Still no pictures or recordings, I fear, but there is much jubilation in the LisaRealm of Pianodom, as the post title implies.
Well, perhaps jubilation is to active of a word (though it's also the title of the duet that I hope to record both halves of, then overlay - but that's beside the point). Mostly there is just lots of happy contentment. I've been playing very nearly every day, and I'm quickly discovering that once I sit down I'm pretty much incapable of getting up again for an hour. I suspect it would be even longer than an hour, but that's about the point at which my back can't take it anymore. Reading music is coming back to me at an impressive rate, but I discovered this last week that I have absolutely zero recollection of how to determine what key a piece is in. How embarrassing. I'll be remedying that in the next couple of days so that I can properly practice my scales - though it pains me to admit it, it really does make it easier to transition between pieces. Sigh, I say!
Where was I - ah yes, happy contentment and progress. Let's see. I've gone from working dedicatedly on The Cuckoo and Solfeggietto whilst playing around with Bloody Tears and The Piano to just working on the former two and a Chopin prelude that I've had stuck in my head. I'm making really good progress on all of them - a couple of days on the prelude and I've got it flowing pretty well, though there are some trickier chords that I need to practice. Solfeggietto is, of course, fantastically entertaining to work on, and I already have it memorized though I'm still sticking with the music until I have the bits of it that don't follow the overall pattern worked out. The Cuckoo is coming along the slowest of the three, if only because I keep working on it last,which means I'm starting to get a little stiff and don't feel like drilling the parts that need drilling. Maybe tonight I'll start there instead of with the prelude.
Points of interest and amusement: Have I mentioned I need a metronome? Because I really do. Solfeggietto and The Cuckoo just BEG to have the fun parts played faster than the hard parts and I don't have enough Will Power without mechanical intervention. How about mentioning that I had entirely forgotten about the concept of trills before I started working on The Cuckoo? The first time I played through it my fingers just sort of did a trill from memory, and I thought "Oh Yeah! THAT's what the little squiggle means..." I'm a little alarmed at how quickly my brainmeats broke down in the last 6 years.
Finally, on recordings of pieces that I've mastered: this will have to wait a little longer, I'm afraid. I've had a couple of good suggestions for audio editing software, and I have a site to look into for embedding MP3s with a little player (thanks to Daniel Light, Teacher of Amazement mentioned in the last post). What I lack is any sort of good equipment to record - I'm thinking I'll just hit up a music equipment store and see what they say. Finally, as the gentlemen I bought the piano from warned, my lovely Mason & Hamlin is already in need of tuning. They suggest waiting 3-5 weeks after moving it into the house so it can adjust to the floor, the temperature, the humidity, etc, which means I have a few more weeks to go.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
On Deliveries and Decisions
Well, it's good to know that I've gotten this blog off on the right foot - which is to say with procrastination in updates! Still, better late and in part than never, right? Right?
Anyway, the piano was delivered successfully - let me tell you what an ordeal -that- was. First of all, the truck was supposed to arrive by 2ish, originally... but thanks to traffic issues on their other deliveries they didn't show until 8. I literally spent all afternoon jittering myself silly with anticipation. The delivery guys decided the best approach would be to take it through the back yard, which is probably true given the number of stairs on the front walk. Still, seeing a 600 lb machine trundling over grass on a dolly roughly a third of its total length... rather terrifying. I spent most of the (rather laborious) trip through the grass chewing my knuckles. Luckily they made it into the patio without incident, and the piano cleared the back door by a good inch and a half. A few more antics ensued as the movers shuffled blankets around so they wouldn't step on our carpet (as there was an unfortunate run-in with a doggy landmine - I felt pretty classy about that).
Finally, around 8:45 I had a piano set up in the Library, entirely playable. There are not words for how thrilled I am. Every time I walk past and catch a glimpse of it I get this ridiculous grin plastered across my face. I'm so easy. I've taken a number of pictures but haven't unloaded them from my camera yet - hopefully I can get to that sometime before next weekend (which is bound to be excessively busy) comes around. I'd also like to do a bit of beautification to this default blogger skin, but we'll see how ambitious I get. After all, when I'm at home I could be playing rather than typing, which is a much more entertaining use of my fingers.
