Michelle's Diary of a Beginning Pianist

Welcome to my practice diary.

Many, many years ago (approximately 35!) I played Double Bass, so while I am not new to music I am new to piano. I decided to get "serious" about learning to play in October/November of 2022, learning on my own at first. 

 

I'm editing this in December of 2023. It's been an interesting year - I took my first piano lesson in January, which resulted in an injury and what ended up being about 3 months away from the instrument (after I realized I shouldn't be playing at all). I wasn't sure I would be able to play again, so I deleted all videos that I had made previously. In May, my son needed to switch teachers again as the teacher he had started working with in January just did not work out. So I began to consider re-starting my own journey of piano adventures. My son and I both have the same teacher, now, and I am beginning to feel more confident and am thoroughly enjoying learning not only how to play the piano, but lots of other fun musical stuff. We sing solfege, too (I may or may not post videos of this!), which I have found to enrich my personal enjoyment of listening to music - and I've always loved to sing, even if my voice isn't so wonderful.

Comments are welcome - I look forward to seeing everyone in the various challenges and community concerts!

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    • Michelle R
    • Michelle_Russell
    • 2 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    Working with an injury to the fifth finger, one can come up with some slightly creative fingering which still works (for some pieces). Here is the Mozart K-3, "Allegro" which I have been working on.

    https://youtu.be/PnVKyvNqpt0

    Reply Like
    • Michelle R
    • Michelle_Russell
    • 9 days ago
    • Reported - view

    It's been a couple of months since last I posted, and I've continued on my counterpoint journey having now learned all four species and the accompanying rules. I've just now begun working on "mixed value" counterpoint (or fifth species), which incorporates all four species. In this exercise, I've been given a cantus firmus above which I am to write - but as a bit of help I have been given five notes interspersed along the way as guideposts toward which I must find my way and then navigate between.

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    • Celebrate Rachmaninoff's Birthday Challenge!
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    • Preparing your pieces for Concert - A Checklist!
    • Mozart & Haydn - Music from the 18th Century! 🏰
    • Improvising Classically with George Ko!
    • The Music of France!
    • "Improve your Technique!" Month
    • February: Discovering Schubert Month
    • Bach in March
    • LONGTERM ONGOING - Bach's Goldberg Variations
    • tonebase Community Concert Challenge
    • Brahms Waltzes Challenge!
    • Beethoven Variations Community Challenge!
    • Tonebase Holiday Challenge!
    • Liszt's Soirées de Vienne Community Challenge!
    • Handel G-major Chaconne
    • Mentorships and Two-week Intensives
    • Improve your Trills with Leann Osterkamp!
    • TWI: Art of Pedal Technique in Piano Playing
    • TWI: Shaping Individual Interpretation with Piotr!
    • Two-Week Intensive: Exploring Robert Schumann
    • Improve both Hands in 2 weeks with Piotr and Elois
    • "Phrasing like a Singer" at the Piano
    • Improving your Lyricism (feat Chopin)
    • TWI: Improving your Scales!
    • Crash Course on Controlling your Dynamics!
    • Intensive Workshop: Compose your own Piano Piece!
    • TWI: What makes Schubert GREAT with Ben Laude
    • Improving your ability with the Left Pedal
    • Improve your Cantabile Playing with Dr. Garritson
    • Improve your Chopin Mazurkas with Jarred Dunn!
    • Narrative Musicianship w/ Konstantin Soukhovetski
    • Improvising a simple ABA Piece with Jeremy Siskind
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    • Improve your MOZART sonata with Orli Shaham!
    • Improving your Sightreading with Leann Osterkamp!
    • Improve your Chopin Etudes with Henry Kramer!
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