Sight Reading

Today I focused a lot on sight reading because I wasn't really feeling my practicing. I worked hard on my Bach Fugue and also played it with the prelude once. It sounds so great together! I never knew I was missing anything to the piece before I learned the Fugue. Oh, the ignorance of youth.

Today's sight reading included a Rondeaux by Bach, a piece by Grieg and a piece by Rachmaninof. Please don't make fun of me if my spelling is off-- I do love classical music and piano music in particular, but some of those names are awfully long and complicated, even if they are very famous composers! That took up the majority of my time today.

I ended with a few minutes to work on the Nocturne. The good news is I have it memorized to the first fast scale, which is AWESOME, especially considering I wasn't even planning on starting the first page until April anyway. The bad news is I still have a lot of fine tuning to work on with this piece. It may be a while yet before it is performance ready. Slowly but surely, it is coming along (but faster than I ever thought possible! I guess I underestimated my abilities!).

The good streak continues

I'm continuing with my new practice method and am very pleased with the results I'm getting. Today I worked on my nocturne for 30 minutes in the morning. At night I was intending on practicing a couple different pieces, but I ended up working on the Bach fugue for a whole hour. Total of 90 minutes today. Great practice session. The fugue is getting so close.

Amazing

I'm feeling so good after today's session. I only got in 55 minutes before midnight tonight, but the minutes I got really counted today. I made some amazing progress in all the pieces I worked on today, specifically my nocturne. There are three sections where I just can't get up to speed, as they are lightning fast. But I know I can play fast because my fingers move very quickly with my Schubert piece, so fast that if I look down, they look blurry to me. I know I can do it. It's just getting my fingers to move that way that is the tricky part. I learned the Schubert 13 or 14 years ago and my fingers still remember it, so I have a lot of years with that one, and the Chopin is new as of November. I've been thinking about how to make my fingers move, and it dawned on me as I was drilling one of the super-fast sections. Movement. Limited movement. I noticed on my way up, I wasn't crossing my thumb under the rest of my fingers to get up the scale, but I was on the descent, and I am much faster ascending. So I started working on lifting my thumb and moving my whole hand down, not just the fourth finger, in order to work on getting up to speed.

It's working. And I'm thrilled. I played through the whole piece today after I was done with my drills. I had the *sigh* feeling when I finished like I get when I play Clair de Lune. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy that makes me feel. I seriously felt like I was floating on air. I could have played piano for hours after that, but I have to get up for 9 am church in the morning, so I couldn't. Not tonight.

I also worked on my Schubert number, which is so beautiful. I really only played it through, but it is sounding so much better. I'll probably have it memorized again within a week or two, and the trouble spots are really starting to disappear, though there are a couple more places I need to drill through before I will feel like I'm really there again. I am so close to allowing myself to pass this piece off.

I also worked on the Bach Fugue today. That is also coming along nicely. I didn't have an epiphany on this piece like I did the Chopin, but it is coming together so nicely. This piece will likely be ready in a few more weeks to where I am confident, and memorization will follow soon afterward. I don't really feel like I understand a piece of music until it is memorized. Once that happens, more good things follow, and soon it is so imprinted in my mind that it is hard to leave, unless I happen to have a 10 year hiatus on the piano (which won't happen again!).

Unfortunately, I had to kiss my piano good night and blog about my wonderful session instead of playing the whole night through like I wanted. I'm really hoping for more sessions like this in the coming week. I feel so good now.

Today was just one of those days

You know, the kind where you're moving from the minute you wake up until it's bedtime? Yeah, that was today. Except a lot of my day was spent sitting down doing taxes. Fun. Thankfully, we got a nice big return, so it wasn't all that bad. But I did have to spend some time on the phone with the IRS. That was a joy. All I needed was my ARI from last year, and somehow I don't have a copy of my last year's tax return. How did that happen?

Tonight I started practicing at 10:20. I decided that there was no way I would be able to get in a full day of practicing and exercise, and since practicing is more important to me (I'm only 10 pounds above my goal weight, after all), I decided it'd be better to skip the exercise. I practiced 'till 11, when I was starting to get droopy eyed. I needed to start a load of laundry (it is piling up big time!) and get a couple more things ready, so now at almost 11:30 I'm pooped.

