#hanonexercise #alanrusbridger #playitagain
I finished Play It Again this afternoon, (that's three weeks or so, which shows how much time I have for reading these days). It became really very engrossing. There are some parallels - Chopin's Ballade No1/complete jazz piano beginner in one's fiftiess are perhaps on a par in terms of ambition. And there's the business of fitting it all into a busy day, though naturally, Head of Assessment is far less onerous than Editor in Chief in terms of hours.
The talks he had with the neurologists were the most interesting - that your brain is more plastic when you're young, but it still is in middle age, and will grow new links and branches to enhance new product memories. It also made me realize that as much as I love classical/romantic music, I love folk, blues and jazz much, much more. To oversimplify it somewhat, I'm happier in a bar than in a concert hall, though I'm pretty happy in both places.
I had an hour with M Hanon this afternoon. I've got Exercise 1 ok, I can speed up now with the two hands. I'm also listening carefully, getting the LH and RH notes in synch in terms of time and velocity. Exercise 2 is lagging behind a bit. I had to go back onto youtube again to get it descending - obviously it hadn't entered the old productive memory. I was able to go up and down the keyboard, more-or-less with hands in synch, but slowly.
I didn't get back to A Scottish Dance, really, apart from showing The Bairn what I'd already worked out. We're putting a row of Monster High dolls along the piano - to make it friendlier to her, but also to give a sense of being watched, because I want to play for real people one day, far away though that day is.
The talks he had with the neurologists were the most interesting - that your brain is more plastic when you're young, but it still is in middle age, and will grow new links and branches to enhance new product memories. It also made me realize that as much as I love classical/romantic music, I love folk, blues and jazz much, much more. To oversimplify it somewhat, I'm happier in a bar than in a concert hall, though I'm pretty happy in both places.
I had an hour with M Hanon this afternoon. I've got Exercise 1 ok, I can speed up now with the two hands. I'm also listening carefully, getting the LH and RH notes in synch in terms of time and velocity. Exercise 2 is lagging behind a bit. I had to go back onto youtube again to get it descending - obviously it hadn't entered the old productive memory. I was able to go up and down the keyboard, more-or-less with hands in synch, but slowly.
I didn't get back to A Scottish Dance, really, apart from showing The Bairn what I'd already worked out. We're putting a row of Monster High dolls along the piano - to make it friendlier to her, but also to give a sense of being watched, because I want to play for real people one day, far away though that day is.
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