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January 11, 2019

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I have not been making as many entries in my practice log because I have been focusing my time on recording my retirement home performances and seeing if they are good enough to put on my webpage. Since I am a perfectionist, it takes a lot of time to listen to all my performances and choose the best one. Each one is about forty-five minutes long, and I go to retirement homes at least every other day, so it takes some time to listen and judge every performance. I would also like to point out I am not editing my audio files so they sound better, which hopefully is apparent with my mistakes. So far I have a Valle Verde performance posted on the front page, which is nice to listen to.

 

As far as practicing goes, I am almost done with Brahms' Capriccio 2, and am starting Rachmaninoff's Prelude 5. If you have not yet heard it, here it is:

 

 

Right now I have about ninety minutes a day to work on it, combining it with my other pieces in the time I can practice, so it may take a while. I love how it changes throughout the piece, from a strong march, to a whimsical feeling. It is not incredibly hard to play at a slow pace and I am not stuck at any specific moments, so I think there is a lot of potential for me to be performing this piece at the homes I go to.

 

I can play Capriccio 2 all the way through now, at a good pace, so I will be starting it's performance run soon. I have been getting tired of playing Leibestraum 3 and Rhapsody 2, and this is a great change. It is a light piece, and you can picture people dancing to it even though it is not in waltz time.

 

 

My favorite part to play starts at 2:35 in the recording, and even though I do not play it as fast as the performer there, it still sounds exciting.