Today I started working on my new method for practicing my Schubert piece. It went well-ish. I passed off one drill section at half speed.

I also practiced the prelude and fugue 21 by Bach. I'm starting to figure out the fingering, which is tough with these pieces. It's just not intuitive to me, so I have to really work it and figure it out in order to get it right.

I played through May Song twice today, and worked on a couple of spots. I think I'm okay there for a while. As long as I can play it once every week or two, I think I'll be fine on this piece.

No warm ups, since 40 minutes is hardly any time at all for practicing.

Now I'm almost off to bed. Tomorrow should be a better practice day.

Yes, I have been slacking.

But not on my piano playing. Just my blogging. I haven't been playing too much of the Nocturne lately. I think because I'm so close to having all the notes down, and because I'm just a little bit burned out on it. Plus I am frustrated with it, because I am unable to get up to the speed I need to get to. It has scales that need to be played as quickly as a trill. My fingers just don't move that fast. Yet.

I can't really remember what I've been practicing for the past few days, so I'll just go over today's menu.

I practiced Schubert's Impromptu #10 for about 25 minutes today. I am drilling a couple of trouble spots and working on dynamics. I am a little clumsy throughout the whole piece, so I need to play it slower and work up to a faster speed.

I also played Bach's Fugue 21. I got out my "counting beans" and played a couple sections through ten times each. With the counting beans, I get to move the bean over from the middle of the saucer to the outside ridge every time I play through it perfectly. I pass when I get all ten beans to the outside ridge. Often, when I mess up, I have to put a bean back. If I'm really being hard on myself, if I mess up I have to put all the beans back and start over from the beginning. One section I worked on counting beans hands separately, the other hands together (I don't really pass off a section until I can complete the "counting beans" HT, though).

Lastly, I played Tcherepnin. I drilled the beginning couple of lines. In the past week I've been drilling trouble spots, but this isn't a trouble spot that I worked on today. It's the beginning, which has gotten a teensy bit clumsy.

All totaled I got in 80 minutes today. Not too bad.

57 minutes

Not a full 60. 57. I tried so hard to get my full practice time in today, but alas, it was not to be. R woke up needing to go potty, and once she's woken up, I don't want to plunk the keys and keep her awake, even if I'm sure she's back to sleep! She's been very testy lately with sleep, so I take what I can get. She either has asthma or a cold with no symptoms other than coughing, and she's been coughing now for 2 weeks, so it's tough for her to sleep.

For today, I did 20 minutes of warm ups in the morning-- Hanon 11-20, arpeggios in C, G, D and scales in B and F#. Then on to the fugue. I'm continuing to work out fingering issues on the second page and hopefully I'll get that done in a few more days so I can move on to page 3. I hope to polish this piece within the month.

I also played through my Schubert Impromptu, which was lots of fun. I planned on working out some fingering today as well, but I was babysitting a little boy from church so I couldn't devote quite as much time to practice as I would have liked. All totaled, I practiced 3o minutes this morning. Which sounds like not very much considering 20 of it was with warm ups. How did I manage that one I wonder?

Tonight I worked on the Nocturne finally! It's been about a week now since I've played it, and I'm glad for the break. I was getting weary of working out fingering and getting frustrated at not being able to play through the whole piece yet, and especially not being able to play some of the faster parts up to speed yet that I can play perfectly. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm proud of the progress I've made so far. 27 minutes into tonight's practicing R woke up with a full bladder and a cranky disposition. Bummer.

But thinking back on it... perhaps I did actually get in more than 60 minutes today. There is no way that I played the impromptu in under 5 minutes-- it's 11 pages long! And I worked on a couple sections of it as well for a few minutes! I must have practiced the impromptu and fugue each for 10 minutes. There's no way possible that I practiced for shorter than that with either of those pieces today.

So I'm giving myself 67 minutes. Weird.

Getting Smarter

So tonight I skipped the warm ups and went straight to the practicing. I got about 40 minutes of Fugue in when R started wandering the halls. I have her now and I think my practicing is done for the day. Tomorrow I am babysitting a little boy, but other than that my day shouldn't be as hectic. I expect to practice a bit more tomorrow during the day so I can get in the rest of my practicing in the evening, not all of it!

