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I'm in the middle of a book entitled The Art of Practicing by Madeline Bruser, a pianist. She writes a lot about finding joy in our practicing. It starts with this quote from Yehudi Menuhin:

"More and more we realize that practicing is not forced labor: more and more we realize that it is a refined art that partakes of intuition, of inspiration, patience, elegance, clarity, balance, and, above all, the search for ever greater joy in movement and expression. This is what practice is really about."

offtopic1: I can only imagine how many techies are in this thread. I'm an iOS developer.

offtopic2: I wrote up the first exercise in Mikrokosmos in StaffPad, exported Midi and XML files, uploaded to PianoMarvel and somehow it was all chopped off except for the last three measures. I filed a support ticket. Such is life with computer software. No need to discuss. Back to playing with instruments that don't throw so many errors.

An update on consolidating, Grieg, and lessons learned from Grieg.

It has been some weeks since my last update. I wanted to talk about my initial learning process of the Grieg Watchman’s Song, but it didn’t feel right to talk about just that and nothing else. Now that I have something else to talk about, well, here it is.


Consolidating

When practising a piece for some time, let’s say two weeks, there sometimes comes the point where progress stops being smooth and starts being a bit of a struggle — messing up in inconsistent places, sloppy playing, loss of control. It doesn’t happen with all pieces, but it’s something that kind of slips past my defences at times, and I certainly did not always respect it when it did occur.

What I think is the main culprit here is my expectations for how fast I should progress a particular piece. I expect myself to increment the metronome X ticks during a practice session, and I don’t always respect it when I maybe should slow things down and strengthen stuff before moving on. Doing precisely this, respecting current limitations and strengthening material, is what I’ve called ‘consolidating’ when thinking about this these past few weeks.

Consolidating is different from just turning down the metronome and putting in some slower repetitions, mainly because it’s done entirely without the metronome. It’s a practice technique that depends on your ability to play the piece of music to a certain standard, but not quite as consistently as you’d like. This lack of consistency then limits your ability to increase the metronome tempo. So you either end up not increasing the tempo and being a bit frustrated by that, or increasing the tempo regardless and feeling frustrated because your playing becomes inconsistent and sloppy.

Consolidating is like taking a step back, like taking a deep breath. No metronome. Just go section by section through your piece and play it at a tempo at which you feel comfortable. The same general principles of practising apply, namely aiming for correct repetitions and using proper dynamics. Added to these general principles is the room you now allow yourself for expression or musicality. No metronome means a bit more freedom.

What this achieves, is that it strengthens the point at which the piece currently sits. The effect it has on your playing right that instant is not that big, but it truly sets you up for success for your next practice session. I’ve applied this technique with a couple of pieces now, and the only time when it didn’t lead to an easy-feeling increase in tempo was when I found myself in front of a wall. Either technique wise (being unable to execute the notes fast enough technically), or reading wise (being unable to interpret the notes on the score fast enough). Without these walls, I quickly pushed past the tempo which I struggled with one or two sessions ago.

All in all, there doesn’t seem to be anything new here. Still, I think there has been both a shift in mindset (‘today’s practice is not wasted if you don’t increment the metronome by X’) and practice method (more practice without a metronome, but only when it’s specifically needed).

To quickly recap how the practising of one piece might look.

The first practice session is spent without the metronome. Correct repetitions, not caring as much about maintaining a strict rhythm, figuring out proper fingerings, identifying the most problematic spots (if there are any).

Subsequent practice sessions will mostly be spent with the metronome in the way I’ve described at length before. The first playthrough of a section is often without a metronome, to get it back in my head and fingers without the incessant ticking of the metronome in the background.

At any point in the process, and this may be during my third practice session of the piece or the tenth, or never at all, I’ll spend a full session consolidating everything. No metronome, playing through at a tempo which feels 100% comfortable and where I’m entirely in control. This tempo can be different for different sections, depending on the difficulty of a specific section. It’s irrelevant, as the goal is not tempo related in the slightest.

