Tammy's Practice Diary
Hi Everyone!
Thanks so much for setting this up, Dominic and Hilda. It really helps with the motivation! Here is my current practicing hot list. I categorized them into different buckets as I like flitting between different things; I find that the the variety helps.
[updated March 14, 2022]
PERFORM IN APRIL
- Selected movements from Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals
POLISH TO BE ABLE TO PERFORM IN MAY:
- Grieg Piano Concerto, entire first movement
- Rameau: Gavotte et Six Doubles (nail contrasts in the repeats)
- Chopin: Mazurka in A minor opus 17 no. 4
LEARN SOME NEW THINGS:
- Finish the Rach 2 first movement, back half (worked on the first half in a summer program last year)
- OR Stephen Hough's My Favorite Things (maybe? v. cool piece)
- OR Relearn Kapustin's Concert Etude 1 or 6 (learned these 2-3 years ago, not sure what condition they're in today... probably in a terrible state, I found these pieces surprisingly hard when learning them in 2019 and 2020)
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GRIEG STATUS AND PRACTICE VIDEO: JAN 7, 2022
(1) Animato Passage: Need to clean it up, and urrrrgh need to land the chromatic thirds. I get stuck halfway.
(2) Cadenza and Finale — the cadenza is sounding somewhat decent I think. Need to make the melodic line of the tremolo part build more and sound less bumpy; am still messing up the notes in the low growly LH roar; and need to secure the big final octave passage.
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Tammy Brava!
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Tammy Can't wait to hear your progress with this. It is already a solid beginning and the sound is definitely a powerful one for this massive cadenza. Brava!
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Tammy Great video! Will be interesting to follow your progress. It's seems that you have very clear idea of what to work on, and it's already very good. Well done!
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Sindre Skarelven Thanks, Sindre! I feel I’m at the stage where I can play it, but not cleanly, consistently. I find this refinement part the hardest to keep at without losing interest or moving on to other things. Learning a brand new pieces is always more fun as I can see the results more quickly and more obviously. Refining is a different case — I find it takes twice the time for less obvious results!
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Tammy So true, absolutely agree!
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Tammy, I love this video. I love it because you let listeners into your head with your playing AND comments. It’s exactly what a practice video should sound like in my way thinking. Thank you for this!
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Monika Tusnady Thanks Monika! Interestingly, I found it quite helpful to say things out loud while making the video — just the act of acknowledging “ok this part is messy/not secure” helped to narrow my focus on the few most important areas I need to practice. (As opposed to trying to tackle everything all at once, which is so daunting!)
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It's so interesting to watch someone who is actually playing the piece, and self commentary at the same time. Thanks for sharing.
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I simply love your commentary! I would have the same technical challenges with this, so you are doing beautifully.
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Weekly update - Have not practiced much since last week’s video!
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Week of Feb 7: Have been traveling and not practised at all in the last 3 weeks, eeks! But getting back on the wagon now …
- Just started the first page of Stephen Hough’s My Favourite Things. Love it so much!
- Am finding refining the other pieces (Grieg concerto, Rameau’s Gavotte & Variations) a bit of a drag … this is always the hardest part with practising. I love learning new pieces but struggle with the refining stage. -
Did some musical tinkering with the Chopin A minor Mazurka opus 17/4, here is the state of play.
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Tammy beautiful
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Andrea Buckland Thank you! Working on the niggles…
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Tammy LOVE!!!
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I spent the last 2 weeks learning three movements from Saint-Saëns’ CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS. Here is the Royal March of the Lions, where I am accompanied by Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic (hehe!). I'm not always in time with them...
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Tammy Wonderful!
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