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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,288
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OP
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,288 |
The Practice Club is back and it's a new month. What is the Practice Club? A place to post the minutes you practice tracking your average time practiced, competeting against other members for the top spot, and most of all, having fun. How do I sign up for the Practice Club? Go to this website: http://www.pcsincnet.com/PW_Practice_Club/ In red letters there is a link that says Sign Up. Simply follow the instructions and you're in! What is this team thing? The teams are the chicks verses the dudes in the ultimate battle... PRACTICE TIME! Sometimes we get a little too wound up in it, but remember, it's just for fun The Battle starts today! Have fun and happy practicing Matt
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 4,714
4000 Post Club Member
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4000 Post Club Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 4,714 |
Matt:
Good thing to remind us and also to tell new people of this site. Although the Dudes tend to make a competition out of it (good Lord, when I think of some months ago), it really is just a pledge you make to yourself to practice everyday. It can be as short as 5 minutes (sometimes that's all you have)...doesn't matter. The goal is not which team is the better ...Chicks or Dudes, but to keep that promise.
Not to sound corny, but even the longest journey begins with just one step. One step and then another...
Naturally, illness or other family or business responsibiities will grant you a reprieve. But try to return as soon as possible.
Good luck, Kathleen
Chopin’s music is all I need to look into my soul.
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,323
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,323 |
Crazy day, only logged 45 minutes. But expect to practice more in days to come....
Thanks Matt for keeping us going....
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 438
Full Member
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Full Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 438 |
Matt -
Not a good month to raise this to my attention. I am stuck in the house with 3 kids for Spring Break.
Lotta practicing going on (beats doing the laundry!!)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790 |
Originally posted by loveschopintoomuch: Not to sound corny, but even the longest journey begins with just one step. One step and then another...
I'm starting a new "tracking" system here with mine this week, to see if it'll help keep me on track of SO many pieces that I'm doing incrementally. I figure - hey - I teach people to do this at work as my coaching gig, so there should be a way to develop it for piano practice. I'm going back to what my piano teachers did back in The Day with writing out for the week what I was doing with a piece, on the page in the book. Except that I'm playing from so much sheet music now, I needed a better way to keep up. So on Sundays before the new week starts, I am going over my pieces and deciding (based on where I am with a piece) what to work on in the upcoming week. Date it, and keep it on a sticky note with the music. That way I know from week to week what I've done with a piece, as there's a BUNCH of them floating across my music desk, and the Big Goal is not to forget one in the dance. I figured I'd try that this week because the list of pieces gets larger and some of them move along faster than others. So some might get "intro only" some "work out the melody and timing" and one "up to the first coda" or something like that. Reconnoiter next week and see what progresses (with the option at any point of kicking a number back into the "to be played" pile for later work. Hopefully this will all make sense when I spel it out on my new website about pulling onesself up by the bootstraps by playing the piano. - John
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 4,714
4000 Post Club Member
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4000 Post Club Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 4,714 |
I admire your plan, John. Wish I had the discipline you have.
Presently (and much to my amazement, considering I only returned to the piano about 14 months ago), I have about 25 pieces that I've learned and can play (some better than others).
I am currently working on two Chopin preludes that I REALLY want to get through. They are not that difficult, but they do require at least 1/2 hour a piece, each day, for it all to sink in. Now how in the world do I keep up with my other pieces? I'd have to practice about 4 hours a day!
So about half have slipped into the "must learn again" category and the others into "really need to polish better" category.
It's really frustrating (at least to me) that my brain can only "hold" so much. Of course, it is easier relearning them, but still takes a few weeks to get them up to their former "adequate" selves.
Kathleen
Chopin’s music is all I need to look into my soul.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,674
1000 Post Club Member
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1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,674 |
I like the idea of tracking pieces. I use the practice log to track time, but do not take advantage of everything the log offers.
I can relate to what Kathleen says. I now have more pieces I've forgotten then I play. On one hand, I also have learned around 25 pieces, but there are so many more that I have not. It seems overwelming at times. It's all I can do to keep 4-6 pieces "ready".
It is still fun, though. And I enjoy what I can do, but the cannot pile is so huge......
"There is nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself." Johann Sebastian Bach/Gyro
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 518
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 518 |
Every day, when a practice session ends, I write down little "tasks" for the next day, sometimes they are the same (and again, and again *sigh*) as the things my teacher told me, sometimes they cover new problems that occur during practice or become obvious while listening to recordings. These are small tasks so I can cross most of them out the next day which keeps up motivation and shows me what I have accomplished - even if I feel I have accomplished nothing at all ...
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." (Isaac B. Singer)
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 733
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 733 |
I've just signed up for the practice log. My main interest is jazz, so I'm learning repertoire, improvisation, comping voicings, technique, etc. Each lesson my teacher helps me outline my daily practice routine. Here's how it lays out now: 30 minutes playing out of the "Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms" by Gary Hess 30-60 minutes sight reading, split between reading grand staff arrangements (easy classical) and lead sheets. All done strictly to a metronome (lead sheets are often read while playing to a backup track such as an Aebersold CD). 15 minutes doing 10-finger exercises (a current favorite is the "double-diminshed" chord exercise) 30 minutes doing scales (only one scale per week). Speed, accuracy, articulation are goals. 30 minutes working with 2-5-1 progressions, doing LH shell voicings and alternating-triad arppeggios in the RH. 2 hrs. working on tunes. This includes playing shell voicings in the LH, melody in the RH; shell voicings or rootless voicings LH and improvisation in the RH, and 2-handed comping voicings. This is all done either to a metronome or a play-along track. Problem areas are isolated and repeated. Total is an absolute minimum of 4 hrs. per day, ideally closer to 6. In addition I spend time (not enough, as yet) listening to recordings and trying to pick up licks, articulations, etc. off the recordings so I can incorporate them into my playing. I'm still at a fairly low level with all this, but I'm hoping with this routine to make some serious improvement over time.
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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