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

Saturday (2nd Edition)

After my loooong sleep I went to the piano in my p-jays and hoodie this morning with a mug of tea.

I spent 30 minutes on the Study in F. I started off by working through the tricky part (bars 9-12) over and over. I started off without the metronome and then started to play the section in tempo working gradually up to 40 bpm. Once I had done this I tried the whole piece through a few times at crotchet=40. I'm now almost ready to start working the piece up to speed.

This piece has been a challenge but I also feel it has really helped me to improve. I have had to really read the music rather than memorise the piece through extensive repetition. It is quite an expressive piece when the dynamics are observed. I also feel it is helping me to develop my touch and the balance between the two hands.

After my breakfast/coffee/reading the Guardian routine I sat down and ran through the whole piece at crotchet=40 for another 15 minutes.

This afternoon:

10 minutes - Top Cat at 60bpm trying to look at the music and not my hands.

10 minutes Bach at 80bpm as above

I finished up with a quick run through the Study in F... it was better this morning!