Category: sightreading

20240914 Sightreading Log

Okay, I see the last time I updated this was 5 September. So I hope I haven’t missed too much here.

I started getting systematic about this. I now write the dates I have played a piece next to the sheet music I’ve been using. This week that’s mostly been Pianiste 142. I have to thank the French piano magazine for this because for issue 142, the included a Spécial Débutants, 20 pieces in progressing difficulty.

8 September 2024:

  • Daniel Gottlob Turk: Aller Anfang is schwer GD
  • Daniel Gottlob Turk: O geschwinder, geschwinder rund herum, wie die Kinder GD

9 September 2024

  • Daniel Gottlob Turk: Hansohne Sorgen GD
  • Daniel Gottlob Turk: Eye, popeya GD
  • Jakub Jan Ryba: 2 little inventions Moderato GD
  • Jakub Jan Rybe: 2 little inventions AndanteGD
  • Henry Purcell: Andante GD

11 September 2024

  • Johan Wilhelm Hassler: Menuetto Opus 38 GD
  • Felix Le Couppey Air Tendre [this felt familiar so not sure when I met it] GD
  • Jean Philippe Rameau Menuet en rondeau B
  • Georg Friedrich Handel: Gavotte B

12 September 2024

  • Robert Schumann: Petite piece B
  • Samuel Maykapar: Miniature opus 83 no 1 B
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Danse Allemande BI

14 September 2024

  • Robert Fuchs: le Fier Cavalier BI
  • Friedrich Burgmuller: Le Courant limpide (first part) BI

Total number for this week, apparently:

15.5

It’s not a bad haul for the week, let’s be fair. I liked the Burgmuller in particular so will finish that tomorrow and may move it to repertoire acquisition.

Of the pieces concerned, some were extremely easy for me. I want to say insultingly easy but I know there are a lot of adult beginners around and we all started somewhere. I’m not doing this because I am brilliant at sight reading either – I’m here because I am not. I want to be able to read intermediate pieces effectively and there are sometimes no magic bullets You have to read and practice. This is why I am doing so many pieces I consider to be easy.

The Pianiste Magazine tutorial channel is here.

Sight reading practice

I set up this idea of having a target of 40 odd pieces this year and I even made a list. But although I intended to put together the pages on my iPad to have them ready to read I never got around to it, and then I was highly occupied by the Grade 6 pieces. So it’s only recently that I started looking at The Problem this was supposed to solve, ie, not being confident enough with the sight reading.

The internet is full of quick fixes to sight reading Problems. Basically, I’d like to read fluently enough to play fluently a lot of pieces. I’ve mixed feelings – sometimes I think the reduced speed sight reading helps with the memorisation. But either way, needs must.

There were a few issues of Pianist and Pianist lying around near the piano and while I would not normally bother with beginner pieces I decided to start with those and see how far I got. What I’ve learned is that even for the easy/accessible to beginners pieces, the grading is not always consistent with the way I play. I find Beginner/Intermediate easier than Beginner sometimes.

This post is really for me to trap a list of what I’ve been doing for the last week or two. Nothing very deep.

So in no particular order other than the pile of magazines beside me here:

Pianiste (FR) No 146

  • Czerny Les Heures du Matin op 821, no 1 (GD)
  • Felix Le Couppey, Op 17/3, The Alphabet (GD)

Pianist 139

  • Antonio Fragoso Aria (I)
  • Melanie Spanwick Eastern Promise (B)
  • Christian Gottlob Neefe Minuet in F (B)
  • Theodor Oesten The Echo No 14 from May Flowers OP61 (BI)

Pianist 136

  • Felix Le Couppey No 17 from ABC du Piano [wonder if this is the same set as The Alphabet above]
  • Melanie Spanwick Mountain Stream (B)
  • Theodore Latour First movement from Sonatina No 1 in C (BI)

Pianist 137

  • Mel Bonis Raindrops OP 103 NO 9 (B)
  • Melanie Spanwick Glorious Day (B)
  • Charles Villiers Stanford (BI)

I think this exercise started about 10 days ago. Maybe a week. Not sure. Anyway, the abbreviations are GD Grand Debutant, B Beginner, BI Beginner/Intermediate. I see there are 12 pieces there already. At this rate, I could probably touch my 40 pieces target provided I do 10-12 a week.

It’s the start of September. I’m missing from the piano for about 5 weeks between here and Christmas.

20240824 Practice Diary

It’s been a while since I’ve been practising, sadly. When I got to Hamburg I had not played in about 3 weeks. But I am getting back there this week and what am I working on.

Liszt Consolation Number 2. This is a gorgeous piece of Accessible Liszt for which the left hand starts on a half between the first and second beat. It’s not a polyrhythm but I am finding it a bit counter intuitive. There are moments it comes right for me and I think god, how can I create something so beautiful, and then there are moments it does not.

Rameau Les Cyclopes. I love this and the first page of it is mostly a joy to work with. It’s not listenable (sorry to my Tonic stream audience) as a performance yet as there is a pesky arpeggio in it which must surely have been easier on a harpsichord. So this is very much the subject of slow practice and I need to start putting time in on metronome practice with arpeggios in general.

Repertoire: I keep practising three of the pieces I did for Grade 6 as they are appropriate for, inter alia, playing Steinways in piano stores. Those pieces were by Mendelssohn, Rebikov and CPE Bach. CPE Bach does not work most mornings for some reason and yet it’s the one I use to warm up mostly.

Sight reading: this week I took two pieces from the issue of Pianist sitting on my piano (well one of them =- I have two). It’s the August-September Edition and the two pieces were:

  • Aria by Antonio Fragoso. He was a young composer when he died – 1897 to 1918 so this is basically late Romanticish. It’s a pretty piece in Gminor which makes extensive use of the sustain pedal. Worth a look if you are looking for sightreading practice. Pianist marked it Intermediate
  • Eastern Promise by Melanie Spanswick. This is in A Minor with one or two rhythm tests in it for all that it is a short piece. Again, good sightreading practice if this is a weak point you are trying to fix.

Neither of these pieces are on my 40 pieces challange which has pretty much fallen apart. With 4 months left in the year, I will need to scale that done and reassess how I manage it as a project for next year (or I could star the project a new this week which which case I am 5% in. I will reflect on that the next time I am staring out the window of a bus. At some point, I need to write a bit on sight reading, how I feel about it, and what I want to be able to do.

I did no scales this week. I am a very bad person.