When I learn a new piece, there is always a challenge to get it “into” my hands , my head, my being. Playing a familiar piece, (for me one is Debussy’s 1st Arabesque) I am able to get the best sound from the piano, and my coordination flows with the phrases. Even after working on a new piece for months, I still am playing “notes”, don’t have the satisfying sensation of sinking in and becoming one with the keyboard. To play a piece properly, a player needs to have the sensation of “painting” the sounds. To do this, there needs to be a deep knowledge of all aspects of the piece. There needs to be a long period (at least several months) of practice without the score. Take a break with the piece once it is memorized, don’t play it or look at the score for a week. Then, play it through without looking at the score, any places needing work will be obvious! Play the piece through 4 or 5 times, aiming for perfect note accuracy. Use the metronome, no pedal, and no score. Playing the piece should feel so automatic that you are not thinking of getting the notes, you are just feeling the pulse. The metronone helps with this. Go back to the score and correct sections with wrong notes. Practice with the score once the notes are mastered by memory, watching every one of the composer’s markings. Perform the piece often! Perform for friends and just for yourself. Think of performing and practicing as 2 separate ways of playing. When performing, have fun with the music.

I sat down and played through the Bach 2 part invention #4 for the first time in a week. Last week when I recorded the first video of the piece, I could play it through fine but had to really concentrate. It took me 5 or 6 tries to get an acceptable video take. Today I did another recording, this is the first take and the second time I played this today: I think it sounds better than last week’s take, there was huge difference playing it. Because I didn’t play it at all for a week after it was memorised, when I came back to it, my memory was significantly more secure. Sometimes we try too hard, bashing a piece into our brains, when we really need to just stop and let it sink in!

Yesterday I was playing 4 hand piano with a friend, and found a short passage rhythmically difficult. We went over it several times, but I could not get it. Finally I somehow found the correct rhythm and we moved on to the next section, which went very well. We were sailing through, enjoying Mozart’s inventiveness, and kept playing without any troubles. Interestingly, I had no trouble at all with the repeat of the difficult part, I just sailed through that part as well. I know that if I had thought about the hard part coming up, I would have stumbled!!! Since I was in the “Zone”, I was not “trying” to think about playing, and was able to play it perfectly. So often, our playing is sabotaged by us trying too hard with our brains. I know that my best playing occurs when I feel very relaxed and enjoying the sounds, I will play a whole piece without “thinking” about playing. It is very much like driving along the highway - in a heightened state of concentration, but relaxed and enjoying the scenery. Playing piano is so complex that we get worried about some aspect of our playing, but maybe concentrating on our mental state should be our goal. Before I start playing, I like to do some stretching exercises and then play a piece through, with the metronome, 4 or 5 times. I find that after a short time I am in the “Zone” - relaxed, centered, enjoying. When I have attained this, I am in my most productive state. playing piano

This is one of my warm-up pieces. I put the metronome on to an easy quarter note beat and play it through 4 or 5 times. I switch the metronome to one to a bar once I feel settled. This piece has so many places where you can stumble. lose your place, or lose the pulse! Here I am, this is after the warm up!

I have been away from the piano for several weeks. Today I sat down and played Dr. Gradus without the score. I got through it, but with a few mix ups. It seems that to really have a piece memorized, you have to have worked through it from many different approaches. It is very different to playing a piece through without the score after practicing it for a half hour, than playing it for the first time in several weeks! There are places that I forget how the music sounds, others where I forget specific notes, and others where I need to memorize the chords. I am back to daily practicing, will log my progress here.

Today I sat down and played Dr Gradus cold, without the printed music. I had to finesse some bits in the middle section. In a few places in the final part, I had some new stumbles, where I have never had trouble. This is the 1st time that I have worked specifically on memorizing a piece. Usually I just play a piece through so many times that I can eventually play it through without the printed music! I realize that if I want to have a piece memorized, I need to practice without the music every day. It seems important to keep trying to play pieces without the music before playing with the music!! After I have played through the piece from memory, I look at the score and analyze the section to find guideposts. It is encouraging that I remember so much and surprising that I have new places where I stumble.

After learning a piece through, it is important to be able to play and practice it without the music in front of you! I am still working on Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, I can play it through without the music in front of me, but stumble in the middle part - where is it going!! I looked through it for patterns to be guideposts, it was easy to find a way to memorize this section. In the left hand part there is a little chromatic melody going from B to A, then up to C. When I memorized this little bit, the whole section came together! Often it is the harmonic progression that helps with memorising, in this case I found help with a little melodic snippet. It did not help for me to analyse the chords, because where I was stumbling, the chords were in inversions or had upper structures with non-chord notes. memorising music

What I find fascinating with this piece is that it starts and ends with satirical themes that are twisted versions of pianist’s exercises. The percussive themes satirize Clementi’s instructional pieces, but then they are transformed into something different. Is the music affectionately portraying a child pounding away at notes, or suggesting a nostalgia for lost days? Sometimes the music can be interpreted either contrasting way! Here is a Wikipedia link explaining the Title of the piece I have difficulty playing the beginning of the piece, it is so exposed - you have to jump right in! Often the first page is not as flowing as the rest of the piece, it is hard to get the pulse going. Maybe that’s because I am thinking too much about the line, my playing needs to be more percussive with this piece, especially at the beginning. Having the piece going through my mind, I am analyzing phrases being in 1 or in 4 or in 16. A very satisfying piece to play.

Just got back from a lazy summmer vacation and had a chance to read Blair Tindall’s Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music Blair Tindall was a professional Oboe player in the New York City classical music scene. This book is her story, which amounts to a brutal expose of the classical music world. Looking back on the times I played in restaurants and bars, I realize that none of the managers knew what they wanted live music to accomplish for their business, musicians are usually pushed to the sidelines. After more than 20 years of training and professional performing, how can musicians be so underpaid and unappreciated? Mozart in the Jungle is required reading for all musicians! (You will never be able to enjoy Itzak Perlman’s music after reading this book…) classical music profession