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Friday, July 15th, 2022
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Today was the first time in a long time I have had time to
practice. I went to my parents house which has the piano I grew up
playing. I was able to practice my ragtime pieces such as
Swipesee, The Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer, and Elite
Syncopations before the neighbor started complaining.
Unfortunately I was only able to practice about half an hour but I
feel this is a good start for me to get back into a practice
habit.
Swipesee was the more difficult piece to practice only
because I have not played it in a while outside of the retirement
homes. Usually when I go to the homes I omit the repeats, but when
I practice I pretend there are infinite repeats for the sections I
have problems with. That is not really a secret of piano practice,
repeating trouble sections, but sometimes people forget and just
practice their pieces from start to finish and try to play the
complete piece many times in a row. Swipesee is not a difficult
rag so much in itself, but when you have not practiced in a while,
it is still easy to get rusty.
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Monday, July 18th, 2022
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I rearranged my living room today to make my practice keyboard more accessible and I am looking forward for the opportunity to practice more so I am able to be more confident performing.
Today I only practiced for twenty minutes before my back started to hurt, so I took a break to update this website. However, before I stopped, I was able to practice all my ragtime pieces and include a new one, "Elite Syncopations." I have been practicing Elite Syncopations on and off for three months now even though it should have only taken me two to three weeks to learn. It is not particularly difficult and it is fun to play so the learning process is enjoyable.
The section I need the most improvement with is the second section of The Maple Leaf Rag. Even if I am performing it I can get stuck playing it and then my fingers trip over each other, leading to me skipping it and moving onto the third section. I practiced it about seven or eight times before I was comfortable with it, and then I moved onto "Swipesee."
"Swipesee" came easy to me but I had to repeat the third section five or six times before I was comfortable moving on to "Elite Syncopations." I only practiced Elite Syncopations for ten minutes before my back started hurting so I stepped away from the keyboard to lay on the couch with my laptop.
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Tuesday, July 19th, 2022
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I practiced the same pieces I practiced yesterday in
the same fashion. I have become more confident with "Elite
Syncopations" and am playing the entire piece quicker than
yesterday. It makes me wonder if I knew how to play the piece
before and just forgot I knew how. Besides that, my practice
session was similar to yesterday's except I practiced twice as
long before my back started to give me troubles. I think next
session I will wear my back brace so I can play twice as long as
before.
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Thursday, July 21th, 2022
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I only had practiced for a short time today since I did not wear
my back brace but it was still enough time to prepare for my
retirement home performance at Vista del Monte later today. I
focused on my ragtime pieces and also reviewed my Polonaises by
Chopin such as Op. 26 No. 1. I was able to play them confidently
which is what is most important to me when I perform.