Then, when I’m at either the desired tempo or at the tempo which is my current limit, I’ll spend anywhere from one session to however many I want on practising without a metronome, just experimenting and trying and playing around, to hear what I want it to sound like. It’s at this point that I make any potential first recordings, and it’s at this point that I deem a piece ready to play for my teacher (I do run something by my teacher much earlier if I have technical difficulties).


Grieg’s Watchman’s Song – Initial Learn

I’ve talked extensively about my love for this piece and the preparation before learning it. Here’s a recording after my first time learning it. It’s far from perfect, but I thought it would be fun to make a recording after every time (re)learning it. It may give some insight into the thought process on what I think I should improve, on what I deem good enough for every stage, and how it all comes together (hopefully) after 7-8 months.

So, about this specific recording. I’m already reasonably happy with the tempo of the ‘song’ part, the lyrical, calm, and harmonious part. The tempo is good; maybe it’ll end up a bit faster. I didn’t pay attention to chord voicing at all, so that’s something I’ll work on in future relearning sessions. I do consciously bring out the upper voice in the part that starts at 0:33 (and its repeats), though I also want to keep the accompaniment a bit softer than I did here.

I’m pleased with the rubato and slight pause before playing the chords that round off the phrases; I’ll keep doing that more or less the same way.

The Intermezzo is the big thing that still needs much work, specifically the broken chords. I wanted to make a single recording and not stress over getting it perfect, so what you hear is a fair, average representation of how I played these last month. Far from perfect, I’ll be the first to admit, but also useful to mention since I do think it’s perfectly acceptable at that stage. Knowing that I will study these three more times, and I’ll be a better player each time I study it again, keeps things into perspective for me. Furthermore, the difficulty of these broken chords is increased because they must be played very quietly. My mindset was that I’d rather not sound the keys, than that I did sound every key, but it was loud and without proper control. The former felt less harmful in the long run.

The chords in the Intermezzo I’m sort of happy with, they could be a bit faster. In terms of dynamics, they are okay by me, too many people play these loudly all the way through, and I consciously refrained from doing so.

Plenty of things to work on, though I must admit I expected my initial recording of this piece to be worse.


Lessons learned from Grieg

Didn’t I just talk about this? Well, I want to talk in a broader sense now. I learned a bunch of Chorales to prepare for this piece, and I think that worked out quite well. Not just in how it prepared me for this piece, but also how it made me a bit more well-rounded as a player and how it carried over into many of the things I learned next.

At first, I wanted to continue this Chorale learning for some time. Since learning the Watchman’s Song, however, I realised how I could use this specific focus on a particular type of piece to work my way towards other stretch pieces I’ve got my eyes on. You know, a bit more direction to what I learn other than ‘I like this piece/composer, I’ll learn this’ or ‘this is of the right difficulty for me now, I’ll learn this’. This approach is less likely to lead to the results that I desire compared to the last two years, as the amount of material I could learn is getting a bit out of hand.

Not a lot changes. Of the four thirty-minute timeslots I spend learning new material, all four are still dedicated to learning material that I enjoy learning. Three slots are decided by whatever catches my fancy at any given time, and one is now decided by a stretch piece that I’ve got my eye on, but that’s just a tiny bit out of reach. Right now, that’s another piece from Grieg’s Op. 12: the Waltz (No. 2).

I had learned some waltzes in the past, but the quick leaps over an octave were just too much of an impossibility for me after learning the Watchman’s Song. To remedy this, I’ve been spending some time learning easier waltzes which do have these elements; maybe not jumps that are quite as far, but still jumps that necessitate the use of the pedal and hand movement for everything to sound smooth. I’ve learned one by Grechaninov (the last piece from his Op. 98) and a charming waltz by a lady who messaged me on YouTube who writes music (which you can find here). I reckon I still have some waltzes to go before I’m well and truly ready for the one by Grieg, but I’m having a ton of fun working up to it. Waltzes are great!


What I’m working on

At the time of my last update, six weeks ago, I was learning the following material.

Kabalevsky Op. 39: I have just two pieces left to learn from this book, one that I don’t enjoy and one that’s a bit too hard for me still. I’ve laid it aside, but it’s one of my favourite books from which I’ve worked over these last two years.

