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Wednesday, July 29th, 2020
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I surprised myself by practicing for over two hours in a single
session. I was reviewing Chopin's Polonaise Op. 71 No. 2 for those
two hours and there must have been a lot to go over considering
the length of time I practiced. I spent most of my time playing
the last two pages and reviewing the trouble sections. Something I
could have improved is increasing the tempo, but I was feel
comfortable taking them at an consistent pace. Later today I will
have time to sight-read so I look forward to doing that however I
do not have much of an idea what I will sight-read. I can spend
the next ten minutes finding something that I will enjoy to work
on.
I tried to sight-read for a regular amount of time today but I
could only bring myself to sit at the piano for half an hour. The
French music I was sight-reading was not particularly interesting
or challenging and I did not want to spend more time looking for
books. I will try to sit down at the piano to sight-read for
another half hour but I will choose another style of music this
time.
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Tuesday, July 28th, 2020
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I started my practice session today by reviewing Chopin's
Polonaise Op. 71 No. 2. I have not played it for a while and now
that I think about it, I never finished practicing the entire
piece in a competent manner. I will continue to review this piece
because Op. 26 No. 1 is not proving to be too difficult. For the
most part I have practiced Op. 40 No. 2 to an acceptable level for
retirement home performance. It takes some work to review a less
familiar piece such as Op. 71 No. 2 but in the end it will be
worth it. Soon I want to be able to play all four of Chopin's
Polonaise's I have been reviewing for the past three months.
My second practice session consisted of sight-reading through a
book called "Joy of Modern Blues." I did not enjoy playing it
however I forced myself to practice it for forty-five minutes. The
majority of the pieces consisted of dissonant melodies, chords,
and intervals. I am not used to playing music like that and I
cannot see myself playing more in the future.
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Thursday, July 23rd, 2020
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I came close to finishing "The Joy of Ragtime" today. I feel sad
about it because it will take some time to find another book to
sight-read. I think I will take an extra amount of time to choose
another book. Maybe I will choose another style to play since I
have run out of ragtime books to sight-read from.
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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020
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Today I continued sight-reading the book "The Joy of Ragtime." I
remembered that I used to play it's version of "The Entertainer"
when I was younger however now as an adult I am using the book to
sight-read. That is a good indicator how my piano skills
have improved since I was a teenager. I am halfway through the
book and look forward to finishing it by the end of the week.
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Monday, July 20th, 2020
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I sight-read the rest of my ragtime book this morning. It took me
about an hour to get through the last forty pages and I was going
a little slower than normal, but it was satisfying to complete the
book. If I had another book of ragtime pieces I would sight-read
those next because I really like playing that style of music. I
think I will have to find other ragtime composers other than Scott
Joplin though. This latest book was two hundred pages long and
could have had his whole available catalog.
Later in the morning I practiced Chopin's Polonaise Op. 26 No. 1
and later in the afternoon I practiced Rachmaninoff's Prelude 5. I
only practiced through half of the polonaise but I feel I was able
to make good progress. I was also able to get a good idea of the
progress I have made already and I am quite happy with that. When
it came to practicing the prelude I focused on the first couple of
pages only. Sometimes I need to refresh my muscle memory when it
comes to jumping chords and I would like to retain the knowledge
of intervals when it comes to that.
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Wednesday, July 15th, 2020
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Today I practiced Chopin's Polonaise Op. 40 No. 1 for sixty-five
minutes and ten Scott Joplin ragtime pieces for forty-seven
minutes. I started my practice session playing the polonaise
because I want to be able to perform the four polonaises I have
been practicing within the next month. By starting my practice
session with a polonaise I reduce the chance of not practicing it
because sometimes I only play one session. I did not get a chance
to listen to recordings of it two days ago so I will make sure to
listen to it today. The polonaise is not presenting any particular
difficulty other than the difficulty presented understanding the
phrasing.
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Monday, July 13th, 2020
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I started my day differently by practicing a Polonaise instead of
playing through ragtime pieces. It was a great change that I will
continue tomorrow since I feel my practice sessions have gotten
stale. The Polonaise I practiced was Op. 26 No. 1, and even though
I play it slowly I think I will be able to play it at regular
speed soon. Later I will listen to recordings of it to get
inspiration which is a new habit I am incorporating in my practice
schedule.
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Sunday, July 12th, 2020
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I was able to practice piano this weekend which made me happy
since I missed a couple of practice sessions during the week. I
practiced forty-five minutes on Friday and forty-five minutes
between Saturday and Sunday. I continued my sight-reading practice
from the book of Scott Joplin Ragtime pieces I have, which was
nice however now I am almost finished reading it. I am looking
forward to this next week when I can practice more which includes
reviewing pieces I have learned in the past.
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2020
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I sight-read from my book of ragtime pieces today. My favorite
piece that I sight-read was the Palm Leaf Rag but I also enjoyed
the other pieces as well. I do not have much energy today so I
will probably only have one more practice session, but I am glad I
was able to sight-read this morning.
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2020
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I sight-read many ragtime pieces by Scott Joplin this morning.
Looking through the three hundred page book I chose I was
surprised how many pieces he wrote. I played ten ragtime pieces in
my practice session and had a great time doing it. I am not sure
why I am able to play ragtime pieces without much difficulty but
it felt really good not to struggle through a sight-reading
session.
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Monday, July 6th, 2020
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I sight-read a book of ragtime today which made my session go by
quickly. Ragtime is fun for me to play and I do not have too much
of a problem playing bass notes and chords that are all over the
keyboard. I think tomorrow I will continue to sight-read the same
king of music since there are many books online to go through.
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2020
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I am not going to focus on the sight reading aspect of my
practicing today because it seems like that has been the focus of
my last journal entries. Instead I want to focus on my new goal of
memorizing Chopin's Polonaise Op. 40 No. 2. For me, memorization
is one of the last steps before I feel comfortable enough to
perform my piece in front of a crowd. I was playing this Polonaise
from front to back, and while reading the music I remembered I get
flustered reading sheet music in front of crowds. I only have my
sheet music up in front of a crowd if I am completely satisfied
with the level I can play my piece at. So far I can play most of
the first page and the top of the second page without looking at
the music. I can also play a little bit of the third page.
Memorization comes quick to me so I anticipate I will have it done
by next week.
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2020
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I began my sight-reading session today by playing the Russian
music I found a couple of days ago. I switched from the
impressionist Russian music to the contemporary sheet music
because the former did not excite me much. Today's music was
difficult for me since it had a lot of cadenzas and triplets
against eighth notes, but I was able to get some practice working
with note timing. I usually do not get much practice with timing
because a lot of my sight-reading music is simple with 4/4 time
and notes that line up vertically, so that was a nice inclusion.