Picking Up the Pieces

I don't think of myself as a "serious pianist." For much of my younger life, I did ... but I really wasn't one. I just liked the idea of being one. I would spend three hours in the practice room in college, but didn't know how to practice efficiently, so I wasted a lot of time. I was also too caught up in wanting to impress people, and not caught up enough in wanting to truly develop my knowledge and skills. For example, I loved to play fast but I neglected scales. I wanted to write music but I wouldn't touch theory with a ten-foot pole. I wanted to be a serious musician but I refused to learn anything by Bach because I'd lost in the first round of a Bach festival once at age 11 and had never forgiven him. I've grown a lot since then! When I watched the video below, which I bookmarked on YouTube a while back, I found that I am indeed a more serious pianist now than I was a 15 or 18 or 22. It's kind of ironic that I don't think of myself as ser

Oh, how I love diminished sevenths! Here are a couple of quick videos featuring them. The first is from a PWJ exercise of block and broken-chord inversions/arpeggios of D diminished seventh. The second, which is the "Voice of the Dead" section of the Chopin Nocturne in F Minor, features C diminished seventh, and then G diminished seventh, in the right hand. I wonder ... did Chopin use diminished sevenths because he wanted this section to sound like the voice of the dead, or do I call it the "Voice of the Dead" because it uses diminished sevenths with the sinister "voice" in the bass? It's a mystery. I would so love to post a video of myself playing this nocturne. I've tried to make one, but I can't seem to get through it without making some egregious error. And then, after that one, I make three or four more before I get to the end. So, dear readers, you will still need to wait for this one.

I have finally begun Mozart's delightful Rondo Alla Turca! I'm so excited. This is such a fun piece of music, and I'll soon be playing it! I wrote previously on this blog that I wasn't sure how long it would take me, but if the first two sections are any indication, I should have this down in about six weeks. Famous last words? It's possible it's much more complicated than meets the eye (Mozart generally is), so I'm not going to let myself get over-confident. I'm looking forward to my biweekly piano lesson so I can go over all of this with my piano teacher. For now, here is where I am now. According to my piano journal, I've spent a little over an hour learning it (not counting the sight-read I did a few weeks ago). Considering that, I'm pretty happy with my progress! In this video, I'm just focusing on the notes, which I memorized today, and I do a little with the dynamics but not much. And as you'll hear, I didn't focus on tempo at

Did I ruin this nice photo with the cheesy clip art? It's 9:30 Saturday morning, and I've already practiced for three and a half hours. It is a rare Saturday that I'm (1) home and (2) don't have a whole lot to do. On those rare days, I can just let myself sink into the piano experience. Today was one of those days. It Starts with a Cat Story Last night, my indoor cat (Buddy) got out. I went out and called him multiple times, but he was enjoying the mild weather, so he'd run every time I got close to him. I finally gave up and set my alarm for 2 a.m. because I didn't want him to be out all night. So at 2:00 this morning, I went to the front door and called him. My indoor/outdoor cat (Ruthie) was ready to come in, but Buddy wasn't. He was too busy hunting worms, or baby moles, or who knows what. Here he was at 2 a.m.: I finally gave up (again). Ruthie is a good big sister, so she stayed out there with Buddy. Meanwhile, I tried to go back to sleep ... and could

I'm posting this a day late because I had a crazy day yesterday. The good news is, the volleyball team that I coach won the last game of their season last night! Here are my piano goals for the weekend, which should be a good weekend for practicing. Scales & Hanon I've started working on B and g# for this week, and the B-major scale has made is painfully obvious to me how weak the 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers of my left hand are. So in addition to working on scales, I'm going to spend some time doing some Hanon exercises that focus on those fingers. As with the other scales, I'm working toward between 100 and 120 on contrary motion and between 120 and 130 on parallel motion. This will be a challenge this week. B major is not a hard scale, but the weakness in my left hand is preventing me from building up speed at the moment. G# minor isn't one of the easier minors, but I've worked on it a lot in the past, so I actually have it at about the same tempo (possibly

Last night I sat down to make final videos of the Chopin Nocturne and Maple Leaf Rag ... but I was tired! My hands were tired, my mind was tired, my whole body was tired. I generally play better in the morning anyway, so I decided to wait and make my final videos this morning. I made a few good efforts, but I couldn't manage to play either piece without making noticeable errors. Here was the best I could do with the Chopin. As for Maple Leaf ... well, there was no "best" with Maple Leaf this morning. It felt sloppier than ever, and my younger self would have gotten angry about the whole thing. My older self? Well, I'm doing this for fun, and I can play it well enough. So I'm done. Graduated. I am now relegating these pieces to "play once a day and no more," or even "play three times a week and no more." Starting with tonight's practice, I am shifting focus to Bare Necessities and the Mozart Rondo Alla Turca. And, of course, diminished/hal