Bloch’s Enfantines: I mentioned reading walls earlier; this is where I experienced them. It was still just a bit too hard for me, though the piece I started working on (No. 4, Elves) I am trying to convert into repertoire by relearning it a couple of times. I’ll try to grow into it and get it to tempo by the end of the year; I’ll see how it goes.

Jardin d’enfants: The French collection I mentioned, great book. It pained me to lay it aside after only learning three pieces from it, and I’m sure I’ll be picking it up again in a month or two — marvellous book for anyone who has been playing for 1-2 years. I do think most of the material is deceptively hard for beginning players; the right hand looks easy enough, but the left hand accompaniments are relatively tricky.

Anna Magdalena Notebook: I mentioned I would work on this or Mikrokosmos, ended up doing neither.

What I’m working on at the moment.

Takacs Op. 111: This book may very well turn out to be one of my favourite books of my first few years of playing. The variety of the material in this book is fantastic, with its folk music from around the world. I’ve started working on this instead of the Bach/Bartok, and have completed two (both to be converted into repertoire) and am working on a third piece (which will also be converted into repertoire). I think that speaks volumes in itself; of the 7 pieces I’ve learned, 5 are at various stages of being converted into repertoire pieces: something from Indonesia, Iceland, England, Germany, and Norway. All from one composer. Just an incredible book.

Waltzes: I already mentioned most about the waltzes, and I’ll start working on a waltz by Tansman tomorrow. After that, I’m not quite sure. Perhaps one by Gurlitt, or one that my teacher can recommend me.

Schumann Op. 68: I had an itch to learn some Schumann, so I did. I’m relatively surprised with how well it’s going; I’m learning No. 10, The Happy Farmer. It’s a piece that everyone who grew up in The Netherlands knows as a Sinterklaas (the Dutch / original Santa Klaus) song. I expected it to be much harder, and the hand movement and the quick chords may even serve as a minor preparation to my waltzing endeavours.

Rebikov Op. 31: My first Rebikov, fascinating composer. An Impressionist Russian composer, think Scriabin Light. He wrote some marvellous works for Intermediate players (sadly nothing for true beginners), and I’ll start picking out the easiest material from this book and others.

Grechaninov Op. 98: I’ve nearly worked my way through this one, just three more pieces left which shouldn’t take much more than a week each to learn. I’m putting the final touch to a Mazurka before laying it aside for the time being. Another book I can’t recommend enough, and an excellent choice for someone who has been playing for around a year. Great composer to get into, as well, as he wrote a ton for beginning and intermediate students.

Koechlin Op. 208: As the Grechaninov Mazurka takes only 5 minutes to get through at this point, I had an opportunity to replace it. I toyed with picking the French collection I talked about earlier but reminding myself that I still have five pieces from Koechlin’s Op. 208 to work through made it an easy choice. I talked about books which would be among my favourites; this one is my clear favourite (yes, it even beats out Mikrokosmos). I adore Koechlin, and I can’t wait to try more of his works after completing this book.

That’s what was meant to be a much shorter update. Happy practising, everyone!

Well done for trying the Watchman song. The intermezzo section is much harder than the rest of it. I think many people only know a few of the lyrical pieces but I've found some really good once int he book. I was playing around with Phantom yesterday. Have a listen. That is one of my favourite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ju9TO4j4k

That's also one of my favourites! In the recording that you linked, that E that gets repeated at 0:42 is so hauntingly beautiful...

I really need to remember to open a Word document next the thread when I read your posts as I always end up wanting a list of the composers and Op. you're working through to pull out in a couple of years when I get there!

Fascinating and much to consider on working through rough patches by not letting the metronome rule.

Really enjoyed reading through your experiences with practicing, way more than I would have ever thought. Thanks for sharing all the very detailed information.

Do you allocate any of your practice time or time with your teacher to music theory?

Instead of trying traditional scales practice have you ever tried playing them in different ways using different timings, throwing on a backing track and playing along up and down the scales, or playing a simple accompaniment in one hand while the other works its way up and down a few octaves of scales? Might be worth a shot if you felt you are starting to miss out on not being able to practice them and also aligns with some of what your teacher seemed to be a proponent of which is always making things sound musical.

Hi Pennaith, great to hear you enjoyed reading this thread!


