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I hope everyone is doing well. I had a good week. My session on the grand piano went very well, as well as my piano lesson. I'm still working on getting Clair de Lune fully memorized. There are some technical matters in a few small sections my teacher is working with me on to soften the volume a bit in my left hand. Other than that, we both agree that I should be ready to start playing this for individuals by Christmas. I probably won't record it until early next year, however.

I won't have time to record O Holy Night this weekend. However, I'll get back to that after Thanksgiving weekend.

My goal for next week is to memorize two critical sections of Clair de Line that my teacher identified at our last session. Also, I hope to get a decent recording of O Holy Night done.

That's about all I can realistically commit to this week. We have guests coming for Thanksgiving and we have lots of preparation to do in advance. Have a nice week!

Richard, this is to follow up on your suggestion of studying the Rach piece in parallel. My teacher liked the idea as well. He thinks I should be able to get started in February.

We can exchange PMs to discuss starting a thread if you are still interested. Let me know what you decide.

Just curious... what are the two sections?

(Tall Guy - check your pms )

The distractedness is getting more persistent - ah, life cycles, sigh. So I'm trying to find ways to distract the distractedness It is obvious that on many of my pieces there isn't a "physical" limit to the tempo - I'm perfectly capable of having the distractedness interfere at slow tempos and perfectly capable of playing at tempo if I didn't keep having my brain interrupt itself.

So one thing I experimented with today was playing the bass note that's on the beat loudly to anchor me where I was. That seemed to help. I also noted when my brain was saying "why was I playing a Gm chord there?" or, "was that a Gm or an Eb chord I played (now at two beats ago )?" and went back to that place and played it to understand exactly what was happening, and play the progression in different inversions, and play and see the roots in relation to each other, etc.

Muscle memory and some idea of the chords works fine in my less distracted stages, but I really need to zero in on all during my distracted ones, it seems, so while this may be frustrating for the next, oh, five or ten years, I suspect I'll learn a lot

Cathy

The site was down last night so I'm updating at work and measure numbers are to the best of my knowledge.

I've spent this week on the climax, M49-52, of the Chopin Nocturne and going over the last section before the coda, M84-94. The Tchaikovsky Album Leaf I've worked on the little section from M8-M16. I've started the Largo e mesto from Beethoven's Sonata in D, Op. 10 No. 3. There are only three measures up to M21 that needed working over, the rest are playable from the score and are being memorised. I should memorise M22 as well and that'll save me a page turn when I get there.

I'm on the second section of Heliotrope Bouquet and just started the third, the C section, of Pine Apple Rag for the Joplin recital.

I'll spend another week on the Allegretto from Mozart's Fantasy then it should be recoverable from weekend workouts by year end.

I've gone over the three phrases of Child Falling Asleep that I've done to date and will start the last one over the coming week. I've started the last section of Scarlatti's Kp. 159 and it looks easier than the first so these two pieces will be easy to wrap up by year end.

Schlummerlied hasn't gone so well and I think it's time to pull the plug on it until next October. I won't be able to do it for this Christmas.

Griffin, a start date in February will be fine with me.

How do you normally go about things? If you're going to start working on Measure 1 in Feb I have things to get done first.

I plan on analysing the structure of the piece first (practical analysis not harmonic) and seeing what sections I'll break it down into, what size to make them, what measures repeat, what order to start learning them in and so on.

I may go through each measure for two to five minutes each sorting out the fingering first or I may leave that until I start each section. The first way gives me a better idea of the technical difficulties and a better order to work in. I use the latter approach if I'm sure the piece holds no surprises from a cursory perusal of the score but I imagine Rachmaninoff will have hidden treasures.

I've already started memorising it, singing it in my head, and I'll need that done before I start at the piano but February gives me plenty of time for that.

If you're going to start prep work in February we can start a new thread then but if you're going to start practising it in February I'll start one sooner and get the prep work detailed in it before Feb.

I'm easy either way; I'm planning to do this specifically with you, sharing and comparing methods and ideas and helping each other out. I'm not doing it for any other purpose or time frame.

