Notes Come in Varying Lengths
Obviously.
I realised today that I'd been playing Hanon No.2 in quite a musical way. In C major, it's C-E-A-G-F-G-F-E-D, and I'd been playing the G-F as (roughly speaking) eighths, and the others as quarter notes, that is playing the two pairs of notes as a little shimmy, and the others drawn out, quite a simple little melody. I'm learning to get them all the same length now, and it sounds quite different.
So I was doing Hanons today, and Dorian in D, and C major scales, one handed, but changing the fingering as I went, and trying to keep the notes all the same despite sometimes getting back to the D or the C with a finger short, or a finger over. That was fun. My pleasure was diminished somewhat when I realised that the B next door to middle C on the Kemble is a bit poorly - not 100% responsive. Saggy. I'm sure this can be sorted, and it would benefit from some tweaking of strings and hammers and I-don't-know-what, but ought to hold back on any more piano-related expense for now.
No practice at all yesterday, (work, don't get me started), and it felt great to get an hour this afternoon. I do come away feeling "centered". It's the benefit of having the mind in a different place for an hour, where daily concerns (work, a significant blot on the landscape just now, you may have gathered) cannot go.
I finished practicing with my old mates Three Kings, the sequence E-D-C-A-B-C-B-A, with all five fingers, but for the first time today two handed. Same notes two octaves apart, but feeling like it was requiring a new neural connection or two. Good fun with your eyes closed, as the duchess said to the sailor.
A metronome and Jazz Piano From Scratch arrived in the post at lunchtime. I used the former with some of the Hanons today - which was interesting. It could work as a 1-2-3-4! to get started. The book looks really interesting. And I listened to some of the CD whilst I was burning it onto the hard drive. It's going to help, I hope, with things like being able to hear and play swing as against straight 8s. In fact, I'm done here for today, I want to start on the book. TTFN.
I realised today that I'd been playing Hanon No.2 in quite a musical way. In C major, it's C-E-A-G-F-G-F-E-D, and I'd been playing the G-F as (roughly speaking) eighths, and the others as quarter notes, that is playing the two pairs of notes as a little shimmy, and the others drawn out, quite a simple little melody. I'm learning to get them all the same length now, and it sounds quite different.
So I was doing Hanons today, and Dorian in D, and C major scales, one handed, but changing the fingering as I went, and trying to keep the notes all the same despite sometimes getting back to the D or the C with a finger short, or a finger over. That was fun. My pleasure was diminished somewhat when I realised that the B next door to middle C on the Kemble is a bit poorly - not 100% responsive. Saggy. I'm sure this can be sorted, and it would benefit from some tweaking of strings and hammers and I-don't-know-what, but ought to hold back on any more piano-related expense for now.
No practice at all yesterday, (work, don't get me started), and it felt great to get an hour this afternoon. I do come away feeling "centered". It's the benefit of having the mind in a different place for an hour, where daily concerns (work, a significant blot on the landscape just now, you may have gathered) cannot go.
I finished practicing with my old mates Three Kings, the sequence E-D-C-A-B-C-B-A, with all five fingers, but for the first time today two handed. Same notes two octaves apart, but feeling like it was requiring a new neural connection or two. Good fun with your eyes closed, as the duchess said to the sailor.
A metronome and Jazz Piano From Scratch arrived in the post at lunchtime. I used the former with some of the Hanons today - which was interesting. It could work as a 1-2-3-4! to get started. The book looks really interesting. And I listened to some of the CD whilst I was burning it onto the hard drive. It's going to help, I hope, with things like being able to hear and play swing as against straight 8s. In fact, I'm done here for today, I want to start on the book. TTFN.
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