What's going on with the short days?

I really tried to get in a full hour of practice today. The problem is, I haven't been at home as much lately so I haven't been practicing during the day. Tonight I began practicing at 10 pm after a busy day of cooking and baking and running around. I also got in 20 minutes of exercise somehow and began my finger workout after that. Alas, 30 minutes into it my sweet 2 year old R woke up and was inconsolable when her dad tried to calm her, so of course when he's gone through all the tricks in the book it's time for mom to take action. And now that she's back to sleep, I'm afraid to play for fear of waking her!

Tomorrow is the day of rest, so I'm hoping I can get some restful playing in then.

Today I did Hannon 1-10, arpeggios in C, G and D, and scales in B Major and F# Major. This was 20 minutes of warming up. I was planning for a full hour or more of practice tonight since I've had several 30 minute days this week. I went through my prelude 21 and started in on the Fugue when she awoke. I was barely able to work on the fingering before I had to go back there.

Hey, with as much as I have to do, I'm proud to get 30 minutes in per day! In a few years, I'll be able to dedicate a lot more time to the piano. For now, I'm grateful I can get in any time at all.

Just 30 minutes today, again.

I was interrupted tonight by a crying little girl, so I was unable to completely my practice. Since I didn't start until 11 pm, that means the practice is over for today. I only worked on the Fugue today, but I intended to work on some other pieces as well. Mostly I worked on the fingering. With baroque music, the fingering has to be absolutely perfect. I'm working on the second section of it, and I will soon have that fingering down. I'm hoping in another few weeks I will have the fingering perfected and I can really fine tune it and work on the dynamics.

I also warmed up with Hannon 11-20 today.

So far, no Nocturne

I have done about half my practicing today, and I haven't played the nocturne in quite a while. I think I just needed a break! I'm not quite sure if I'm ready to play it again yet, but I'm sure I will be soon. I feel a little burnt out on that one.

Today I did Hannon 1-10, and I worked on my Fugue for about 15 minutes and I worked on my trouble spot in Clair de Lune. I *almost* played the grand at church tonight, but I had a super tired little darling that is asleep on my lap right now (finally). She had major bags under her eyes all evening, but Hubby and I both had to be at the church tonight, so she had to tag along. Poor little thing.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get any more practicing in tonight. I have data entry stuff to work on, and I haven't done any yoga yet today! Eep!

Two days in a row

Today and yesterday I took a break from The Nocturne. I enjoy playing it, but playing it day in and day out really makes me weary. Darn my ADD! That is why I have so many songs that I'm working on. I can't just focus on two or three. I have to have ten.

Today I got the opportunity to play on the grand at church. I don't get to play on it often, but I enjoy playing it when I do. I'm used to playing my Kia, but at church I get to play the Lexus. In a few years, I'm hoping the Steinway at my parent's house will be refurbished so I can play on a Rolls Royce :)

Yesterday I worked through Hannon 1-10 and today I did 11-20. Yesterday I did arpeggios but today I did none, and I haven't done scales either day.

I've been working really hard on my Schubert Impromptu no. 4, and also my Tcherepnin Bagatelle. I enjoy the first because it is just so beautiful and flowy, light and airy, but has a lovely heavier trio in the middle. The Tcherpnin is a lot of fun, almost like a joke. It is the last Bagatelle in a series of 10, and the end you have to scoot yourself up to the end of the bench to really get the notes hit right-- you play the very highest note, so it's like you're scooting off the bench ready to be done with it already.

I read up on Tcherepnin yesterday. He is from a family of composers, with his father and son both being composers as well. So, kind of like a 20th century Bach.

Speaking of Bach, I worked on the Fugue yesteday for a bit. Today I worked on Clair de Lune. I have three measures toward the end that trip me up every time. I'm going to work those three measures every day 10 times before I work on other sections, just so I can memorize it again. I also have a couple trouble spots in the key change area.

