I took the plunge... now I either sink or swim!

Having finally worked through the Corelli Sarabanda (which was rather challenging) I decided to take the plunge and get the Grade Two piano book yesterday.

After working through my scales and arpeggios this morning I selected my first piece - Allegro Grazioso - Second Movement from Sonatina in C, op. 57 No. 1 by Albert Biehl. I love the long titles and catalogue numbers, it makes me feel like I'm playing real music for a change! If this were a drum book the piece would be called 'A Stick in Time' or another similarly bad pun. Because the drum set and drum education are still fairly recent musical developments, the pieces that beginners learn are often written specifically for the method books and grades. It is a refreshing change to play real music by real composers who probably even wore those big white wigs and everything.

I pleasantly surprised myself by covering the first page (half of the piece) in a fairly short session this morning. The piece is definitely more involved than the Grade One material but I find that my reading is improving, which is speeding up the learning process. I'm playing the music a lot slower than the intended tempo but I feel I have made a really strong start into the piece.

I recorded The Abbey Road Sessions last night on TV as I had heard that Herbie Hancock's band would be on (featuring Vinnie Colaiuta on drums.) The tunes were taken from the River album which is a bit more relaxed and low-key than my usual listening material. The programme makers included a short excerpt of the band playing some really exciting music for a few seconds (which sounded amazing and ended with Vinnie jumping up from the drum kit in delight) and then went on to include two far more pedestrian tunes - snooze. I would have liked to have seen one tune including burning, virtuosic, edge of the seat improvisation to contrast with the tasteful, sympathetic, musical stuff. In all seriousness though I liked the fact that they actually put Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash and Herbie Hancock on the same bill. I consider this a positive step forward though UK broadcasters seem to be far far behind the rest of Europe in the diversity of their music programming.