We're cooking now!

Here we go. Full steam ahead. This is going to be fun. My exam pieces for grades 1-5 and also the music theory work books 1-5 are ready to go! I know there is a lot of work ahead but prepared to put the time in. Wish me luck!

ABRSM exam pieces Grade 1 book

The 2013 syllabus pieces should be arriving in the post in the next few days. I will be learning all 9 of them solidly before moving on to grade 2.

If anyone wants to learn alongside me, then here's a link to the book. It's not that expensive. There are some nice little tunes in there. I have done two of them so far. Looking froward to the other 7.

Also another must have for me is the AB Guide to music theory. I think I have owned this book about 3 or 4 times and lost it since I was about 14 years old. It's the bible of music theory and is the go to reference on scales, rhythm, key signatures and time signatures. it goes on to discuss advanced scales and harmony further on.

Those are two ones I would start with to get a great solid foundation!

Scale practice D Major Zen Experience

I've been mainly sticking to practicing this scale for a week or two now. For my whole life, whenever I sat at a piano, I would do a C major scale. I didn't know any others. I personally think that the C scale and key is a piano prison. Any advice I would give to beginners is that yes, by all means, have a go at the C major scale, but DON'T stick with it for too long. I would go straight to a key/scale that has at least two sharps in it.  D or A major because they really give you a sense of what practicing in a different key is all about. In fact learning other keys is like learning a whole new instrument.

Anyway, I started the scale at a really low bpm (anything from 60-100 bpm). Abrsm syllabus guidelines are quavers, so when you see the speeds for whatever grade you are going for, you need to do two notes per beat. So when I say 60-100bpm, it means 30-50 bpm with two notes per beats. I just prefer hearing the metronome beat on every pulse so I just double the speed.

Something quite strange happened when I was doing the scale....

Grade 1 Update #4

Couple of things to talk about today.

Last night's practice went well again.

Mozart 'Minuet in G' was still getting better ( more accurate and less mistakes) but not perfect. I have found a weakness. That is a good thing. When you know what you are not good at, it means you have the ability to work at it. It's easy to get frustrated but I'm remaining positive.

I realised that I was good at breaking down parts and practicing them separately. The Bit that I was then failing at was the transition from each separate part into the next. For example, I had practiced the first section and second section quite a lot on their own. Thinking I have it down, I would play it through and there would be a pause and stumble when ending one and starting the other.

Mozart 'Minuet in G' Update #3 Harmonic Analysis

So practice continues on this. last nights practice was an incremental improvement. Still making coordination mistakes with hands together. must resist the urge to go faster. Also trying to remember to keep hands loose. It feels like it is much more fluid and sounds nicer with less anxiety. I think that will be key to improving speed.

So onto the analysis. This is just from things I noticed while playing like chord shapes and cadences.

It starts on a major 3rd to G  so you instantly know what key you are in.  Then there are the two a and b 5 note patterns that are just stepwise sequences in the scale.

Mozart 'Minuet in G' update #2 with video

Here is a video of a bit of last night's practice session. It's not glamourous and don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing.

It just gives an idea of what a typical session is like when working out a piece for me and how I program the way my hands move.

Sorry for the angle, I'm still experimenting with my setup and hopefully i work on it more. Also need to get a microphone working so i can talk about the process.

Mozart 'Minuet in G' update #1

So I just had an hour or so practice. I concentrated only on this piece and didn't do any scales as I know that for scales I need to be a lot more alert. They make me tired if I do them just before I go to bed. I think working on a piece before sleep is probably best as your brain can then process the information it's just learnt during sleep which helps in memorizing the music.

So the session went well. I tried to play the first section again and at first, I was messing up a lot. So I slowed down, even did both hands separately a couple of times before trying again together.

ABRSM Exam Piece Practice 'Mozart Minuet in G'

I started to learn the first piece in the new 2013-2014 Piano Grade 1 Syllubus, Mozart's Minuet in G.

I thought it was going to be easy. I'd seen kids on youtube play it so hey I'm 29, I'm smarter than them. How wrong I was. I thought that because I'd worked through alfred's book one, that this was a level lower.

Well it didn't help that I'd just worked a 12 hour shift and not slept well the night before. I probably worked on the first half for less than an hour. By the end, I knew which bits I was having trouble with.

There's the link to a free score of it on IMSLP that I've put a link to at the bottom of this post.