Offline

Due to lack of interest and too many things going on in my personal life right now, I am not going to make any more efforts on this project for the time-being.  That doesn't mean I quit.  I'm just taking an extended break.  I will continue to play and learn, but not on any track that I had previously laid-out.  I want to continue, but I just don't have the time to dedicate to this at the moment.  So long...for now.

Day 203: Mozart, Mozart, Mozart

I have been playing with compositions by Mozart for the past couple of weeks.  Looks like in addition to the Sonata for two pianos I am going to pick up Rondo Alla Turca as well.  Maybe one more piece before I'm done.  At some point, I will return to my original plan, but this is the course I find myself on at the moment.  With a new job starting soon, I will probably mainly update Twitter with only once a week updates on the blog.  We'll see.  Thanks for sticking with me!  I will post completion videos to Youtube and even announce when public performances will occur, so stay tuned!

Day 181: Coming Back...

In and out of a funk and then being busy looking for a job has not left much time for this project in the past 44 days or so.  I have sat down and found that a lot of what I re-committed to memory is fading.  Well, duh, when one doesn't practice, one loses what he/she learns.  I seem to be mostly fine with the music in front of me, though, so I may not be so hard-over on committing pieces to memory any longer. Also, I may go ahead and go off on a tangent here and work on some four-handed pieces (Mozart) with a friend and maybe even some eight-handed hymnal arrangements.  We'll see.  Anyway, I should be returning here soon.  I need to get back to Clair de lune.  Just don't expect me to re-commit it to memory at this point.  If I can sight-read it, I will do that.  If I decide that I still want to proceed with a recital next year, I will re-commit it to memory.

Day 137: Sight Reading Improvements

I have, in general, improved my sight reading skills over the past ten years or so.  Now I am working on improving them even more by working through not only the ragtime pieces I picked to learn, but just playing through the right hand of other pieces as well in my big book of ragtime.  At this point, I am going to spend a lot more time on sight reading.  I am unsure when I will return to Debussy. It will probably be later this summer.  Updates will be few and far between for the blog and the Twitter.  Being able to sit down and sight read for 10-20 minutes here and there throughout each day lends itself more to my schedule at the moment over a rigid hour or more dedicated practice to a technically and musically difficult piece of music such as Clair de lune.

Day 132: Clair de lune Going On Hold

I'm stopping the clock here on day 132 out of 150 and spending time on something else for a little while.  Quite simply, Clair de lune requires a lot more time and effort than I am able to put into it at the moment. I will pick up with 18 days left in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, I am going to focus on some ragtime.  Yes, I'm changing up the game plan slightly.  I had intended to finish the five pieces I set out to relearn in no more than 150 days and then I was going to move on to additional pieces by each composer.  I was going to start with Grieg and move on from there, but now I have decided I want to go ahead and learn the additional Joplin pieces.  I do not know how long this will take me.  I will not focus on committing the new pieces to memory.  That will be a secondary product of what I do beyond the five pieces in the original course of re-learning.

I feel I have to take myself off of Clair de lune also because I am getting generally discouraged by just about everything in life right now.  Having something so difficult to do during what is supposed to be an enjoyable time of my day just does not help.  Don't worry, I will be re-learning Clair de lune.  It is, after all, one of my most favorite piano pieces.

So, now I am cracking the big book of ragtime open to the two Joplin pieces I planned on learning at a later date. Wish me luck!

Day 128: Easing Back Into Things

Depression always has bad timing, doesn't it?  I am pulling myself out of the funk I have been in and getting back to practicing.  I have completely blown the extra time I gained by finishing other pieces early.  I have 22 days left of the original goal time to finish Clair de lune. It will be tough, but I am still going to try to finish within the time I allotted for myself.  I have decided during my downtime and a lot of listening to ragtime that after I learn my additional "new" pieces by Grieg, Joplin, and Debussy, that I will devote myself to the ragtime genre.  It is too much fun and very rich.  Everyone enjoys hearing ragtime on the piano.

Enough of my future plans, though.  For right now I am easing back into Clair de lune. And by easing, I mean I only practiced a handful of measures this morning (about five).  I am going to take it slow for a couple of days so I don't get discouraged as I make myself get back into a routine.  This will definitely not help with the schedule I set out, but I think I may still be able to complete Clair de lune ahead of schedule.  We shall see!  Thank you for sticking with me during my bit of a break.  I wish I had more encouragement to soldier on.  That always helps!

Day 123: Coming Back Soon

As promised, the clock is still ticking even though I have not been practicing for the past three weeks or so.  I am still in a funk from being unemployed for so long and so other factors, but I think I am at a point now where I can force myself to get back into practicing every day.  I absolutely have not touched the keyboard during this time.  I tried playing a couple of days ago and noticed a bit of degradation in some of my re-learned pieces.  This is something I will address after finishing Maple Leaf Rag and Clair de lune. So, stay tuned because I am getting back into the saddle in the next couple of days.  I think this will help me get out of the funk I am in (coupled with some other upward trending events in my life).  Thank you for sticking with me!