I can press to keep up with you if needed and can slow down to keep pace with you either. It's a tough piece and most of the hard work will be up front. I imagine it will be memorised long before it's playable and the longest time will be at the end, playing it slowly and steadily from memory, mostly in sections, until the whole thing is playable in one go at tempo. That initial process of learning it and tackling technical hurdles is where I expect the joint venture will pay most dividends.

I have the Chopin Nocturne for the ABF recital in February, two Joplin pieces for March, the Tchaikovsky Album Leaf for April and Beethoven's Largo e mesto for the ABF in May. I've nothing else planned so far so I have three months (albeit busy ones) to get most of the hard work done on those by Feb. then I'll be ready to go.

Update on my progress and my goals for the week:

- Tchaikovsky: it's basically finished. I sit down and play it cold and it's okay! So I started doing some videos, and of course the little passagework parts fall apart in front of the camera. I will try and record all my next sessions and see if I can get a good one and put this piece away for a while. Also, I found out that the iPad mini makes decent recordings. Just a few weeks ago I had the feeling that every note sounded harsh on the acoustic piano, now it's the opposite. It seems easier to make things sound good on it!

- Joplin: The B section is killing me, but I have it memorized and it gets better. I'll just keep playing it, trying not to think too much. I may also start the final section, for variety.

- Schumann's Melodie: I haven't spent much time on it, and I still don't get it. But I can play the first part, and it's just 12 bars overall so I will try to hang on.

- I don't care much about the holidays, but I have to learn part of a Xmas song for a supposed violin/piano duet, so I have to learn that. Just 16 bars with simple bass & melody and a middle voice here and there.

- Today I'm starting a new piece from Pianist magazine: Bischoff's The Industrious Student, a little study in held bass notes. In the next days I will also do the warm-ups and exercises in the magazine.

Ah, for sinophilia it's the B section of Joplin. For me it's the D section. I'm thinking about playing the rest of it at a good tempo, and just doing the D section andante

Cathy

For me it is the C section, with the D section as a close second! I thought my piece was going to be a piece of cake until I reached those sections. Fortunately Chrysanthemum is a slow march, not a fast rag.

I am in the states visiting family until after Christmas, so I am practicing on a new digital, but it seems pretty good. So, I hope to be able to keep moving forward on my pieces.

Venetian Boat Song 30 6: I am pleased with how quickly this one is coming together. I hope to finish memorizing it this week. I still need to shape the trills better dynamically. I will not try to bring it up to tempo for another two weeks.

Chrysanthemum: The previously mentioned C and D sections are now HT, but extremely slowly. I am continuing HS as well to ingrain proper fingering and movement.

March: Still HS on this one, until fingering is solid.

Kuhlau Sonatina: I was "called on the carpet" on this one by my teacher. I brought it up to tempo too quickly, and the runs became uneven. So, I am doing some remedial work. I am using this peice specifically to retrain my hand position, how I play my 5th fingers, improve my Alberti base, and improve running passages. The 1st and second movements are memorized, but need more slow play time with drops on 1's. then 2's.. I am about 1/2 way through the Rondo, and hope to finish the rest of it this week. The Rondo has been slow going!

Richard, I'm planning to start my preparation work in February. I doubt I'd have time to start any sooner. This should be a very interesting process because we have different music experiences. Since I've only been back to the piano for only a few years (after a 35-year hiatus) I am relearning the whole process of preparation. My teacher will be immensely helpful with getting me off to a good start with some of the things you are already doing.

Right now I'm simply listening to various recordings. I'm also very carefully examining the scores to make sure I have accurate sheet music. I want to avoid the surprise that happened with Clair de Lune .

You are right. This will be a tough piece to study. I was surprised my teacher suggested I take this one on. However, I'm thrilled to be given the challenge. I have no idea how long it will take to get it to a satisfactory level. I am much more interested in the journey of learning it. I'm delighted to have you as a musician friend to study it with. I've never done anything like this before.

I agree with you about starting a thread in February. We can get into the details about this later in December. Right now I'm doing some finishing work on Clair de Lune, starting to record some holiday music for a few friends. In December I'll be getting back to my work on Prelude in D Flat Major (Chopin) and Gymnopedie 1 (Satie). I'll also be starting work on the Invention in F Major (Bach).

Right now I must get back to preparing for our holiday dinner today at home!

