Another weekly piano update

It’s the end of another week so time for another update.

I spent a total of 12 hours and 11 minutes at the piano last week. I wish it was more! It’s quite frustrating at the moment as I’m doing more complicated pieces that need more time each day. Currently, I practice an hour a day during the week, 15 minutes per piece. But it’s taking 5 – 10 minutes to read through a couple of my pieces the first time, leaving not much time for anything else.

I always like to do a full read-through during a practice session, then turn my attention to a particular section as I find that helps me able to play the piece fully. It allows me to practice the parts I’ve already visited and get an idea of what’s to come for those less familiar sections.

Friedrich Kuhlau – Allegro

I finished this and recorded it! The scales aren’t perfect – especially the left-hand ones mid-way through the piece. I could sometimes play them and other times not and they were a bit sloppy in my final recording. I’ll get it posted to YouTube soon but I’m glad to be done with this piece.

Je te laisserai de mots – Patrick Watson

I finished this piece, also. I spent longer on it than I had hoped to but it’s recorded now!

Christian Hartmann – Nocturne

I’ve managed to speed this up over the past week. The beginning is coming together now but the second half still feels uncomfortable to play. I’m hoping it will click together this week.

Felix Mendelssohn – Venetianisches Gondellied

The fingering in this piece is giving me a bit of trouble because my hands aren’t big enough to reach all chords, but I’m hoping with practice it will become more natural. It will take me a while to get this song into a good state.

Allegro from Sonata in E-flat K.282 – Mozart

I started this new grade 6 piece and WOW it’s hard. There are lots of trills in it also which will take a while for me to sort out. It’s 4 pages long and it’s so much harder than the Kuhlau piece. It will keep me busy for a while but I want to get more Mozart under my belt.

Moonbeams – Barbara Arens

This is a new grade 4 piece I started. It’s a pretty song and I wanted to do something easy. I could play it pretty well straight away so I just need to polish up and then record hopefully next weekend! I love doing easier pieces for a bit of satisfaction of being able to play them quickly.

So that’s the update.

I was going to start a grade 7 piece but decided to do the grade 6 Mozart instead. My goal was to be playing grade 7 by July so there’s no need to rush. I don’t think I’m ready yet so happy to explore a couple more grade 6 pieces before moving up to the next challenge.