Well, I still have some polishing up and just a handful of measures left on Maple Leaf Rag and it is going a little slower than I would like, so I am breaking away from it for a little bit to start up Clair de Lune. This is probably Debussy's most recognizable work and is oft requested from people who know I once played it. I am very excited about having this piece back in my repertoire!
I can play the first couple of pages of this piece still, but I am missing some notes (not hitting wrong notes, just missing all the notes in some chords). Not sure if I want to make and post a starting video for this one. We'll see. I will more than likely just start from the beginning in this piece. There will be lots and lots of musical notation to discuss on here in the coming days!!! At day 92 out of an 150 allotted for the five pieces I have or am relearning, I'm doing pretty well to be moving on to the last piece with only a bit of polishing to be done on Maple Leaf Rag. When I wrap up Clair de Lune, I do intend to perform a piece or two of what I've learned in a local church during worship. I will also be moving on to those other pieces I selected a few weeks ago (http://suzukibedamned.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-64-line-up-for-new-pieces.html). I don't expect these new pieces to take the rest of the year or so I have scheduled for my entire project, so at some point I will be selecting more pieces to learn (in addition to devoting more time to music theory since I DO finally have a textbook).
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Day 87: Ragtime Isn't Meant to Be Played Fast!
Scott Joplin once was quoted as saying: "Don't play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast." So true. So many people seem to forget the notation of a vast majority of ragtime pieces, or at least the pieces that Joplin wrote. Ragtime is often set at tempo di marcia. This is a marching tempo. You can't march to something going a mile a minute, can you? It is hard to control yourself with such exciting music and it can be really exciting to play fast, but it truly does not get played that way! And, I might add, it is quite a relief that a lot of ragtime isn't played quickly because it is already difficult enough at a marching pace!
I am down to the last ten or so measures of Maple Leaf Rag. I have a lot of work this week dealing with junk in my garage for a garage sale this coming weekend, but I still intend to get Maple Leaf Rag out of the way by the weekend. I truly enjoyed getting a lot of practice in on a 1970's Baldwin baby grand last weekend. The 70's were prime years for Baldwin and that baby grand is no exception! I should be able to get back into a good schedule of going to the local church and practicing a couple of times a week starting next week again. Thanks for sticking with me while I go through a bunch of breaks in practicing due to other commitments! Clair de lune is right around the corner and there is a lot of musical notation to talk about in that piece!!!!
Be on the look-out for a mini-biography on Scott Joplin soon!
I am down to the last ten or so measures of Maple Leaf Rag. I have a lot of work this week dealing with junk in my garage for a garage sale this coming weekend, but I still intend to get Maple Leaf Rag out of the way by the weekend. I truly enjoyed getting a lot of practice in on a 1970's Baldwin baby grand last weekend. The 70's were prime years for Baldwin and that baby grand is no exception! I should be able to get back into a good schedule of going to the local church and practicing a couple of times a week starting next week again. Thanks for sticking with me while I go through a bunch of breaks in practicing due to other commitments! Clair de lune is right around the corner and there is a lot of musical notation to talk about in that piece!!!!
Be on the look-out for a mini-biography on Scott Joplin soon!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Day 81: Some Review and Continuation of MLR
I have been busy busy busy cleaning out my garage the past couple of days, so I have limited a lot of my practice time to reviewing already re-learned pieces to help keep them fresh. This means I did not get to make my Golliwogg's video yet. Sorry! I have a feeling I will be posting the completion videos for Golliwogg's and MLR as well as the initial video for MLR all at the same time. Thank you for your patience!
I am working through measures 52 through 59 of Maple Leaf Rag hands separately right now. The piece is only 85 measures long, so I don't have far to go. Well, at least measure-wise, but I am having some difficulty with the key-change, so that plus my lack of practice time due to the spring cleaning has contributed to me not getting any farther than I already have this week. I will be travelling this weekend, but should have access to a good piano, which is a major plus.
I am working through measures 52 through 59 of Maple Leaf Rag hands separately right now. The piece is only 85 measures long, so I don't have far to go. Well, at least measure-wise, but I am having some difficulty with the key-change, so that plus my lack of practice time due to the spring cleaning has contributed to me not getting any farther than I already have this week. I will be travelling this weekend, but should have access to a good piano, which is a major plus.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Day 77: Simplified Versions of Songs
Re-learning Maple Leaf Rag has brought back the memory of hearing a simplified version of it a couple of years ago at a talent show. This is just plain wrong to me. If you cannot learn the original piece, you should not learn it at all. Learn pieces at your skill level. Learning is a "dumbed-down" version of a piece of music is akin to reading an abridged version of a great masterpiece such as a Shakespearean play or an epic novel by Dostoyevsky. Actually, I think it is worse than that. It is more like reading the Cliff's Notes. Yeah, you get the essence of the story, but you don't get the real meat of what is going on.
Scott Joplin is not easy. Lots of people play The Entertainer. There is a reason for that: It is one of his easier works to learn. Syncopated rhythms are difficult to master, but if you practice enough, you can get it down. The kids and adults you hear playing The Entertainer may not be playing it well, but at least they are usually playing the original version. Think I'm being too harsh? Think there is actually some good that comes out of these simplified versions of songs? I'd love to hear from you!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Day 76: Music Theory!
