I’ve been trying to figure out why my scales aren’t smoother, even, and not… tonally equivalent (Is that a thing)? Basically not sounding connected, on the cross-over / cross-under there’s a distinct little accent. So I spent yesterday trying to work on resolving that issue, which led me to forget to make a blog entry post, so here it is.
Nothing exciting about today. Took the day off of practicing, with the exception of doing some scale work. However, I was still thinking of the pieces I am working on, so I guess that still might qualify as practicing.
I had a great lesson today, completely exceeding my instructor’s expectations. The critique was explained very well and I took notes on what to work on for next week. I’ve also been assigned the second part of the Sonatina and part of the third, and like last week, should just do as much as I can. We also covered the form and structure along with some music history.
Practice went well today. It is somewhat ‘painful’ to have to play at a slower speed to ensure accuracy. That G Major scale that plagued me yesterday finally got itself sorted out after working it throughout the day.
Practicing went well today. I believe I initially started off at around 80bpm on this Sonatina, and have got it up to 120bpm, which is just the start of ‘Allegro’ in terms of meter. It is much easier to go quicker with this piece, however, I do slow it down to work trouble sections when it arises.
In doing my scale work, one of my goals is to strengthen my ring and pinky fingers. In the right hand, it took a big decline when I had cubital tunnel syndrome and started losing blood flow to those fingers. It is extremely noticeable in scale work when going back down the scale. Which makes me wonder if my hand position needs work as well. That’s something I’ll want to address with my instructor on Friday.
I finally had the chance to get back to playing piano today. I was able to get an hour of practice in easily. Scale work and the Sonatina were the main focus for the entirety of the practice. I did quite a bit of technical studying as well as focused scale work within the Sonatina.
Posting this a day late, but I was offline yesterday as I needed the day off to just recover and rest. Didn’t have the energy for even a simple post.
I had my second piano lesson on Friday. 30 minutes is definitely not enough time. Both my instructor and I feel quite rushed. A lot to say, little time to do so.
He assigned some Sonatina (composer escapes me right now, but I’ll have the information posted in my weekly lessons soon) as he would like to work on a lot of technical skills before jumping in to improvisation and other things.