Today's practice total was 80 minutes, which surprises me because I almost didn't practice at all. I had a rough day, and my kids were making me insane. Usually I get practicing in a little while dinner's in the oven or while the kids are in the bath, but not tonight. I had 10 minutes at the church and the rest was at home.

Yesterday I got in 65 minutes. I would have gotten in a lot more but I was preparing to teach preschool today (which is partly why I had such a rough day-- L never listens to me during preschool and it can get to be overwhelming, but I found out it's not just me at least!).

Starting to feel confident again

Finally I'm feeling like I'm a decent pianist. I'm not awesome, and I'm no virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination, but I am good enough to put on a show (or I will be in the near future, anyway!). Today I got in 90 minutes. I'd like to get more days like this in. The thing is, playing the piano is so good for me. It helps my mental capacity, it keeps me more level-headed, I love playing, and while I'm playing I am not eating, which is great for my waistline.

Let's review what I played today. Before the kids went to bed, I practiced for about 30 minutes. About 20 minutes were spent working on the Chopin Nocturne. Then I got out some of my old piano books and played a couple songs out of them. They're really fun songs, and I will be adding them to my list of songs that I'm working on. I hope to have a repitoire 10 or 12 songs that I have memorized and perfected so when I am requested to play, I can just sit down and plunk out a couple pieces. Both of these that I worked on today are quite fast (I kind of have a thing for fast and loud, but as I get older I'm discovering my tastes are changing). First I picked up my Schubert Impromtus book (opus 90). I played no. 4. It is so gorgeous. This video is Rubinstein playing. I could actually play this piece very, very well in my prime. Hopefully I'll get back to that level. Next was a Tcherepnin bagatelle, opus 5, no. 10. I can't find a professional recording of this piece, but it is quite lovely, as well. Very fast and furious (speed is presto!). Fun piece to play, and to hear. This is the kind of 20th century music that hubby can appreciate, I think.

After the kiddos went to bed, I got back on the piano and did some warm-ups first. That's two days in a row! I did about 15 minutes of Hannon, working on 11-20 (yesterday I did 1-10, and I plan to keep working on 10 per day). I then worked on my scales, B Major and F sharp Major. I am working on those two keys in particular for the benefit of the Nocturne. The Nocturne doesn't have anything written in F sharp Major, but there is a part where you basically play an F sharp Major scale, really really fast, so I'd better learn it! Finally, I did about 3 minutes of arpeggios, in C Major. Just a little floating up and down the keys to really get my fingers working on accuracy.

Then I pulled out Bach's Prelude 21 and ran through that a few times, trying to work out a few kinks. I mostly have it memorized, but there are a few parts in there where my fingers slip, and I want to correct that. Of course, I worked on the Fugue following that, for quite a while. I have the Fugue divided up into about 4 sections, and I'm working the fingering section by section, and then I'll be able to put it all together and it will sound fantastic. Baroque music needs to be very smooth and seamless. You typically don't use the sustain pedal with Baroque music, so you have to really hold the keys down for it to sound good. When I first started playing Baroque music, I got scolded for using the pedals, so now I never use the pedals when playing Baroque, and I actually use the pedals a lot less than I did before, because my skill at holding keys down has improved. I think I practiced the Prelude and Fugue for 20 minutes.

After the prelude, I pulled out May Song and worked on that for about ten minutes. I hadn't played it in a long time, so I was a little rusty. It is perfected and memorized, but if I don't play it regularly I'll lose it again. I don't want to risk that. Lastly, I worked on Clair de Lune by Debussy for about 5 minutes, only playing through it once. I need to work on it tomorrow for a bit longer-- the ending still needs some work, as does the key change. I'm close on that piece. Hopefully in a couple more weeks I'll have it down again.

Guess what I found?

Yes, my camera. Which is also my microphone. I tore my house apart for two days, and it was hiding in plain sight! Isn't that always the case?

Anywho, because I found it I had to make a recording. And since I haven't recorded O Polichinelo, the Villa-Lobos number, yet, I thought I'd give it a whirl. This recording isn't that great of quality (I AM using my camera, after all, plus a 100 year old piano that is out of tune), and I am certainly not as talented as Bratke on this song, but here it is. But wait!!! My computer is having issues. So I'll post it tomorrow. Sorry.