Right! So! Now comes the part where I ruminate about how best to get back into practice. My first and biggest concern is that sheet music has become embarrassingly hard to read after a 6 year hiatus. Luckily that seems to be passing fairly quickly - I've played for 45 minutes or an hour every day since The Delivery, and I'm not longer having to struggle over every note. This is aided by the fact that I've started myself off gently working on some pieces from my first few years with Daniel Light.
Hmm - let's pause for some back story.
My mom started me on piano lessons in second grade. She had played for years, but mostly was back to about the level that I fancy myself at now... which is to say she could still pluck out a few of her favorites but mostly just from muscle memory. I remember that she used to play Moonlight Sonata for me as I fell asleep some nights.
Regardless, I was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to learn to play myself. I started taking lessons from Mrs. Ballou, the mother of one of my schoolmates who lived a street over. I remember how excited I was when she let me start working on a simplified version of Moonlight Sonata in 3rd or 4th grade. I took it home and perfected the first few measures and then waited for my mom to pull into the driveway so I could be playing that part when she came through the door.
I studied with Mrs. Ballou until I was 12, at which point after a long time on a waiting list my mom had managed to get me lessons with Daniel Light, arguably one of the best teachers in the southeast. Certainly the best in Louisville. With Mrs. Ballou I mostly learned less serious pieces (folk songs or movie soundtracks, for instance). When I started with Mr. Light he promptly tossed all of that and started me on "real" music, making sure that each year I had pieces from each musical period. I had never done recitals before but with Mr. Light they became a thrice-yearly ordeal (including one duet recital). Additionally every year I'd participate in Guild... which involved memorizing a bunch of pieces then playing them for a single judge that would then rate your performance. More on that in another entry.
I suppose the point I was getting across there is that I've decided to get back into practice by taking a step back to some of the pieces I worked on early in my time with Mr. Light. I've picked out a few of my favorites from my second or third year with him and I'm trying to get them back into shape. Of course the quandry I'm facing is that I have FAR too many pieces both new and old that I want to work on, so focusing on something long enough to master it is a challenge. I've mostly settled in and am working on Daquin's The Cuckoo and CBP Bach's Solfeggietto. Remind me to check on all those names when I get home to make sure I'm not butchering them entirely. I also found an easy little prelude that will probably be my first piece I record and post here, as it's very pretty and I can already make it through with almost no mistakes. Additionally I've been plinking away at Bloody Tears from Castlevania and The Heart Asks Pleasure First, from the movie The Piano.
My plan is to try to get an old piece or two up to snuff every month, moving up to increasingly harder pieces until I'm back where I was my senior year. Once I reach that point I can begin the process of working on new music more in earnest.
Goodness, this entry got quite long - congrats to anyone who made it to the end! Anyone who sees me in the next week, please pester me to figure out how I'm going to record performances so that I can get my first piece up. Does anyone have suggestions? Thoughts on music-editing software? Any suggestions are much appreciated!
Anyway, the piano was delivered successfully - let me tell you what an ordeal -that- was. First of all, the truck was supposed to arrive by 2ish, originally... but thanks to traffic issues on their other deliveries they didn't show until 8. I literally spent all afternoon jittering myself silly with anticipation. The delivery guys decided the best approach would be to take it through the back yard, which is probably true given the number of stairs on the front walk. Still, seeing a 600 lb machine trundling over grass on a dolly roughly a third of its total length... rather terrifying. I spent most of the (rather laborious) trip through the grass chewing my knuckles. Luckily they made it into the patio without incident, and the piano cleared the back door by a good inch and a half. A few more antics ensued as the movers shuffled blankets around so they wouldn't step on our carpet (as there was an unfortunate run-in with a doggy landmine - I felt pretty classy about that).
Finally, around 8:45 I had a piano set up in the Library, entirely playable. There are not words for how thrilled I am. Every time I walk past and catch a glimpse of it I get this ridiculous grin plastered across my face. I'm so easy. I've taken a number of pictures but haven't unloaded them from my camera yet - hopefully I can get to that sometime before next weekend (which is bound to be excessively busy) comes around. I'd also like to do a bit of beautification to this default blogger skin, but we'll see how ambitious I get. After all, when I'm at home I could be playing rather than typing, which is a much more entertaining use of my fingers.
Right! So! Now comes the part where I ruminate about how best to get back into practice. My first and biggest concern is that sheet music has become embarrassingly hard to read after a 6 year hiatus. Luckily that seems to be passing fairly quickly - I've played for 45 minutes or an hour every day since The Delivery, and I'm not longer having to struggle over every note. This is aided by the fact that I've started myself off gently working on some pieces from my first few years with Daniel Light.