Griffin, that's fine with me. I've plenty to do before February. This means I can simply substitute the Prelude when I submit the Chopin Nocturne for the Feb. recital and start on prep work then. In the meantime I can just enjoy listening to it.

I've just downloaded the score from freescores.com following a link at the end of the wikipedia article.

My goodness! Four staves at the end to accommodate all the notes!

On the other hand it breaks into sections quite easily and like Brahms, makes little demands on scale playing or 'small technique'. This won't be as hard as I first thought.

I'm really looking forward to this now (I was anyway but more so now).

I'll scrutinise it more carefully over the weekend but it ain't sight reading material that's for sure!

Enjoy your holiday and your meal!

TG, I haven't gotten as far along as I would have liked on this so far. However, the two sections I'm working on are measures 35 thru 39 and measures 51 thru 58.

Hi Everyone! How is the practicing coming along? Here is what I've been up to and where I am going:

Mazurka 17/4: This piece is for the Mazurka recital on Dec. 16th. Tried recording this week and while it’s not great it is at least something. Maybe I can get a better one before recital time but if not at least I’ve got this. I'm really happy that I took on this piece to study.

Moonlight 3: Experimenting with increasing the tempo in places but whether I should be yet is questionable. It’s just so much fun to try to push the tempo a little. I’m still trying to get many sections to 84 per quarter note. The biggest hindrance is my slow memory and some of the jumps that have to be made in the time of a 16th note. For the octave turns, I decided to do the first one 3 (with the octave), 5, 3, 2, 3, 5(with octave). For the second one, I will do the same but drop the octave on the first note. I stopped practicing the alberti bass away from the piano because I found at the piano it was creating problems. Or was it? Maybe it’s just problems with alberti bass in general. It’s so challenging to keep it even, and can seem even harder at the slower tempos. My alberti bass really needs work but I worry about driving my downstairs neighbour crazy with the incessant thumping of the digital keys.

Bethena: The piece is starting to flow a little better—sort of. The trickiest part is watching the score and my hands at the same time. I have to learn to find the notes without watching my hands all the time to get the jumps. Some sections are harder than others. Most of last week was spent on A-C. Really I’m still trying to get the piece to a point where I can just play it through with the score and without a serious trainwreck or major hesitations.

Tchaikovsky Nocturne 10/1: Will have to memorize portions of this to play it. This week, continue work on bars 66- 68, start memorizing bars 5-8 , 14-17, 18-24. I’m finding this piece challenging to get going for some reason. I absolutely love it though. Hope I can get somewhere with it by recital time.

Beethoven Op. 109 Theme only-I may try to prepare this for the Feb ABF recital. Only the theme, which is about half a page. (but with repeats).

Chopin’s Ballade 1: I have that book out of the library and I can have it for 2 weeks (Play it Again), so now I’m thinking to plan out how I might approach the Ballade over the year. Perhaps first I’ll refresh my memory of the coda since at one time I had that memorized. Thought maybe I’d get some ideas of how to approach the piece from this book.

That's it for now. Happy practicing!

Valencia, those Moonlight trills are absolute beggars (he says politely). I play the first three (M30, M32 & M125) with 5-4-3-4-5 and hit the lower octaves in synch with the 5's. For the real sod, M127, I drop the lower B# and play 4-3-2-3-4 and hit the low C# with the last 4. If you're playing with an audience that might notice you could grimace at the dropped octaves as if they were a mistake

You should be increasing the tempo in short or very short sections. Short enough that memory isn't an issue. Slow playing will be. You must practise the techniques for fast playing not those for slow playing. Pushing the tempo is something else. Just work enough that tempo rises regularly from practise not from 'speeding up'.

You might try practising the jumps by holding down the upper G# octave (M14) and looking at the lower G# then close you eyes and make the jump in an instant. Where are the leaps done in the time of a semi?

The Alberti bass shouldn't be slow (in either hand). What tempo do you use for, say, Mozart's K.545? Are you playing them with fingers? There should hardly be any finger movement other than the inner finger. It's nearly all wrist rotation.

