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I discussed with my teacher the pieces I will be performing this semester. I have to drop Chopin Nocturn. Don't have time to squeeze it in. She thinks Rach piece will take until next spring because I hardly had time to work on it. She wants me to do Rach piece first. For October recital, I will do Mozart 2 piano piece with my teacher and play two Grieg pieces. She wants me to play Puck at speed (half note =178) just because I hate fast pieces. For December recital, we decided to work on slow and small movement from Schubert since I only have 2 months to bring it to a performance level. I have to pick either Op 120 2nd movement Andante or his Grand Sonata No 3 - 2nd movement Andante sostenuto. The latter is much prettier but not sure if I have time to tackle 5 pages. I love it though. I also have to learn another Bach and play at least the prelude part for the December recital. This time another f minor Prelude and Fugue from Book I of WTC. F minor is my favorite key.

My favorite key is key lime pie...

Looks like everyone has been very busy over the past 2 weeks.

My focus for this week is going to be on getting ready for my "performance" of my summer studies for my teacher.

I will perform my Grieg piece and the Fughetta for sure. The other pieces will be "this is as far as I could get".

Today I've just been going through my pieces to see how rusty I feel after 2 weeks of no piano. The first 15 minutes were a bit odd... then things evened out a bit, but I realized that one of my problems was that I haven't cut back my fingernails yet and they're getting in the way!

So - my specific focus this week:

1. practice all my scales and arpeggios as warm ups for at least one session each day.

2. Review the wobbly bits in the Fughetta

3. Work on memorizing the left hand for Fly Me to the Moon

4. Memorize the second pattern for Evening in the Meadow

5. refresh the Grieg piece (what a pleasure)

6 memorize the middle part of Autumn Mood

7. do what I can on the Austrian tune!

I have a lot of time this week as most of my lessons are no where near to starting so.... I should be in good shape for next Tuesday.

I also have to get some pics sorted for my Grieg video!

Welcome back Cheryl! You missed some news while you were away

I've been very bad at FOYD last week, but I'm trying to catch up now, before I leave for Berlin for 4 days (with attached Barenboim & Argerich concert!!).

My goals for Friday:
1. Czerny's Study in D: it's basically under my fingers but just at half tempo, and the last phrase is tricky. I will do my best to bring it all to 2/3 tempo.
2. Bach's Minuet: I haven't even touched this in the last week! Will have to work hard on the second half, so I can hope to have it all learned in a couple of weeks.
3. I started a new piece, a very easy Minuet by Thomas Attwood. I kind of sight-read it, so I should be able to put it all together at reasonable tempo by Friday.
4. I need to refresh This and That - the magazine version, which is a bit different from the one in the video lesson, is much more lively and full of staccatos than mine, and I have to get ready to play it on a real piano

Isn't Thoms Attwood an ancestor of the pianist corner member Koji? I cannot remember his login name. He would be happy to know that you are working on his great great....? grandpa's piece.

How cool! This minuet is the second movement of a short sonatina. I also have the first movement, which looks more complex, I think I'll learn that too!

Whoopsie - got a little behind here. I will give an update of where I am soon.

Thanks Sinophilia! It is nice to be back!


Well, the week has gone well....

Realizations:

1 I don't really enjoy scales and arpeggios. sigh.



2. Fughetta flows very nicely at a slower speed. This is good. I can build up speed later.

3. Fly Me to the Moon doesn't seem to want to stick in my brain...

4. Evening in the Meadow is sounding sweet!

5. Grieg piece Watchman's Song - memorized! Without even planning that!

6 Autumn Mood-- not quite memorized..getting there

7. Austrian tune - working reasonably well if I keep it slow.

Not bad, and still 4 days to practice before I see my teacher.

I have had a pretty good practice week over all. I started German lessons again after a two year break, and that is taking a lot of time, so I have had to be really focussed during my practice time.

1. The Grieg pieces have moved to "maintenance level with my other repertoire pieces.

2. Kuhlau Sonatina- This piece has been excellent for working on my hand position and rapid scale passages. It is an exercise in patience to keep playing slowly and assuring 100% accuracy and good hand position preparation. I have completed Movement 1 and memorized it. Hopefully this week I can start doing the Alberti's in 4's and up the tempo.

3. Villa-Lobos - I learned the RH "salsa" section this week. Fun. This week I will work on adding the LH, 4 over 3 rhythm. The goal for the "A" section is to memorize it and speed it up a little, maintaining smooth chord changes. There are some Arpeggiated chords that are not flowing well.

4. Bach inv. 6 - I have HT for the entire piece now. In my lesson we worked on where to play legato and where to play non-legato. I need to build that into my interpretation this week, and start polishing the piece. I still have a couple of sticky spots. I need to maintain HS practice as well, to assure preparation is ingrained.

5. Telfer - When Rivers Flowed on Mars. I brought this up to tempo for the first time today. Goal for this week is to record it.

6. Nölck- Good Humored - This is another etude for rapid Alberti base that I am just beginning. Begin HS practice this week.