Today's practice included 30 minutes work on the Chopin Nocturne, 20 minutes on the Bach Fugue, 10 minutes on O Polichinelo, 20 minutes on Modest Mussorgsky's "Ballet of Unhatched Chickens" from Pictures at an Exhibition, and about 15 minutes on Clair de Lune.

I am having a really hard time finding a recording of "Ballet of Unhatched Chickens" in piano for you. The thing is, Mussorgsky originally wrote it for piano, but it seems that most folks prefer to hear it orchestrated. Some other parts of Pictures is much more well known and popular, therefore there are plenty of recordings of those parts on the Internet. But I can't find my song anywhere! I'll keep looking, and hopefully I'll have something for you to listen to soon.

Or else, I'd better just get my act together and get this performance-ready and record it!

Right on the money

I got in exactly 60 minutes of practice today, which is my goal. I was a bit uninspired, so once the 60 minute mark rolled around, I considered continuing on, but then I thought I'd rather get the house cleaned up and go to bed.

The first 20 minutes I spent working on my Bach fugue. It is sounding a lot better. I have the first three lines down, so now I'm working on the rest of the first page (it is about 2 1/2 pages in my book). I'll do another recording in a week or so so you can see my progress. I am really enjoying learning this fugue, and I'm thinking I'll learn another prelude and fugue in the near future so I have a couple of those under my belt.

I worked on my Chopin nocturne for another little while, about 30 minutes, and I am creeping up and learning all of page two. I have now played that whole page through. It gets really fast in one part, which is the only spot where I have trouble. I need to learn some tricks to improve my speed.

Finally, I worked on my Villa-Lobos number. That's a fun one. It's also very, very fast. Fortunately, it is also hard for the casual listener to tell if you've made a mistake, so it's not the end of the world if you hit a few wrong notes during the piece. I know a lot of people out there probably don't appreciate music like this, but I *heart* 20th century music.

Another day down, and I'm feeling more and more confident with my playing. Even though today I was uninspired and was ready to quit at any second, I got a lot accomplished. Usually that doesn't happen when I'm feeling this way when I practice.

And 40 minutes of practice time later...

I ended up practicing for an additional 40 minutes tonight! I ended up making some recordings of some of the songs I am working on. They are works in progress, so you'll be able to hear how I progress as the year goes on. I recorded three pieces. First is Clair de Lune, which has a lot of mistakes in it, but considering I haven't perfected it and I get a little microphone shy, it's not so bad.

Second is The Nocturne. You'll notice a huge jump from the beginning to the key change, and that is because I can't play the whole thing through yet. Still many mistakes, but I have until October so I think I'm safe.

Third is the prelude and fugue by Bach (WTC book 1, #21). Again, my fingers aren't as nimble as they used to be, also I was practically sight reading more than half of the fugue. I really need to work on my nimbleness! What I REALLY need is lessons! Oh, this blasted economy-- I would get the lessons if I could, but the construction industry is pretty terrible right now. Many home builders are getting in to hubby's field (asbestos abatement) and it's tough to get a good job right now, so things like lessons go by the wayside. I'm just hoping we can put L in violin lessons next year like we promised!

Yeah, that's twice that I didn't check in.

I'm having a bummer week. But I'm keeping up with the practicing. I also noticed I had been neglecting my journal blog, so I had to post a bit on that today.

Yesterday I got in about 50 minutes, practicing Bach and Chopin only.

Today I have spent the majority of my time on those as well, but I also played Clair de Lune. I was about to open to that tonight when I opened to "O Polichinelo" from Prolo do Bebe, No. 1 instead. This little ditty is by Heitor Villa-Lobos. It is very fast and lots of fun. Listen here as performed by Marcelo Bratke. I can't play this piece nearly as well as this guy, but at one time I played it fairly well. I believe it was included on my senior recital. The hubby thinks it is just a mess of keys, which is what it probably sounds like right now anyway, so I'll give him that. But I was playing it more like at moderato, rather than presto. So I can understand his dislike. My goal is to make him like this piece! 20th century music can be hard to appreciate sometimes, but this is a great piece and its so fun.

