Peter's Practice Diary (Beginner level)

I am posting here as a way to track if I am learning anything at all. But I do enjoy trying to play (beginner level - sort of). The music that I really like to listen to for many decades, is largely out of my reach for playing -but I do try them neverthless. :-) 

14 replies

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    • Peter_William
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Here is me trying to play .. Bach's Prelude in C.. 

    https://youtu.be/lnz_aCNz0EM

    • Peter_William
    • 3 wk ago
    • Reported - view

    Saw  playing Bach's C Minor Prelude. Had never heard it before. Found Maestro Magdalena Stern's class on this and watched it a couple of times. So after about 10 readings the past few days, here is my try..

    https://youtu.be/JmRQfy4FZJ8

    • Peter_William
    • 11 days ago
    • Reported - view

       

    Here is the most challenging piece in score for me  (Beginner level TB)

    Beethoven Sonata 7 in Dmaj ( aka Op 10 3 ) Second movement - pages 1 and 2 .. This is a first pass recorded on my iPad - no edits - all the raw stuff.. Please comment and hack it.. I will be practising this for several months or may drop it if I can't post a better version in  2 weeks.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCf8PBLoDyA

    • Peter_William
    • 4 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Just a little note on piano practice at home. Still beginner .. will be so for the foreseable future. :-)

    I asked myself the question. How can I improve my technique just a little bit from watching a great teacher?

    So went to look at the past livestreams here at TB. And found an absolute marvel of a livestream! (I had been trying to learn to play some Mozart for a while - the very slow way!! and playing rather atrociously -no harm done -no one else is listening.. lol!.)

    This livestream was done by Jared Dunn - the fabulous maestro. 

    "Problem-solving Mozart's passagework and fingering with Jarred Dunn" Dec 4, 2024"

    https://piano-community.tonebase.co/t/60yz7y6/problem-solving-mozarts-passagework-and-fingering-with-jarred-dunn

    It is an hour long session but my prescription for myself is to watch this and practice the examples shown at least 10 hours!

    There are so many examples that Jared has masterfully explained with precise fingering and demonstrations of actual hand movement- the importance of arm rotation and not lifting the fingers too high - I find it invaluable. I will be here on this page maybe 10 times just to get the essence of those passages. Luckily for me I had been playing the k545 ( C Major sonata - called "facile' ( easy in French ) but it is so far from easy as the Moon is to the Earth!.. lol! ) the third movement for a while so I knew exactly what notes were being played as the score was displayed. ! 

     

    And yes on the playing scales earlier this week. I tried bumping up the tempo to 120bpm 4notes to a tick - 4 octaves - hands separate on C major. My hand started to experience discomfort - the technique needs to be correct - So stopped it again.. More arm strengthening exercises ( being a tennis coach-helps identify issues immediately) . 

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

      Hi  . Regarding scales, C major is actually one of the more challenging scales. Try B major (my personal favorite), C# major, F# major, or E major - they fit under the hand much better. And don't worry so much about speed. It is better to get the fingering and the feeling of arm weight into the brain before going for speed. My (shorter) scale routine until recently was one octave hands together at 4-8 seconds per note, feeling the weight into the keys and moving smoothly with the arm; two octaves at a quicker tempo (perhaps 60 to the quarter note, playing quarter notes), the speed dictated by evenness and ease of fingering; then two or four octaves at double that speed - my teacher says there's no reason to move to four octaves until two octaves is steady and consistent playing eighth notes with a tempo of about 80 to the quarter. And each scale will probably be in a different place of ease and speed. I had a hand injury last year (non-piano related), which has only recently mostly-fully healed, so my scale journey was interrupted. I had been doing all major and minor scales, four octaves, plus arpeggios, at a fairly decent speed - now I'm back to playing scales regularly, re-learning some of the minor scales, and finally practicing arpeggios again!

      I also used the Hanon-Faber book (https://pianoadventures.com/product/hanon-faber-the-new-virtuoso-pianist/) for technique, though this was done under my teacher's direction. Without direction, it is possible for these to become merely "finger exercises" which is not the purpose of the exercises in the book. There are videos of the exercises on YouTube, but I really didn't like them. And we didn't do all of them. We still refer back to them when learning repertoire.

      • Peter_William
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       ah yes ! Chopin started all his students with B major 😀fingers fit the keys just right on the 2 black , 3 black combinations .. 

      yes I have been practicing scales 4 octaves - C major - since I was playing Mozarts k545 at the time. I only do hands separate ..but have hit speed walls .around 108 bpm . 4 notes to a beat .. Am worried that there will be hand injuries if the technique is not right. At 120 bpm I definitely feel the stress and would not recommend anyone trying it without proper supervision. I saw a Jared Dunn livestream and he definitely says to use rotation lthe Taubman method .. Edna Golandsky has fabulous videos on technique .. which may be fail safe as far as hand stress is concerned ..

