Week 2: First Steps
Week 2: First Steps
You’ve chosen your piece. Now the real work begins.
This week is all about getting into the music without worrying about perfection yet. First impressions matter. The way a piece feels under your hands, the sounds you’re drawn to, the passages that already feel natural (or completely confusing) are all part of the process.
This is the stage where pieces often feel the most fragile. Things are slow, uneven, and uncertain. That’s normal.
For this week, we’d love for you to share:
- Early practice clips
- First impressions of the piece
- Passages you’re struggling with
- Musical moments you already love
- Questions or discoveries from practice
A few ideas to focus on this week:
- Finding a comfortable tempo
- Experimenting with sound and tone
- Discovering patterns in the music
- Identifying one or two “problem spots”
- Practicing smaller sections instead of full run-throughs
Looking forward to hearing everyone’s first steps into the music.
122 replies
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This week, I practised the LH jumps, one hand only, to get more used to the movement patterns. I also did slow, staccato, metronomic practice on other tough passages outside of the Barcarolle. This was the biggest challenge for me — dividing my time between different priorities both including and outside of the Barcarolle!
Something interesting — I wasn't able to stay exactly on the metronomic beat 100% of the time, and did not realize how and where exactly until when I watched the video! It was hard to self-diagnose while playing.
Here are two short practice videos from this week.
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In Week 2, I was able to very roughly learn the notes/memorize until the coda. I also tried to polish week 1’s work. Here is a short video of m22-m39.
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I wasn’t able to record anything this week because I was still on call through Friday and then out of town for the entire weekend (just got home). I might try to record some of what I did this week in the upcoming week, in addition to next week’s task which I plan to record next Sunday.
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said:
The “noodling” at the end, especially the bit of self-conscious hesitation right at the beginning of it, made me laugh out loud. 🤣I knew you would🤣. I was wondering "what can I play that doesn't need that low F#?!"
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Dear all,
Here is my week 2 progress:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYfbPq3O2fY/?igsh=amQ2NzY4cm5kMnpk
Best wishes,
Aaron
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This week, I practiced without using the pedal as much as possible so that I could really listen to my own sound.
I recorded myself for the first time, and it made me realize that I am still just moving my fingers rather than truly making music.
For the third week, I hope to continue practicing carefully while gradually increasing the tempo.
I’m sorry for the distracting clicking noise in the recording. It is caused by a silent system that was installed later on my YAMAHA long time ago. The system has not been working properly, and I am currently considering having it removed.