I am starting to go into Chopin withdrawal symptoms. I think I need to add a new Nocturne or Prelude soon!!!

Both you and most everyone else. No need to feel bad not practicing monotonous "exercises" devoid of musical context. Just practice scales and arpeggios relevant to pieces that you're learning and they'll never come across as irrelevant or uninteresting. And I still don't mean practice these scales and arpeggios relentlessly as exercises, but simply until you no longer need to practice them because you've thoroughly ingrained the technique into your subconscious. Fortunately with scales and arpeggios, the "technique" required to play them all fluidly and comfortably is quite similar and thus very transferable - meaning that once you thoroughly learn to play one well, the rest will come significantly more easily than the first.

Note to readers: Boldface is my addition.

Bob, I don't feel "too" bad, but I know that working on the scales is good for me (like eating spinach, which I used to hate but now I love ) I don't feel that they are irrelevant, just tedious. The reason I put part of your text in bold is because up to a point I agree, but since I started on the scales with flats, which have different fingering patterns, I have had a lot of difficulty getting even close to fluidity!
The sharp scales flow pretty well, but it is only recently - after months (ok, months of wishy-washy practice) that the flats are just starting to feel natural (and I've only done 2 of those! ugh).

I really hope that with these guys more or less under control that you're right and the rest will be easier.

I do sometimes try to break the monotony by playing them with different dynamics.... but ....well, scales are scales eh?

Scales may be scales, but I wonder if they appeal differently to different personality types. I enjoy scales. I enjoy their orderliness. I enjoy working on subtle aspects of technique: for example, am I preparing my thumb? Exactly how does crossing the hand over the thumb work best? Does it make a difference if I angle my hand? What about feeling like my arm is moving along the keys, instead of my fingers creating the movement? Can I play them with dynamics or articulation? Can I play them with different dynamics/articulation in the two hands? What about speed: can I work in microbursts of speed, and does it take a different kind of gesture to create speed? What about thumb under vs. thumb over? Can I play them at different rhythms in the two hands (e.g. two notes in RH to one note in LH, etc.)? And so on.

I need to work on my scales, also - two of my pieces I'm working with (Clementi 36 no 3, and Mozart 545, right now first movements of both) have runs in them, and my thumb is making them uneven.



I was working on this, actually, this week! I'm finding, at least for me, thumbs under aren't working out well speedwise, so I'm practicing the other way. I never really worked on speed with my scales - when we spent time on scales, my teacher's main goal was to get me used to their flow. Her method is to do these things in steps(along with Hanon), and return later(sometimes more than once) for more in depth instruction. While doing this all at once the first time works for many, this alternate method works perfectly for me, as I am easily overwhelmed and have a tendency to shut down. I find I get more out of things when I go back to them, too.

So, I guess since I've got started, I'll do a quick version of what I'm working on. Still on Hanon 1-4 and 5-8. I'm playing these in whole chunks to get my stamina up while exercising control over my fingers. This is taking longer than I thought, but boy, I'm getting so much out of it. I eventually will control my lazy fingers(I'm looking at you, 4 fingers!) that like to fake it!
Obviously nit picking at Clementi and Mozart, and still plugging away at the notebook of music from different periods my teacher put together for me. Very slowly, I might add, but now that the Grieg isn't hanging over me, I'll have more time.

... or so I hope. I've had distractions this week in terms of pursuing a possible career change, which has been stressful, distracting, overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. If nothing else, I am getting better at interviews. Cross your fingers for me!

My thoughts are with you, Aimee, good luck in your endeavour!

I worked on the last attempts at Trolltog this week but instead of my normal pieces I've spent time on...

Beethoven Sonatas Op. 7, Opus 10 No. 3 and Op. 27 No. 2
I worked through the first two of these as supplemental work for the Jonathan Biss Lectures and my comparison piece for the assignment. I've decided to do the Largo e mesto from Op. 10/3 for an ABF Recital, #33 next May. The Moonlight I looked at again for the analysis thread so I gave it a few whirls en passant. It really is a very powerful piece!

Clair De Lune
Not a targeted piece but I examined the fingering with Griffin and aTallGuyNH and started a revisit. I never finished this last time I started it and didn't memorise much but some came back readily and some didn't. I'm not sure if I want to add this just yet but we'll see.

I normally take the last week in each quarter as time off from my usual stuff but I've taken it early this time to accommodate the Grieg Recital and the Coursera lectures among other things.

My focus for the week ahead then is still the same, the Brahms Ballad, Handel Sonatina HWV585, Scarlatti Kp. 159, Schubert Ständchen, Liszt Schlummerlied, and either the Dvorak Silhouette Op. 8/1 or another go at Clair De Lune. My repertoire piece is Chopin Mazurka Op. 7/1 and this time there really will be no Grieg this week!

Whoa. No focus to speak of this week - distracted most of the time. Didn't really focus until the band's gig Saturday afternoon, when the other backer couldn't come at the last minute - haven't been the only backer in several years. But I'm actually best off in performance, often, because I'm focused on having the band and the audience enjoying their time.