Today so far I have about 50 minutes in as well. I'm going to get back to those ivories before I hit the hay so hopefully I can get at least another 10 minutes in tonight!

Uninspired

Today I really felt uninspired with my practice. And I was really feeling most uninspired about my nocturne. So I took a day off from playing it today.

Today I worked on Clair de Lune while dinner was in the oven. I went through it a couple of times, trying to make it smooth and beautiful again. 10 minutes there.

When the kiddos were in the bath, I practiced Bach's prelude and fugue 21 from WTC1. I kept practicing this until we had an incident involving shampoo in the bathroom. This was about 20 minutes.

Tonight after watching Monk and Psych (love fake psychics!), I practiced a few pieces that I've worked on in the past-- a Mozart sonata in C (k545 I believe it is), which is pretty easy compared to the Beethoven sonata I'm working on. I also sightread another Beethoven sonata that just so happened to be on the page after the Mozart one. I also worked on a Chopin waltz for a while. I debated cracking open the Beethoven sonata tonight, but I'm really not feeling inspired at all today, so I'm just glad I got in my 60 minutes.

Today's Progress

So, I didn't get any practicing in during the day. Maybe 5 minutes total. I sat down and started playing my nocturne but didn't get very far. Today was very busy, and we were gone this evening, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to get in all my time today.

Both my husband and I had volunteer work with youth at our church tonight. This means The Children had to come with us. Fortunately, there were several other kids there tonight for the girls to play with, and they had a great time running around the church causing all kinds of problems. This did mean that we got home well after their 8 o'clock bedtime, and children weren't snuggled up in their beds dreaming sweet dreams until closer to 10.

Which is when I began my practice tonight.

I first worked on the nocturne (duh). I'm getting quite a bit farther on page 3. I'm surprised how much easier this work is for me than I initially thought. It's going much more quickly than I anticipated. I'll need to spend a lot of time working on detail work, but it will be nice to be able to play it through at a decent tempo. One problem that I have being ADD is that my mind starts wandering if I play a piece too far below tempo, so I find it difficult to sightread for that reason (and a couple others, including the fact that when I first learned to play I couldn't see and essentially learned to play by ear and shape before I learned to read music well).

For some reason, I wasn't really feeling the nocturne today and stopped practicing early and went on to a waltz for a little while. This helped me to keep my focus and continue on for a total of 65 minutes (70 if you count earlier today... and since I have little kids, I count every second I spend at the piano, assuming I'm not just goofing off).

Then I worked on Prelude 21 by Bach. I'm having a bit of trouble keeping it even. It is a very quick piece and is really fun to play. I worked this one for about 10 minutes and moved on to the accompanying fugue, which I worked on for about 20 minutes.

For the last little bit of my practice time, I worked on Clair de Lune and tried to record it for you. I am not going to share it, however! For some reason, once the record button is pressed, I start making stupid mistakes that I never make while practicing.

One thing I have noticed, though, is I make fewer mistakes when I play a good piano. So the Kawai at church? That's well maintained and tuned semiannually? I sound really good and hardly make any mistakes.

My next mission is to find time about once a month to record at the church and share it here. I would aim for more often, but... well, it's just hard to find a couple hours that I can spend playing piano away from home without the kids.

Wednesday is my busy day

Today L had preschool, I had a church meeting, and I also had another appointment in the afternoon. Thankfully, I was able to get some practice time in while the chicken was defrosting in the microwave and again while the girls were in the bath (they're still there now-- they found mom's bubble bath and have been having a grand time). All in all, I got in 15 minutes of working on Clair de Lune, 30 minutes of Fugue 21, and I started playing the nocturne. But I had to quit because I'm about ready to put the kiddos in bed. Hopefully I can spend another 30 minutes tonight on the nocturne. I also have to get some yoga in there somewhere.

Back on track

Today I practiced 70 minutes. The first half hour, I worked on my Chopin nocturne, the second half I worked on Fugue 21 by Bach, and the last 10 minutes I worked on Clair de Lune. I'm working on memorizing Clair de Lune again, and I'm very close. I still get a little tripped up on the ending. Tomorrow I may not get as much time in-- it's looking like it may be a busy day tomorrow. Such is life.