Monday

Last night I spent a few hours playing through a couple of pieces in the ABRSM Jazz Piano Grade One book. The idea was to give myself a bit of a break from the classical pieces whilst improving my reading. I managed to get through a couple of the blues tunes fairly easily. This was quite revealing - I first bought the book a few years ago and had a little look at it but couldn't play more than a few bars of one tune back then.

This morning I started by running through all scales and broken chords. I did a run-through of the four classical pieces I have looked at so far. I then decided to embark on a new piece: a Minuetto by Kirnberger. This seems quite a bit trickier than the material I have covered so far. I felt like I did last Tuesday when I first attempted to play the Duncombe Gavot. I'm having to take it verrrrrry slowly and work a few bars at a time. There are a number of position changes in both hands, quite a few accidentals and also two trills - written as quintuplets with a slightly tricky fingering. A lot to get my teeth into!

The super slow practice always helps me to really feel relaxed and get inside the piece, hearing the way the melodic lines and harmony work. I really appreciate these (seemingly) simple, perfectly constructed pieces.