Week 3: Keep the Momentum

By now, the challenge is getting real!

You’ve chosen your piece, spent time with it, and hopefully started to hear it take shape. But this is also the point where things can get hard. The easy excitement of beginning fades a little, and you’re left with the more important part: staying with it.

 

That’s what Week 3 is about.

Not perfection. Not having everything solved. Just continuing, even when the going gets tough.

 

Maybe you’ve hit a section that still won’t settle. Maybe progress feels slower than you hoped. Maybe you’re realizing how much more there is to do. That’s normal. In fact, it’s part of the process. This is often the exact moment when real growth happens, if you just keep showing up!

 

This week, the goal is simple: keep the moving forward!

Even a small step matters:

  • one passage a little steadier
  • one phrase a little freer
  • one practice session where you stayed patient
  • one moment where the music started to sound as you like

That is momentum.

This week, share where you are right now:

  • a short clip from your practice
  • a passage that’s improving
  • a place where you’re still stuck
  • or a few thoughts on what it’s been like to stay with the piece

And if you need, share what might be frustrating you, too.

We are all in this together.

 

Week 4 will be about recording. This week is about building the resilience to get there.

Keep going. Stay with it. You may be closer than you think.

137 replies

null
    • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
    • Michelle_Russell
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Week 3.2: measures 23-29 have proven to be quite challenging for me to stitch together. And on Friday I strained my back working, so I haven't had as much time at the piano as I would have liked. But, there is some improvement on this section. I hope to be able to put a recording of the entire piece together this week before we head to Alabama to take care of some family matters. 

    https://youtu.be/pY4nbxbaiuw

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 4 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks so much, Sindre. My back is almost back to normal, and I've been super happy to be back at the piano!! 

    • Aaron.2
    • 5 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Dear all,

    My update for this week: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYxji1MRDko/?igsh=MXF0eHRvcmN5b3Bwbg==

    I need to practise with hands separate.

    Best wishes,

    Aaron

      • Ken_Radford
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I would love to see your progress but I don’t have an Instagram account. 

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 5 days ago
      • Reported - view

      super classy and elegant playing.

    • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
    • Michelle_Russell
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Today for the first time, I moved the metronome to quarter note rather than eighth note, and had a lot of challenges with that! I'm also thinking of my ultimate goal tempo-range, the range where it feels con moto. Here is a snippet of this piece played at what I think wll be an appropriate "final" tempo (not this week, but maybe in a month or so). What do you think?

    https://youtu.be/RVUje_kuOXo

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

      Posting my first full run-through of this week (including a verbal apology to Bach for misplaying a measure!). I'm hopeful to have time tomorrow to record again to post in the week 4 section. We leave on Friday to take care of some family responsibilities, so tomorrow will be my last opportunity to record for the challenge. It's not quite where I wanted it to be, but it has improved greatly over this month and is nearly 2/3 memorized. I am happy with it, and know that with a little more time it will come together well.

      https://youtu.be/pnySzPyUPHU

      • Ken_Radford
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Well done Michelle. Keep on keeping on! I have a picture of JSB on the wall of my piano room and he smiles patiently at me while I struggle to play his most basic pieces. I want to believe that he smiles more when I play variations of his wonderful Prelude in C Major in 5/4 and 7/4. 

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks, Ken. I have Beethoven and a young Martha Argerich looking over my shoulder as I play (you might be able to make them out on the mantle - another of Thurmond's talents: portraits!). We probably need one of JSB, too! 

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Unless I am mistaken, you have had a rotation of paintings (and Icons, unless I am mistaken) on the mantle. Did Thurmond paint all of the portraits, and does he paint landscapes/still life/abstract art/anything else?

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       We haven't had too many rotate lately, but anything drawn or painted is by Thurmond. Martha and Beethoven have been there for a while. The Icons do rotate, depending upon whether or not he has finished a new one. He just completed a 6-year Iconography Apprenticeship, so there are many Icons scattered throughout our home! He has generally focused on drawing portraits and paining Icons.

      • Peter_William
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       nice playing !.. is the metro set at 108 bpm to the quarter ? video 1 .. above..

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       thanks, Peter William. The metronome is set to 90 in the first recording. 

      • Peter_William
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       ok thanks!  I see. Heard the clicks on the first 4 secs and matched it  at 90 bpm - after watching again. The playing seems a bit faster though.. 