I apologize for slacking a bit for the past few days. I have been busy with some to-do items around my house and around my mother-in-law's house, plus I have been back into cooking every meal and spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen this past week making some very good food. My focus is back, however, and I got down to practicing some yesterday and got some great practice in this morning as well.
I finally received my music theory book this week. I bought Tonal Harmony, fourth edition, by Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne. Remember, I explained that my music theory knowledge is kind of like swiss cheese? I obviously know more than enough to play music properly, but I don't know some things that I consider basic knowledge. For instance, I can figure out scales on my own because I know if they sound right or not. I do not know the names of the scales, though, and am not familiar with a popular memory aid known as the circle of fifths. Know that I know the names of scales, though, I can relay to you that a piece that has four flats in the register is in fact A♭ major. Yay! I feel smarter already!
So, the only real notations of importance in Maple Leaf Rag are:
I finally received my music theory book this week. I bought Tonal Harmony, fourth edition, by Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne. Remember, I explained that my music theory knowledge is kind of like swiss cheese? I obviously know more than enough to play music properly, but I don't know some things that I consider basic knowledge. For instance, I can figure out scales on my own because I know if they sound right or not. I do not know the names of the scales, though, and am not familiar with a popular memory aid known as the circle of fifths. Know that I know the names of scales, though, I can relay to you that a piece that has four flats in the register is in fact A♭ major. Yay! I feel smarter already!
So, the only real notations of importance in Maple Leaf Rag are:
The tempo here is a march. This should not be played too quickly. Also note that the time is 2/4 time, where there are two beats to a measure and a quarter note gets one count (or beat). Four flats in the register means this part of the piece is in A♭ major.
This last bit of the piece is marked with a key change from A♭ major to D♭ major (see the extra flat?). I'm not sure what "Trio" means other than this is the third part of the piece and it is a bit different. I'm just guessing here, though. Anyone care to chime in?
Monday, April 4, 2011
Day 71: Ragtime!
I tried making a recording of Golliwogg's Cakewalk on Saturday, but it isn't quite polished enough for my taste to post a recording. Expect to see it posted to Youtube this week, though.
I moved right along into Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin today. This piece is comprised of 85 measures, of which the first 17 are still solidly in my memory. The piece is essentially broken down into four parts, each of which repeat themselves. There is a brief return to the initial measures of the piece after the second section ends, as a bridge to the third and fourth sections. There isn't a whole lot to talk about with musical notation in this piece, but I still plan on posting a bit of a discussion about that tomorrow. Ragtime is probably my favorite product of American music. It was popular in this country and around the world over a hundred years ago and has seen a couple of periods of revival, most notably in the 70's (remember the movie, The Sting?).
I focused right in on measures 19 through 23 today. I'm taking it a bit slower because I absolutely remember nothing about a majority of this piece, so it is almost like learning from scratch. Don't ever discount ragtime for a simple genre for the pieces are deceptively complex on a technical level, although not necessarily on a musical level.
I moved right along into Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin today. This piece is comprised of 85 measures, of which the first 17 are still solidly in my memory. The piece is essentially broken down into four parts, each of which repeat themselves. There is a brief return to the initial measures of the piece after the second section ends, as a bridge to the third and fourth sections. There isn't a whole lot to talk about with musical notation in this piece, but I still plan on posting a bit of a discussion about that tomorrow. Ragtime is probably my favorite product of American music. It was popular in this country and around the world over a hundred years ago and has seen a couple of periods of revival, most notably in the 70's (remember the movie, The Sting?).
I focused right in on measures 19 through 23 today. I'm taking it a bit slower because I absolutely remember nothing about a majority of this piece, so it is almost like learning from scratch. Don't ever discount ragtime for a simple genre for the pieces are deceptively complex on a technical level, although not necessarily on a musical level.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Day 69: FB Public Page
A select few of you are members of my private Facebook page and know who I actually am. I started a new FB profile with my alter-ego, Edvard Claude Scott, a little over a month ago and have been steadily adding mostly music professionals to my "friends" in an effort to get more attention on my blog and tweets. I am now ready to create a public Suzuki Be Damned FB page to hopefully gain even more visibility. I would advertise on FB, but I don't exactly have the cash right now.
Enough about the FB, after a couple of down days from not feeling so hot, I am back today. I will hopefully get the chance to make and post a Golliwogg's Cakewalk completion video today. If not today, it will happen during the week next week. Regardless of when that happens, I will be starting in on Maple Leaf Rag tomorrow! So, if I took the full 30 days for each piece, I would only be about nine days in on Golliwogg at the moment, but find myself moving on to ragtime! I'm not going to get too excited, though, because I will need all the extra time I have gained to re-learn Clair de Lune for sure.
Enough about the FB, after a couple of down days from not feeling so hot, I am back today. I will hopefully get the chance to make and post a Golliwogg's Cakewalk completion video today. If not today, it will happen during the week next week. Regardless of when that happens, I will be starting in on Maple Leaf Rag tomorrow! So, if I took the full 30 days for each piece, I would only be about nine days in on Golliwogg at the moment, but find myself moving on to ragtime! I'm not going to get too excited, though, because I will need all the extra time I have gained to re-learn Clair de Lune for sure.
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