I'm back

Had houseguests (again) for a couple of days so practice time has been practically nonexistant.

They left this afternoon so I've just managed 30 minutes working on the Grade 4 Allegro Assai. I spent about 15 minutes working through bars 17-32 and 15 minutes playing from the start to bar 32. This was at 30bpm and 40 bpm.

15 minutes scales (C, G, D, A, F majors) and Grade One sight reading exercises 11-20.

25 minutes running through the three Grade 1 pieces.

Thursday

No time for piano today.

I managed an hour of drums, soloing at various tempos.

Teaching all day then three private lessons, spent half an hour with my car trapped in some ice on a steep hill (nice) then went to my Dad's for a chat.

Back into the swing of things tomorrow I hope...

Getting better

Although my cold is at its worst so far I have been in a better frame of mind today. I went for a walk to pay some money into the bank (a good thing in itself.) I took my headphones and listened to Smokin in The Pit while I walked. It sounded like the best music I had ever heard and put a big smile on my face. I also saw one of my favourite people on my way to the bank - the ubiquitous Gap Tooth Smiler!

Gap Tooth Smiler is a chap who I would guess is in his seventies. Whenever I go for a walk this year I always seem to end up seeing him. He is always smiling and looking happy, wearing his hat and more often than not enjoying a cheeky ice cream. Hopefully I will be as active and cheerful as him if I make it to that age!

Shortly after I got home the postman came and delivered the latest issue of Modern Drummer - always the happiest day of my month :)

I'm meeting a friend for a curry tonight. He used to share a house with my brother when they were both medical students in Leeds. We used to play music together from time to time and he's staying in the area every Wednesday at the moment. The plan is to have a nice curry and then possibly call in at a jam session. I'm looking forward to it.

A new month, a new Grade and a new piece

I got the Grade 4 books yesterday and started working on the first piece - Allegro assai from the Third movement from Sonata in G by G.Benda.

This morning I spent half an hour working on the first 16 bars at 40bpm. This came together fairly well.

I have neglected my scales and sight reading a little so I intend to build those into my daily routine. In theory I should be comfortable playing the major scale (over two octaves with both hands together) in all keys by now...

I also need to keep working on my sight reading and I really need to break the habit of looking at my hands so much.

Despite these observations I am very happy to be looking at Grade Four material as I enter my fourth month of piano study. The piano playing has helped me in many ways, both musically and otherwise.

I intend to update my blog later on after a bit more practice, however the 'x' and 'w' keys on my laptop are now both playing up so writing is becoming increasingly frustrating!

Update:

10 minutes Grade 1 sight reading ex 1-10
10 minutes scales - C major, G major, D major, A major - I need to start with F major next time.
25 minutes running the three Grade 3 pieces. Bach at 100bpm, Top Cat up to 80 bpm and Study in F up to 54 bpm

Tuesday

1 hour drums: 3,3,2 licks at 138-160

Piano:

30 minutes looking at the first 8 bars of the first Grade 4 piece at a very slow tempo (30bpm.)

20 minutes running through the Study in F (40-54bpm) Top Cat (63-76bpm) and Bach (100bpm several times)

I'm still not well :( my heartbeat is racing and my mind is elsewhere... time for some red wine and relaxation. Luckily tomorrow is Lazy Wednesday!

Monday

45 minutes Study in F 40-54bpm

15 minutes Top Cat from 60 up to 138 just to see how fast it is eventually meant to be played.

15 minutes Bach 80-100bpm with extra focus on articulation.

15 minutes scales.

30 minutes drum practice. 3/3/2 ideas from 126-152.

Sunday

Its been a very strange week and I've been feeling a bit unwell (in more ways than one) so I'm going to try and keep this short.

After staying in Wylam last night I came back and did about an hour of piano:

15 minutes Study in F at crotchet=40 I'm going to start working this up to speed now

15 minutes Top Cat at 5 tempos from 60-72bpm

15 minutes Bach working from 100bpm all the way up to the marked tempo of 138 as an experiment. 138bpm was rather scrappy so I decided to run the piece at 80bpm making sure I included all of the details (dynamics, articulation etc) which were lacking at the quicker tempos.

15 minutes scales and arpeggios.

Looking over my previous posts I see that it is about a month since I started the Grade 3 pieces - I may try to get the Grade 4 book this week as a new challenge/motivational tool.

I'm trying to keep the blog centred around music, piano and drums rather than "stuff" but its been a very tough week in a year of very tough weeks and I'm having a bit of a hard time staying positive right now. Hopefully I'll sort myself out.

Update: 15 minutes more playing the Study in F from 40bpm up to 50bpm