness’ – sort of like parking in Paris. Tempo, loudness, crescendos – all of that has to be indicated, somehow. Hopefully in universal terms.

(Not always true, though – tempo markings, for instance, are notoriously unreliable. My favorite is this one: tempo giusto: at [...]