Group 3

Hello everyone, I am in recovery.  I fell off a ladder in the garden about two weeks ago.  It was close to a wall and I broke my fall with my left hand, which resulted in my index and middle fingers being out of action because they were twice as wide as usual!  A week later, I managed to damage the same hand hitching up the trailer to my car. 

My right hand is also bruised - gardening again a week later and then I fell over a side table in the living room a couple of days ago.  The damage to my left foot looks worse than it feels - more bruising.

It has not stopped me from practising, although it has impacted how and what I have been able to practise.

I have been working on Standchen, both the Schubert in C minor and the Liszt/Schubert in D minor.  We learned in one of the TB sessions that pianos in the olden days often had knee pedals, one for the bass and the other for the treble, which would explain how the bass notes could be sustained with the left knee pedal, while the treble is staccato.

I am using all three pedals to attempt to replicate this articulation.  The sostenuto pedal for the bass note, the left pedal for the pp, and the right pedal fluttered on the staccato treble notes (the score indicates this), although I like them dry, so only two pedals may prevail.

Dominic has asked elsewhere whether we like Jazz and do we improvise.  The answer is yes to both from me, albeit not at an advanced level.  This came from a combination of George Ko (classical improviser), Jeremy Siskind on jazz improvisation, and Dr Antonella Di Giulio' s teaching on the Gallant style and that Mozart wrote a dice game made up of a sequence of notes to be played at each throw of the dice.  The latter shows that improvisation is a process of delivering learned material.  

This came from the then teaching methodology that all music students learned to improvise - think of Bach and his pupils, including his sons, and the Preludes and Fugues. 

This takes me to the point of this diversion, which is that I have a block about playing from memory, which comes from relying on the score, and going back to the score in frustration at how long it takes to memorise.  I then worked out that it's not about the memory but about not understanding the direction of travel in the music.  Therefore, I am working in Jazz on 'turnarounds', starting with ii, V, I, then added vi, and then longer turnaround chord sequences.  This is without a score, which means I am working on smaller sections of music but that have been 'memorised', i.e, I am establishing my preferred chord transitions from within the diatonic harmony.

I returned to the piano just over two years ago.  I made a personal decision to record and post every six months to track my progress, which means that this TWI will coincide my plan for posting my progress.

I shall post the left pedal in use on at least one of the above: Schubert; Lizst/Schubert; or, diatonic improvisation.

I'll leave the associated issues of recording audio and video for another day!

Have a good day in the USA, and a good evening/afternoon in other time zones!