I've been spending time trying to go over repertoire so that I can pretty much play any of it at the drop of a hat. It seems to me that means I have to thoroughly understand it, both intellectually and in my body and ear, so that I can fake it if needed I never expect perfection So I really need more time transposing to lots of different keys, getting familiar with the normal progressions so that I immediately know that F#m is the 6th of A major, for instance, and have a sense of the flow of each piece. I can do that sort of with simple pieces that use I IV V and vi in their key, but not much beyond that. So that's really where I'd like to spend my time. But if I spend time keeping repertoire up just because I've got 3 gigs in the same weekend it's hard to do that, and I can get frustrated. But I've got some time this week - tho I did just pick up another paying gig! Yea! *That* will take real focus, tho - it's at 10:30 in the morning. I'm not really quite awake yet then

Cathy

Sunday, Sept 15-2013

This week I only got to a couple of my pieces. Seems I’m not focused or maybe expecting too much for each week. For this week:

1. Mysterious Barricades-I might do this one instead of Adieu for the next ABF recital. Started it long ago and it’s been on the backburner. I love this piece. The problem may be pain in my thumb due to finger pedaling. :\ This week work on what I am calling part D.

2. Chopin Prelude 26-got 21-32 going, but it’s still slow. A beautiful little prelude but so challenging! This week work again on 21-32 but also 15 and 16.

3. Moonlight-3- I’ve almost got bars 1-40 memorized (yay!), though still shaky. Did a lot of the memorizing away from the piano which seems to help. So will continue with that. Geez how to memorize bars 41-42. Then 43-46. Then 47-48. Maybe I’ll try to memorize 2 bars a day.

4. Beethoven Op. 2, No. 3 Adagio-Might try to learn this one, for now I’m just trying it on. I need more achievable pieces to go along with the impossible ones in my practicing.

5. The Ballade, Ocean and the Rach prelude are getting a rest but I may put them back into the mix this week. We’ll see…..

Sunday, September 15

This was a difficult week trying to get much of anything done. I was able to manage some work on Chopin Prelude in D-Flat Major.

I also got a little done on O' Holy Night. However, this is an easy piece and I'm simply bringing it back to be ready for the holiday season.

While I didn't spend much time at the piano with Clair de Lune, I spent a substantial amount of time reviewing the score because the score I was working from had errors in it. Thanks to Richard, TallGuy, and Sam, I've found a good score and am now making the needed changes I'll have to rework. I'll be meeting with my teacher this week to put together a plan for getting the revision work done.

For now I'm not making any new goals for this week. There is still a lot of unfinished business from last week.

I've been completely focused on my three Grieg Lyric Pieces. Now that they're done, I have a completely empty slate. I'm not sure I want to fill it up right away; it's a nice feeling to have absolutely no obligations, plus I'm sort of rethinking music entirely. I have the focused way I've always proceeded, but maybe there's some other way.

However, if I were to be focused, here's what I'm thinking about:

RCM 2:
3 pieces
Étude
Scales
Chords
Arpeggios
Ear training (intervals)
Keep up RCM 1 pieces

Ear training: melodies by ear

Improvisation (my style)

Piano party prep:
Khachaturian
Bach AMBN
Grieg
Joni Mitchell?

Bach Little Prelude

Just playing

I've definitely fallen off the bandwagon in the last ten days... first the piano was delivered, then I went abroad for four days, and now I have influenza

Anyway, I'm working on getting back on track. Basically I'm relearning all the old stuff with the volume of my DP on maximum (something I should have done from the very beginning), so I won't deafen everybody when I start playing on the acoustic. My Czerny's study is okay but not to tempo yet; same for Attwood's minuet. I will go on with these and won't add anything new for a week or two.

Oh... except that I need to at least give a first look to the simplified Maple Leaf Rag I'm playing for the Joplin recital!

Now that Grieg is out of the way, I have filled up my dance-card it seems! I added a Chopin Mazurka for December and a Joplin piece for March. Pressure is on.

1. Kuhlau Sonatina: I can relate to the scales discussion above. This final tempo for this piece is min. 120 per quarter, so the 1/16th runs need to be 4X that. My thumb crosses going away from the thumb are not smooth at 2/3'rds that speed. So, that will be a major focus for the next few weeks. I am now doing the Alberti's in 8's, trying to shape them. I will begin the 2nd movement this week with listening to recordings and start chunking from the end.

2. Villa-Lobos: A and B sections are memorized. This week I want to complete memorization. I learned new choreography for this piece that I need to internalize.

3. Bach Inv. 6: It is finally memorized! Now I need to polish it, and work on phrasing legato vs non legato playing. This is the fun part!

4. Telfer- I want to record this piece this week, then it goes into the maintenance stack.

5. Chopin - Mazurka 6 2: I wanted a new Chopin, now I have one. This week I learned through M15, This week I will continue chunking in phrases through the end.

6. Joplin - Read through this week. Postpone starting until Mazurka is learned.

7. Nolck: Complete HT, play in 1's (drops).