Wednesday-January 29, 2003

Learned a short piece yesterday. Then I made a recording of it: Mendelssohn's Songs without words, Op. 19, No. 2.

Sunday-January 26, 2003

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Made a couple practice recordings after watching The Pianist. Here's a Schubert Impromptu recording.

Another recording is the Nocturne in C# minor, posthumous by F. Chopin (this piece is played 3 times in the movie).

A reasonable idea would be to have one "recording" piece that I work on each month (a piece I've already learned, but haven't "polished")...and one new piece that I learn. I believe recordings are invaluable in identifying areas that could be improved. When I listen to my recording, I notice things that I otherwise wouldn't have picked up on. I plan on listening to the recording and following the music score...taking notes.

Thursday-January 23, 2003

Trying new methods of memorizing pieces. For the Brahms Cappricio, I'm trying to memorize measure by measure...and it seems to be working. So far, it's been fun learning the piece. I've changed the fingering for some of the upward chord progressions (many octavic triads--instead of using 1,3,5.....use 1,2,4 for some chords and immediately follow with 1,3,5...so it doesn't sound "choppy"; but clear and legato). I want to limit myself to no more than an hour and a half of piano each day. That way, I'll train myself to learn faster and more efficiently.

The Pianist looks like a cool movie.

Saturday-January 18, 2003

Been practicing first movement of Rach2. it's getting easier...now i'm working on individual sections of the first movement. I'm almost done with the brahms' capriccio and am memorizing individual sections of that piece. I've also started learning Transcendental Etude No. 4: Mazeppa. by Liszt. It's very challenging so far....i spent an hour or so just trying to get down the fingering for the first run on the first page. The fingering is tricky and it only works if you play it super fast.

Monday--January 13, 2003 (part II)

Some 10 hours later, I played the Rach2 first mvmt again. This time i timed myself on my stopwatch and it took about 25 minutes (no pausing for the cadences however). It's likely that my earlier time of 40 minutes is not accurate. I seriously doubt that my familiarity with the piece improved that much. This time around I didn't hedge as much and I'm beginning to sense some order for the melodies that I find strange.

Monday--January 13, 2003

I played the Rach2 1st movement again today. I think it took around 40 minutes to play it through. Didn't use the stopwatch on my wristwatch tho. Also practiced the Capriccio, Sonetto 104 (needs to be memorized), Schubert Impromptu (so I won't collect rust).

Sunday--January 12, 2003

Wow, this week has gone by surprisingly fast. I had a little injury to my left index finger that proved to be bothersom (probably more psychological). If I pressed down near the tip of my index finger, it'd feel like it was being pricked by a splinter. I think I built enough scar tissue there since then, so it's cool. The Brahms Capriccio is going very well and should be done and hopefully memorized within the next week or so. The Intermezzo's almost done too. It's weird, but i realize i'm practicing less when i don't have classes.

I played through the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Second today. It was slow but I feel like i'im making progress. I wonder if it's unrealistic to play that movement through at least once once every day (until I learn it). If I do that, can I learn the full concerto in just 3 months?!! Yeah right. We recently bought a digital piano/keyboard--a KORG...it's cool being able to play w/o disturbing people =P.....just plug in the earphones and jam away).

Thursday-January 2, 2003

I'm pretty much done with the Schubert Impromptu and it's close to performance grade. I think I erred trying to memorize it too soon or maybe trusting my memory prematurely...as I mis-learned a couple of notes...so that took awhile to remedy. I suppose I should fnish memorizing Liszt's consolation no. 3 and practice the Liszt Sonetto 104...hopefully by the middle of next week i can have both of these pieces memorized. I've also decided to learn a Brahms' Capriccio, Op. 116, No. 3 (I'm almost done memorizing a Brahms' Intermezzo (Op. 116, no. 2))--maybe I should just learn the whole freakin Fantasien fur pianoforte (op. 116)...

Brahms is relatively new to me. I only know how to play the first rhapsody...but there's something very distinct about Brahms' pieces. It's damn cool. Perhaps it's the nature of the chord progressions. Really fun to play.

I learned that there is some kind of Liszt organization event in the spring. I hope to attend some of the events.