I practised three days this week. This is a big improvement on most of the month of May which has featured a few weeks of nothing at all.
So, where are I? I’ve missed my April deadline for submitting the exam, and I won’t make the end of May either. But I am close and that makes me happy.
This week I worked primarily on the exam pieces, and one of the Grade 8 pieces.
Grade 6:
CPE Bach: = this is about 97% there. I make precision errors from time to time and these are really linked to how tired I am.
Mendelssohn: 99% there. Mostly clean playing.
Rebikov: this one is odd. Mostly, it is 100% there but when it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong.
Milne: likewise. Mostly it is 100% but when it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong.
I now practice all four as a performance and I have started practising the little speech I want to give introducing the pieces at the start of the exam recording too. That’s a bit nerve wracking to be honest.
I had intended to use the Steinway I occasionally hire for the exam recording but it is mostly not available until August, so I will more than likely wind up recording it at home on my digital Kawai. That’s a little disappointing.
In addition to that, the Grade 8 piece I looked at today (only today, I’m afraid) is some Rachmaninoff. I will have to sit down with a recording of it and do a few read throughs. It’s in the key of D flat, and that’s just a little challenging.
I realised today that since I had finished memorising the Grade 6 pieces (I will play from memory), I wasn’t reading much music and this is detrimental to the progress I made reading earlier in the year. So I want to resolve that and while I have to read the Rach, I need to do some easier to swallow stuff. I need to pick up the 40 piece challenge I started at the beginning of the year. In fact, I cannot believe it is almost the end of May. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
I’ve missed practice. It’s been hard as I’ve been away from home quite a lot, and I’ve otherwise been tired. I’ve also picked up reading and drawing again. This makes a difference in terms of available time – don’t call this an excuse – the reality is many people have struggles on available time. Nevertheless, I spent 40 minutes at the piano today and more than 2 hours yesterday. I’d like to go back to doing at least an hour a day. We’ll see how this week shapes up.