D'you want to start a thread on this one too? I think it's the future of learning long term pieces - with or without a teacher. The themed recitals hit it home for me.
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I couldn't do the G minor Ballad in a year but I could do some of its sections from April onwards if it's any help. I have it in ten parts (roughly easiest to hardest - for me):
M1-35; 194-207; 65-100; 238-264; 35-65; 166-193; 126-149; 150-166; 101-125; 208-237.

I treat these as individual sections and haven't touched some of them for years. I wouldn't want to bother with the Presto until there was enough incentive, i.e. if it was the only bit left to finish the piece - it's more speed than technique, I think, and the first few sections won't need much by way of practise but the rest I could put some time and energy towards. After April, that is.

If you get a plan for the year I'd be interested to see how I could fit in with you. This was one of the last pieces my teacher gave me in the mid eighties so very little of it was actually done under tuition and some of it has barely been touched since then. Rusty doesn't begin to describe my relationship with it.

Richard, I'd love to work through the ballade with you. I'm not in any big hurry and I'm sure it will take me more than a year as well. When you say the first few sections wouldn't need as much practice for you, which sections do you mean? Perhaps i could start working on those until April when you will have more time to work on this piece.

Section 101-125 is one I'll have to be careful with to avoid injuring my hands. This may mean not taking it on intensely all at once. Hmm...well i don't need to figure that out now, or practice any of it yet for that matter. But I think that is the section I'm most intimidated by.

Well, the focus has been much better this week - Twosnowflakes' "dreaded recital" thread was a great help Also thinking of some new venues to play in has helped - a little injection of some new horizons - including e-mailing a senior center in the town I'm going to over the Christmas holiday to see if they'd like an hour of piano music a couple of days before Christmas.

I'm not surprised that the Joplins aren't just falling in to line I haven't played Joplin in a few days, since I have a gig Tues afternoon that I want to do well at, but I'm hoping a little time off is one of those things that helps it come more fluently when I go back to it - several of my pieces work that way. It is all memorized, tho a couple of places may need some refreshing when I get back to it, but mostly I can play it my head and know where my fingers are going, and how it sounds, so I think that's good, and there was the one section that was at tempo that should come back with a little work.

But mostly I'm relieved the focus has come back. I was a little afraid it might not there for awhile :\ but at least I was thinking of some strategies to help with it, and those will come in handy, I'm sure.

Cathy

Hopefully your teacher doesn't have you quiet the left hand too much from 51 through 58. It's such a shame when the main theme is overemphasized there, covering those gorgeous left hand arpeggios.

Valencia, the first passages I listed are quite easy by comparison to the others. I wouldn't need to practise M1-35, M65-100 or M194-207 very much until near the end. There are few technical difficulties there. M208-237 is, I believe, more speed than technique and will need more time in that regard. The remaining sections, M35-65, M101-125, M126-149, M150-166 and M166-193, all need technical expertise before regular practise was even feasible and it's these I'd want to be working on first.

Only when I've solved all the technical issues would I be interested in preparing this piece for performance. Getting M1-35 up to performance level before solving the problems of M101-125 would frustrate me too much.

Nope, nothing like that. Just a few things I want to do in order to improve the flow.

I got sidetracked with the Beethoven 10/3 sonata this week and have done nothing on Child Falling Asleep or Scarlatti's Kp. 159 so these are up again for the coming week.

I played over the Silhouette 8/1 again this week and since I dropped the Liszt I'm thinking of making this do for my Christmas piece. I think it could pass as seasonal fare.

Nocturne 27/1 has gone well. I've extended the climax M49-52 up to M66. This leaves me with the stretto, M67-83 and the Più mosso M29-48 to be memorised then it's about getting the parts up to scratch before putting them together. There's no real speed requirement here so it's about having security in the fingers and eliminating the hesitations that develop when I do too long a passage at once. The left hand has to be watched constantly so I can't play much from the score and I struggle to remember what chord comes next even though my hand seems to know when it gets there apart from a couple of alternate renditions my hand seems to know of!

I've nearly finished the C section of Pine Apple Rag and I'm about half way on Heliotrope Bouquet B section.

The Allegretto from Mozart's Fantasy has gone well. I'll keep that going each weekend for the rest of the year.

The new year is already filling up with pieces. Some of this years pieces had already been started many years ago but the current lot are harder and all new to me. Better still, I'll be working in tandem with others. I'm looking forward to 2014.