Hmm - let's pause for some back story.
My mom started me on piano lessons in second grade. She had played for years, but mostly was back to about the level that I fancy myself at now... which is to say she could still pluck out a few of her favorites but mostly just from muscle memory. I remember that she used to play Moonlight Sonata for me as I fell asleep some nights.
Regardless, I was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to learn to play myself. I started taking lessons from Mrs. Ballou, the mother of one of my schoolmates who lived a street over. I remember how excited I was when she let me start working on a simplified version of Moonlight Sonata in 3rd or 4th grade. I took it home and perfected the first few measures and then waited for my mom to pull into the driveway so I could be playing that part when she came through the door.
I studied with Mrs. Ballou until I was 12, at which point after a long time on a waiting list my mom had managed to get me lessons with Daniel Light, arguably one of the best teachers in the southeast. Certainly the best in Louisville. With Mrs. Ballou I mostly learned less serious pieces (folk songs or movie soundtracks, for instance). When I started with Mr. Light he promptly tossed all of that and started me on "real" music, making sure that each year I had pieces from each musical period. I had never done recitals before but with Mr. Light they became a thrice-yearly ordeal (including one duet recital). Additionally every year I'd participate in Guild... which involved memorizing a bunch of pieces then playing them for a single judge that would then rate your performance. More on that in another entry.
I suppose the point I was getting across there is that I've decided to get back into practice by taking a step back to some of the pieces I worked on early in my time with Mr. Light. I've picked out a few of my favorites from my second or third year with him and I'm trying to get them back into shape. Of course the quandry I'm facing is that I have FAR too many pieces both new and old that I want to work on, so focusing on something long enough to master it is a challenge. I've mostly settled in and am working on Daquin's The Cuckoo and CBP Bach's Solfeggietto. Remind me to check on all those names when I get home to make sure I'm not butchering them entirely. I also found an easy little prelude that will probably be my first piece I record and post here, as it's very pretty and I can already make it through with almost no mistakes. Additionally I've been plinking away at Bloody Tears from Castlevania and The Heart Asks Pleasure First, from the movie The Piano.
My plan is to try to get an old piece or two up to snuff every month, moving up to increasingly harder pieces until I'm back where I was my senior year. Once I reach that point I can begin the process of working on new music more in earnest.
Goodness, this entry got quite long - congrats to anyone who made it to the end! Anyone who sees me in the next week, please pester me to figure out how I'm going to record performances so that I can get my first piece up. Does anyone have suggestions? Thoughts on music-editing software? Any suggestions are much appreciated!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Post the First - In which I introduce the theme of this blog in hopes that you will become a recurring visitor
*cough* My apologies - the title you see above would really be more appropriate for that other blog of mine. But! In my excitement verbosity got the better of me - let me start again.
Welcome to Six Inch Keys, the sister site to my book blog, Seven Foot Shelves. Where 7FS is a compendium cataloging and reviewing my various literary conquests, 6IK will be a place for me to relate my Adventures In Piano! I hope to post here about the process of getting back into practice after a 6 year hiatus, which I'm sure will include lots of dithering about sheet music, dramas about sight reading, rants about pieces from the Baroque period - oh, and last but not least, recordings of my accomplishments.
My new[1] piano arrives tomorrow afternoon, at which point pictures will be procured, squeeing will be audible for blocks, and hopefully another post with a gushing description of the Fine Instrument with which my mother has gifted me appear. Wish me luck!
[1]New is a relative term, to be elaborated upon in aforementioned upcoming Gushing Post.
Welcome to Six Inch Keys, the sister site to my book blog, Seven Foot Shelves. Where 7FS is a compendium cataloging and reviewing my various literary conquests, 6IK will be a place for me to relate my Adventures In Piano! I hope to post here about the process of getting back into practice after a 6 year hiatus, which I'm sure will include lots of dithering about sheet music, dramas about sight reading, rants about pieces from the Baroque period - oh, and last but not least, recordings of my accomplishments.
My new[1] piano arrives tomorrow afternoon, at which point pictures will be procured, squeeing will be audible for blocks, and hopefully another post with a gushing description of the Fine Instrument with which my mother has gifted me appear. Wish me luck!
[1]New is a relative term, to be elaborated upon in aforementioned upcoming Gushing Post.
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