Not at the moment, no. During my lessons, my teacher sometimes explains how something works from a theoretic point of view, but we don't really focus on it. I'd possibly want to do so in the future, but for now, I'm more than happy focusing on improving my playing more than anything.


I have not, but this seems like a great idea! I especially like the idea of playing an accompaniment in one hand and scales in the other. It would be a two birds with one stone thing, as my ability to improvise or play accompaniments which aren't written down is pretty non-existent, too.

Thank you for your comment, and thank you for reading! I hope future updates will include a bit on the scales method you provided; any method which keeps my attention for longer than a month is a big win.

On consolidating, a new approach to learning repertoire, and pieces that are harder than they look.

Yet another long overdue update. Life suddenly got a lot busier just last month as I’ve landed my desired job as a programmer (Junior Front-End Web Developer, in case anyone wonders), so there’s not quite as much time left for practice, and even less so for writing about it. I did find myself with a bit of time left on this beautiful Sunday evening, so here it is.


More on consolidating

Last time, I talked quite a bit about consolidating pieces. Turning off the metronome and practising it as slowly as needed for me to be able to bring out the musicality that I want while, at the same time, ironing out mistakes that slipped into my playing.

While I felt it was useful, I became less sure about the need for no metronome. Surely, playing it nice and slow with the metronome will be equally effective if not more so? After two weeks, I felt like that was indeed the case, and I was ready to write a new post on how wrong I was on the no-metronome technique. But as I kept on practising, I came to realise there’s something to be said for both methods, and a bit of a compromise was needed. It ended up being quite a significant compromise, too, in the sense that the way I practise material has changed quite a bit.

I used to set the metronome very slow at the start of every practice session, work my way up to the tempo I reached in my last practice session, and then (hopefully) end up adding a bit to that. It was effective, but it required a lot of repetition.

My new way of practising starts with the consolidating technique I talked about at length: start playing as slowly as needed to have proper control and musicality and repeat the section a couple of times until it’s entirely in your fingers. This replaces the entirety of ‘start slow and work up to the tempo you reached yesterday’. Most times, four or five repetitions are all that’s needed to play at last time’s tempo with a metronome consistently.

It’s at that point that the metronome is turned back on, and immediately at last time’s tempo. If, after a minute or two, I cannot consistently play it with the metronome, I turn it back off and get a couple of correct repetitions without the metronome (again, consolidating) and move on onto the next section. If I do get it right, I’ll work to increase the tempo by 5/10BPM; whatever feels comfortable and doesn’t lead to mistakes.

It feels a bit more time efficient, as there’s less pure repetition. The repetition without a metronome is also more fun because I get to play with a bit more freedom. This also carries over very well into the later stages of learning that piece, as I’ll already somewhat know where I want to take the piece. The risk here always was going back to last time’s tempo without being ready for it, but by being honest about my own playing really goes a long way.


A new approach to learning repertoire

I had a revelation while trying to play through my repertoire pieces while reading: I can’t keep track of things and read along as well as I’d like (which was very logical, as I never put in the effort beyond my initial study of the piece). This got me thinking: would it be valuable to be able to both play while reading and play from memory?

I concluded that it would indeed be valuable. I even went as far to decide, for myself, that I didn’t know a piece unless I could play it while reading. Here’s why:

First, when you rely entirely on memorisation, little mistakes are bound to slip into your playing without you noticing. Playing with the improper dynamics, ignoring rests, poor phrasing, the list goes on. While reading, you’ll see all these things as you play, so you’ll notice anything going wrong and act accordingly.

Second, being able to play along while reading goes a long way to memorising the piece, at least for me. If I can play it while reading, it’ll hardly take any effort to get it memorised. At that point, being very familiar with the score is invaluable. I’ll not exactly be able to see the score in my mind, but I’ll be vaguely aware of how it looks and remember crucial aspects (which were giving me trouble. Thus I spent more time on them. Therefore I know those parts best). It does help tremendously with how secure a piece of music is for me when playing from memory.

Third, as you learn a piece more often, getting back to a state where you can read it comes very quickly. You eliminate potential mistakes you may accidentally introduce by relying on memorisation from the start.

