Some of Op. 10 heads towards concert-ready, or at least concert; some spots to fix in 10/4, 10/5, 10/8, 10/9, and 10/10, with a little bit of theory geekery in the latter.
A brief encounter with an out-of-tune Erard piano (and another piano). Warning: questionable sound quality! horrible intonation!
I played this after teaching Chopin, and playing the game “he could have written this, but he wrote this” (which forms the bulk of my improvisation training up to now).
01-30-13 after teaching Chopin
I played this after strangely enjoying scraping ice off my windshield during freezing rain. It was satisfying when it came off in big sheets.
Today it’s sunny and warm and yesterday’s cold feels like a hallucination.
I’d been listening to a lot of Sparks Nevada on the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast, so I was thinking of the Martian Wild West when I played this.
I started with a strong “I want” feel (I’m upset about a scheduling conflict for the summer–it’s a first world problem) and then played with moving to different keys, which I need to get better at. I tried to incorporate my mistakes, especially my hesitations, into the fabric of what I was doing.
I recorded this right after practicing Poulenc’s Sanglots, and you can hear it. I tried to really listen to the sound of the piano more than I had been, and kept my focus reasonably well. I had one magic moment where I heard the overtones from a low Db and brought in the F right above middle C to match them, but I wasn’t crazy about what I played afterwards; it felt cheesy. At the end, I couldn’t remember my original melody, so I just did some modal noodling (if I ever make an album of these, “modal noodling” might be the perfect title).
The first full episode of 2013! Realizations about 10/10 and (my playing of) 10/8. A New Year’s resolution, an explanation of those improvs, and the ten minutes of my practice that aren’t actually “practicing”.
Play It Again Swig 