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       yeah, it's in 3/4 with sixteenth note figures in the right  hand, so it does sound faster. To stay with the metronome I have to say "takadimi" a few times before starting so I can feel the feeling of where the sixteenth notes are within the quarter note pulse. (Takadimi is a rhythm syllable system.) If you listen to the left hand, you'll hear a quarter note on the down-beat, and then two eighth notes on the third/final beat of each measure.

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I often set my metronome for eighth notes if I am playing a piece with many sixteenth/thirty-second notes or if I have to practice a piece under 40 BPM. 

      • Peter_William
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       ah yes! Interesting - I use my digital metronome -almost all the time- for anything new. But it being digital I can set it to accent the first beat - this tells me whether I am in 4/4, 3/4 or 6/8 ( on the Beethoven piece for example ) . .Then it allows me to seamlessly switch to quarter notes per tick or 16th per tick.. ( I hear tin-ta-ta-ta -for the 16th - but hear four ticks on each beat -really fast) and if it is set to just the quarter.. 1 tick for each quarter note. I must confess I didn't pay attention to the metronome on your recording the first time around -as I missed the first 4 seconds.. and there were no accented beats - rendering it impossible to determine the time signature :-)  But you have explained very well.. Thank you!

      • Mom, fitness instructor, lover of music
      • Michelle_Russell
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I do the same, but it's also good for me to feel the larger pulse and learn how to stay steady within it! 

       as you get more experience, you'll start hearing the time signature when you listen to pieces, at least in a general sense. If you listen to someone more experienced than I, you'll hear the rhythmic structure more clearly in this piece. I hope to eventually find my way to having it be felt/heard in one rather than three beats per measure. 

      For example, though I don't prefer his interpretation, Glenn Gould is at a tempo that allows me to feel this in one: https://youtu.be/M42Ktp5VQas?si=wVjubNmfw3P_zSku

      I do like this one: https://youtu.be/E54a_grgc5A?si=X6nkyCXzWcjOlzvt

      • Peter_William
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       ah yes! I have listened to Gould a lot !! heavenly.  I hear the accent on 1 (1e&a,2e&a,3e&a, ... repeat on & on) on Gould's playing. Thanks. 

      You may like Lifschitz playing the same piece here .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmJ0gv2xNUo&list=RDjmJ0gv2xNUo&start_radio=1

      Just peeked at the score for the first time ( never played it) and tried the first line also. It is quite nice to try. The notes seem all even if you include the left hand ( .. so flows very evenly..)

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I definitely do set it to quarter notes, but only above 40 because my metronome can't go that slowly. 

      • Akzent oder Diminuendo? • Hanon/Herz student
      • Maria_F
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

      another version of BWV 999:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD5H3bz_9KQ

      • Peter_William
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Angela Hewitt.. superb!

      • hot4euterpe
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I actually met Angela Hewitt a few years ago. She did a recital at a small venue where I live as well as a masterclass for several local students. I spoke with her a bit after the recital - she's quite wonderful, charming and kind. I got her to sign my copy of the two and three part inventions so I have street cred with my students haha!

      • Larry_K
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Ha, wonderful! 
      I saw her a number of times at her Bach series at the 92nd St Y in New York. She is charming and hosts her own music festival in Italy. 

      https://trasimenomusicfestival.com

      • Peter_William
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

       Absoultely wonderful that you met Angela Hewitt!  I have a list of world renowned pianists - whose concerts I will be happy to drive 50 miles to go and attend - taking a day off from work!.. lol!. A few years ago before I joined TB - Evgeny Kissin had come to Duke - 5 mins from where we are - and I missed it completely. Such a thing will not happen again.!

      • Peter_William
      • Yesterday
      • Reported - view

        My apologies I didn't realize and went searching on the web for this piece. There is a Prof. Magdalena Stern explaining this piece in great detail for 25 mins.. here on ToneBase ! itself.  I am going to start learning there this weekend.. Not sure if you had already seen this class. 

      https://app.tonebase.co/piano/courses/player/magdalena-stern-baczewska-teaches-intro-to-bach-3-little-prelude-in-c-minor-bwv-999?moduleSlug=magdalena-stern-baczewska-teaches-intro-to-bach-3-little-prelude-in-c-minor-bwv-999

Content aside

  • 4 Likes
  • 19 hrs agoLast active
  • 137Replies
  • 403Views
  • 25 Following