I’m sure there are many more reasons always to be able to read along with any piece you’re learning at any stage of the learning process, but these are the ones that are evident to me.

Something else that has changed in my approach to repertoire is an acceptance of metronome practice. I never used to do this beyond the initial learning stage, but I’ve become more accepting of those times where it’s really needed. Mainly, pieces that need to get to a certain tempo, which I can not yet comfortably reach. I’ll do my musicality practise, followed by a few sessions of metronome practice. If I got +20/+30 compared to the last time I learned it, I’ll lay it aside again. I’ve found that this carries over well into subsequent relearning activities. I don’t really bother trying to get that new tempo musical straight away; not only will it not be as good as I’d like anyway, next time it’ll feel ten times easier, anyway.


Some more Grieg

This weekend, I’ve made my third recording of Grieg’s Watchman’s Song. Just now, I also realise I didn’t even post my second one. You can find a playlist of all three recordings on SoundCloud.

I think there’s some definite improvement to be heard. I’m relatively confident about the main part of the piece, I like the tempo, use of rubato, dynamics, silences, phrasing, and voicing. In the Intermezzo, the arpeggios continue to be a source of trouble, but there’s some good improvement there as well (especially in my latest recording). My teacher showed me a great way to try and learn to play these just this last Thursday, so I’ll spend a week here and there working on just that. The chords in the Intermezzo are much better now that I’ve spent some time working on just that. They feel controlled and much closer to how I want them compared to my first two recordings. My third time relearning is scheduled for the end of September, so I hope to update you with a new recording around that time.

Speaking of SoundCloud, I’m going to publish a bit of material there, as well. On YouTube, I’ll post everything that I want a definitive recording of (repertoire), while on SoundCloud, I’ll post those pieces which I like, but not enough to relearn a couple of times. The first piece is Twilight by Jean Clergue, a lovely piece from the Jardin d’enfants collection I’ve mentioned before.


Pieces that are harder than they look

There are some pieces of which you see the score and think: “Well, that’s going to be an easy one, let me learn this right quick,” but after just a few minutes you’ll realise how wrong you were. But you can’t stop here, can you? It shouldn’t be that hard, but it is.

Maybe this is purely psychological, but I personally find these pieces super valuable. If it looks easy, it probably consists of concepts which you’ve tackled earlier, yet they are presented in such a way that’s much more difficult than you expected. I’ll work on such a piece for a month or even more, and once it’s done, I feel like I’ve learned much more than I do from the average piece. As I said, maybe that’s psychological, maybe there’s something there.

The piece in question is Gedike Op. 60 No. 36 (page 6). What ended up making it so difficult is how every phrase is a mix of staccato and legato, the left hand is a mix of legato, portato, and staccato, the part with 3 voices (with staccato and legato in the same hand), the dynamics and accents, and the small amount of hand movement combined with the high intended tempo. I’m almost a month into learning it, and it’s starting to get consistent at quarter note = 60. I expect the intended tempo is almost twice as high.

It’s a great book, by the way. It’s a book of studies, but they are of high musical quality. Even the pieces specifically marked as etudes are great musically. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for some good Early Intermediate material.


What I’m working on

Actually, first of all, what was I working on but has since been laid aside?

I’ve put some work into Jardin d’enfants but have laid it aside just two weeks ago in favour of some other material. It’s a fantastic book that I’m pretty much always in the mood for and which can provide me with two or three quick pieces to learn.

The Anna Magdalena Notebook, I think I’m done with. At least for now, I can’t really be bothered to work on yet another Menuet, especially since it most likely wasn’t ever written by Bach. This choice is made much easier by some of the other things I’ve been working on which may serve as a Baroque replacement (as it covers many of the same concepts).

Takacs Op. 111 I’m done with for the time being. There are some terrific pieces left, but they’re a bit too hard for me at the moment. I’ve learned about half the book at this point, and many pieces ended up on my list of the desired repertoire. One such piece I’ve actually recorded and uploaded today.

All the pieces in Schumann Op. 68 that are at my level don’t really interest me, so it’s been laid aside for now. I’m keen to learn some of the more complex material (like Knecht Rupert), but that’s beyond me, still.

