IT’S PROBABLY TOO EARLY to seriously look at another piece, at this stage, but I’m finding it irresistible to at least scan Chopin’s Opus 40 – ‘Polonaise Militaire’ and maybe see what some of the fingering entails.
Of course, there’s the impossible (for me) left-hand span in the first chord of measure 4 – I can [...]
Read the rest of this entry »A squeaky upgrade sustain pedal (made by M-Gear) has been driving me crazy – squeaking like rat in a trap being stepped on in time with the music. I figure it’s about time to dig out the WD-40 and fix the thing [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Running the Bach Invention #4 with the metronome, again, to force even-ness. I have yet to run it fully with the metronome running. Also, taking a glance at Chopin’s Polonaise Militaire
Read the rest of this entry »It’s not learning a piece that is difficult: it’s perfecting it and getting it accurate and precise. Learning it, committing it to memory, and getting it to the point that you can run it takes a certain amount of time. Getting it down takes a lot longer…
Read the rest of this entry »Playing piano blindfold can perhaps be an aid in memorizing the keyboard [...]
Read the rest of this entry »LOUSY PRACTICE, last night. Fingers twitching, it seems – hitting random keys at random moments. Runs wouldn’t run, arpeggios wouldn’t arpeggio.
What is this thing in front of me? And why won’t my fingers go where they are directed, at least in my head.
Performance Jitters
Part of the reason was attributable to a new [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Good, long practice, last night, after a few days of light run-throughs.
Last night, I spent about four hours until 2AM running through everything in the current set. The good news is the Inventions are smoothing out, the Beethovens are getting more expressive, and I’ve got the second half of the Scarlatti K380 committed and [...]
Tonight, I turned on the metronome.
You don’t want to become a slave to the thing, but on the other hand, rock solid timing is the foundation of musicianship, from the technical pieces like the Bach Inventions to Glenn Miller In the Mood to the Eagles Hotel California and even to Ice-T (although the latter doesn’t [...]
You do wonder this as you get to anything beyond beginning level in just about any pursuit of music.
There’s a famous exchange between Beethoven and a famous violinist of the day – the violinist protested a note in question was ‘unplayable’. Beethoven took the instrument from him and showed him how to play it, [...]
First full practice, last night on the RV. I need to get my current playlist/repertoire posted so you know what I’m working on, without having to list in complete everything here. That will go up on ‘pages’ rather than ‘posts’. Hang on, I’m working on it.
Things started a little stiff and the [...]