      At the moment I am not experiencing any stress and I did scales this morning for about 20 mins at fairly high speeds. I only use C maj, D maj and A maj - as my practice pieces are in those scales and now C# minor has to be included as well due to Chopin C# minor that I have started practicing. 
      I will post a video here of my scale practice in a day or two.

      by the way if you are interested let me know I have seen perhaps the most dazzling display of scales on the internet . This was the practice routine of a young wizard .. a one time student of Stephan Kovachevich .. I assume you know  who he is .. 😀

      • hot4euterpe
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

        

      Michelle makes a number of good suggestions. The suggestion to play slower scales with a focus on evenness and control in particular. Your tempo of 120 for the quarter and playing 16th notes is very fast for a beginner and the discomfort you mention is a warning from your body that you have excessive tension. It has nothing to do with a need to strengthen your arms.  
       

      Two octaves slowly and evenly. Slow is smooth and smooth is eventually fast. You can’t rush fluency but you can rush tendonitis!

      • Peter_William
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       yes I have dropped back to comfortable speeds around 108 bpm … and only do scales for 10 mins max .. I am really cautious about my hands .. 2 Decembers ago I asked Dominic and he said best to take a break .. as it may be due to high fingers ..but I don’t intend to increase speeds with the rotation and sideways elbow movement without proper supervision .. 

      • hot4euterpe
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       I mean, you can play scales at whatever tempo you like. It's just that you keep stressing that you are a beginner and that you are being cautious but your tempo choice just honestly does not align with that. Even a tempo of 108 as 16ths is quite fast. That is a tempo that would normally be required of late intermediate to early advanced players. Even intermediate players would be only be expected to demonstrate their scales at something like 60 as 16th notes.

      I am not quite sure what you mean by rotation in scales but I suspect you mean lateral movement of the wrist since you mentioned the elbow moving sideways. Rotation is typically a term associated with forearm movement that involves an alternating pattern or repeated note as a pivot. Regardless of the terminology though, one of the reasons to play slower is to monitor those exact type of movements. They are a key part of eventually playing quickly without tension!

      • Peter_William
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Well first of all thanks for the really nice insights that you have written above in para 1.

      So what was I thinking ?

      Well.. my pieces were K 545 and K414 of Mozart ( I like both a lot !) . In K 545.. there is very fast scale run starting on measure 5 - hence I started practicing scales a couple of years ago in December 2023 possibly ( don't be mislead by "beginner" .. I always feel there are gaps.. Tonebase puts my at level 5 - which I feel is inaccurate - (initally level 2 a few years ago - accurate ).. but this is just semantics).  A real teacher is most likely to say "maybe a very beginning intermediate level.. maybe " .  So scales C Maj. since K545 is in CMaj. and I wanted to get that section clean.. But as I watched videos and saw the tempo was really fast - nearly 130bpm to the sixteenth note.. I started practising in bumps of 12 , from 60,72,...but hit speed walls at 108bpm and could not get it together beyond that.  I stopped scale practice and just came back to scale very recently. Like you said - yes I know this pace is really really fast and may take music students 8 years of training to get there.. totally get that.. 

      So now mostly as soon as I see really fast tempo pieces in score I just happily turn the page.. There are lots of slow movements where one can spend time profitably focussing on accuracy,rhythm and then like you said go past the stage of just having tickets and start  appreciating dynamical variation, sound production and finally interpretation of whatever level. For e.g. I have played the second section in K 545 quite a bit .. :-). 

      On para 2.. I think I know about lateral movement for faster scales and "not to lift the fingers high" -got it from a great master on the internet. Maybe best to post the video of my scale practice - a 2 min video.. Rather than try to describe all the terrible things I am trying to do.. lol!

    • Sachi
    • 3 days ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Peter,  

    There are already great advocates here from Michelle and Dustin. May I add something I learned from Dominic? In case you aren’t familiar with this, I’ll paste a link below:  

    https://piano-community.tonebase.co/t/x2y64gd/group-1

    Dominic had a two-week intensive on Tonebase about two years ago. I still practice the scales he taught during that session. I feel it’s a powerful tool and helpful for improving my technique.  

      • Peter_William
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

       Thanks if I recall right I asked Dominic about the hand pain 2 Decembers ago.. he said to take a break ..it was most likely high fingers causing tension .. so I did stop and it went away .. There is a really nice class by Prof Biegel .. and Robert Durso.. you may find some useful techniques there as well .. I am cautious about my hand so don’t do scales for more than 10 mins and around 108bpm ..

      • Sachi
      • 3 days ago
      • Reported - view

      I will look into those, too. Thanks! 

       said:
      There is a really nice class by Prof Biegel .. and Robert Durso..
      • Peter_William
      • 2 days ago
      • Reported - view

        Hope you found these classes ? If not let me know.. will send the links.. There is another gem of a class.. too  :-). Will DM if I hear back.. Note to myself - spend very little time on the forum and attend all the classes as much as possible/go to practice .  :-)

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