WEEK 2: What we've experienced!!!

The "big" piece that I learned this year was actually 3 pieces - the three preludes by George Gershwin. I took these on with the intention of performing them as a set in a couple of live recitals in September - which I did. I also played them in one of the Tonebase recital/concert events live via zoom.

It took me about 9 months to learn all three. Of course, I was playing a lot of other music at the same time. I spent several months learning them one at a time, starting with 2, then 1, then 3. Then I let them rest for about a month, and picked them all up at the same time, memorizing them as I went along. I played them separately for 2 local piano groups that I belong to, and then started playing 2 at time, and finally all 3 at once.

I watched the Tonebase lesson on the preludes by Peter Dugan and got lots of great ideas from him. I also took an in-person masterclass from a local college professor. Other than that I was on my own - I have had about 10 years of lessons, so I am not totally without resources.

Here are my comments on learning the individual preludes:

Prelude 1: I had the eighth note pulse going in my head the whole time. My tempo is not very fast, but hopefully convincing enough. The rhythm is important, as are the accents. The difficult measures for me were 24 and 29. I blocked the chords, and just played the chords. Then changed the rhythms. Then tried identifying the white key and black key patterns. Eventually I got to where I could play the right notes most of the time! The scales in 43 and 45 were hard for me too. For a month they would work perfectly, and then my old hands would just refuse to play them - so I quit worrying about them. The 2 handed scale at 61 was less difficult, but still hard to play under pressure. I changed the fingering to match the Ab major scale in both hands, except I started the LH on 4 - worked for me.

Prelude 2: The hardest to memorize - Did he really have to use 6 sharps in the middle? I differed from the Tonebase lesson in the middle section - the traditional way to play this is to cross hands and play the bass melody in the RH. I have spent so much time over the years learning to play a melody line in my LH that I thought crossing hands was awkward and a waste of time, so I did not cross hands and played the melody in the LH.

Prelude 3: Once again rhythm is important, and I had to play it under tempo.The octave stuff from 51 to the end was beyond my skill to play fast, so I did the best I could with what I had!

Anyway, here is the recording I made just before the big recital. Thanks for taking the time to read and listen! - Sam

Here is the piece I am just finishing up: "By the Seaside" by Jean Louis Gobbaerts (or Streabbog - he spelled his name backwards sometimes for some reason....). This is the piece in which I began learning how to use pedal. The challenge was connecting the sound from left hand to right hand and to keep the flow going from beginning to end. I did a fair bit of slow practice, listening to the change in sound from left to right and recording often until I was satisfied that the seam between left hand and right hand wasn't too noticeable. I want to increase tempo just a little bit, still, and find/express some more dynamic variety, but all in all, I'm happy and satisfied with the final product in the video below. Yay!