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.

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