Rebikov Op. 31 ended up being too hard for me now. I learned one piece, and it’s being converted into repertoire, but the rest of the book is a bit too hard for now.

Grechaninov Op. 98, I’m not sure if I’ll end up learning the final three pieces from this book. I’ve got some other books of his, anyway. Worst case scenario, it’ll turn out to be sight-reading material a bit down the line.

Stein 25 Songs is a collection I picked up thanks to the Nordic Recital. There was one piece that really stood out to me, Andante Funebre, which I’ve learned and am currently relearning for the first time. I’ll definitely work my way through the other pieces as well; they’re short, beautiful, and super valuable exercises in choral playing.

Bartok Ten Easy Pieces I learned just one piece from, one which may very well be my favourite piece for piano ever written (at this moment): Evening in Transylvania. The quicker part is quite challenging but not nearly as bad as I expected. It also has some fast chords in the accompaniment with plenty of hand shifting, but that’s going surprisingly well, too.

Arvo Pärt - Für Alina . I got a copy of this score for my birthday and decided to learn it straight away. The notes are easy enough, making it sound good is quite a bit harder. It’s a lovely piece to play; there’s so much beautiful silence and soft sound, absolutely adore it.

What am I learning now?

Koechlin Op. 208. The Baroque replacement I mentioned. Beautiful music with a lot of counterpoint. It remains my favourite book, and I’ll probably end up completing the entire thing without laying it aside. So far, every piece I’ve learned from this book I have turned or am turning into repertoire.

As mentioned before, I’m working on Gedike/Goedicke Op. 36. I’m enjoying learning from this book, so I’ll probably end up learning two or three more pieces before laying it aside.

At the start of this month, I’ve finally picked Mikrokosmos Book 3 back up. I think I laid it aside somewhere in January, maybe February; I was just kind of done with it for a bit. The spark has reignited, though; I once more really enjoy my time working through it. I must admit I did skip two pieces, two Chromatic Inventions, because I did not enjoy them. There is not a lot of music that I actively dislike, but entirely Chromatic music I just do not enjoy.

Lastly, I’ve started working on my second book by Tansman – Pour les Enfants Book 1. The music is just as lovely as I’ve come to expect of Tansman, if not a bit more difficult. For now, I’ll cherry-pick the slower pieces and leave the faster ones for future-me.

That’s it for me today. Happy practising, everyone!

It’s been so long since I’ve posted an update here. I was shocked to find out it’s been almost a year! That’s just criminal. It is the reality of things; my life has gotten so busy, that lurking around in online forums had to be cut from the list of daily activities.

Luckily, playing the piano hasn’t. It has not been easy to practice. Practice did go down by a whole lot, which is kind of sad. Since my last update I’ve had 10 months of piano practice, and in only 3 of those I managed to get more than 20 hours. On a positive note, last month was my best month since June and I’ve seemed to have found a bit of a flow here (though I do imagine the working from home has a big part in this).

Some things have changed in how I approach the studying of our beautiful instrument. Some are pretty new; some I’ve been doing for a couple of months now. I’ll just quickly highlight the major points of my study, what I feel defines my study methods.


Keeping things easy

I mean, it IS the subject of this thread, and I’ve adhered to it over the last 10 months. The majority of what I learn is relatively easy, though not so easy that I can learn it within a week. Easy enough that I can keep up while reading, though not so easy that I can sight-read it.


Stretch piece

This one is pretty new, but I feel this is a valuable addition to my practice at this point in time. While the majority of the pieces that I learn are easier, there’s now one harder piece that finds its way into my pile of what-to-practice. It gets a lot more polish and time than an ordinary piece would. It’s also the sort of piece that I’m quite sure I won’t be able to get a satisfactory recording of any time soon, but it’s a ton of fun to learn these harder pieces.

I do make sure these pieces are not so hard that I cannot keep up while reading. I’m not learning anything that I have to memorize in order to learn it.

In case you’re wondering, my current stretch piece is ‘Ernest Bloch – Elves (No. 4 from Enfantines)’.


