On a roll!

I'm pleased to say that not only did I finish practicing last night, I also ended up with 100 minutes of practicing at the end! And today I've practiced about 40 minutes so far. Not too shabby!

I worked on Beethoven's Sonata no. 8 in C minor, op. 13 (Pathétique) last night and today. This is a piece I was working on when I was a piano performance major, and although I made a lot of progress on it while I was there, I didn't get it to the level I'd like. The hardest part is the tremolos in the first movement. The second movement is fairly straightforward and is probably one of the most well known pieces. Here's the first movement performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy. I also love the third movement, probably the least played of the three. I haven't studied that one with a teacher, but I plan to perfect it this year as well. I'm fairly close on this one, but get tripped up a little at some of the chords.

Today I worked on Sonata 8 again, and I also focused on page 3 of my Chopin Nocturne. I have another line that I started working on today and expect to have it learned to where I can play it without much effort in a day or two. It's going surprisingly fast! My goal was to have the whole piece playable by April 30, but it looks like I may get it by the end of February! Or sooner! I'm so excited about that! This means I will have a lot more time to spend on details, perfecting the dynamics, ensuring the voice leads (which can be difficult-- I usually play the leading notes at regular volume and press on top of the keys without pressing them down to work on the other parts-- it can be difficult to play two volumes at once, especially on the same hand), and memorizing this piece by ear and by shape. I then hope to have it to a close-to-perfect level by June or July, just to be safe.

I still would like to get some practicing in tonight. I probably should do some scales or something, too. Right now, I'm holding my almost-sleeping little girl and am going to work on a little theory!