Taking my vitamins

Something I’ve tried on and off for all the time I’ve been learning, it’s on again. Taking my vitamin pills. Scales, but also theory this time. Analyzing pieces, figuring out progressions. The analyzing has been a blast, so far, and it does feel it deepens my understanding of what I’m learning by quite a bit. It makes my phrases more coherent. It just feels easier to execute musically what the composer (may have) meant.


Planning a week ahead

This one’s been inspired by posts made by Bernhardt on Pianostreet, I’m sure many of you are familiar with him. He recommended you plan ahead for the week what you want to work on at which point. This week is actually my first week of trying this, but I’m really digging it so far. It provides me with a lot of structure, while also making sure my practice is focused and (closer to) optimal.

Where first, I’d have this pile through which I’d cycle, studying whichever piece(s) I was learning from it at the time, I now assign my time to specific chunks or tasks. For example, I’ll practice a piece by Tchaikovsky (Op. 39, No. 13) three times this week, but instead of playing through all the sections every time, I wrote down to:

- Analyze the piece
- Practice the second chunk (which is giving me a lot of trouble)

The first practice session, this was enough to fill 20 minutes, at which point I was done with the piece for then. I reevaluated my coming sessions of this piece (no more analyzing, though that specific chunk still needed work) and went on. The next time, I started with my chunk, and was happy with it after 8 minutes. Instead of picking up the next piece, I followed a second recommendation by Bernhardt: integrate scales/arpeggios into your piece practice. Which is what I did. I figured out the key of the piece and working on my scale for 6 minutes and finished by session by playing the most-used chords in this key.

I don’t reckon I’ll ever make time for scales or arpeggio practice, but when it’s integrated like this it feels pretty good. And, not unimportant, scales make me better aware of my playing technique AND practicing the scales along with the piece like this really helps creating context for the piece. I know it’s still early days, but it feels really good


Metronome and recording

I stopped doing both for a while. Recording, because of a lack of time. Metronome, because I felt I didn’t need it anymore. In hindsight, laying aside the metronome was a result of less-frequent recording sessions. I sounded much worse than I thought! A recording that I made of a Novelette by Kabalevsky scared the **** out of me, and I went back to metronome practice right after. This was also the reason I started making recordings of myself prior to making the final recordings.

Regarding the metronome, I started keeping a journal of sorts, in which, for each piece, I’ll write down metronome tempo markings (in increments of 10) and chunk ID’s (1, 2, 3, etc.). It’s a small thing, but it helps me in figuring out where exactly the problematic spots are.


Repertoire

I still feel like creating repertoire pieces is a worthwhile endeavor, but I did have to change some things for it to become manageable, again. For now, I’ve settled on working on 4 repertoire pieces at a time, using the metronome to get them really solid, tempo-wise (the Kabalevsky really scared me…), and recording them after a maximum of 4 weeks. If they’re not there after 4 weeks, they go back into the waiting room. If they’re acceptable, I’ll make a recording and accept that I’ve learned valuable lessons from this piece. I don’t reckon I’ll ever get something perfect, but it’s nice to get things to a point of being ‘good enough’.

Additionally, I’m now way more willing to make a recording of a piece that I just learned. If I feel it’s acceptable, sure, why not? These will be pieces that are on the easier side.


What I’m studying now

Tchaikovsky Op. 39 – Learning new pieces from this book. No. 12 (Peasant playing the accordion) and No. 16 (Old French Song) will get recorded, probably this weekend. No. 13 (Russian Dance) is what I’m studying right now, and what’s giving me a bit of trouble. I’ll lay this aside after finishing the piece, probably picking up Schumann or Gedike.

Bartok For Children – Learning No. 16 from the first book, it’s getting along. I hope to make a recording of this after learning it this first time.

Repertoire
Jon Steins – Andante Funebre – Started learning this because of the Nordic Recital. Never got it to a point that I’m happy with, but I’m certain it’ll get there now.
Vladimir Rebikov – Evening in the Meadow – From his Op. 31, lovely little piece, I like the impressionistic style. Will probably finish it within a month.
Ernest Bloch – Elves – My Stretch piece, highly doubt I’ll get a recording of it this year.
We Will Not Go Into The Woods Again – Don’t know the composer, but it’s a nice little dance. Will be recorded probably this weekend.