In case you've wondered...
So I just got off the piano, and suddenly came to realize
I have been practicing
The piano
For three hours straight.
Not only that, but I was only working on two pieces of music. In fact, the entire reason I got off the piano was that my hands and forearms were tired, and they started aching. That, and I had the distinct impression that time was passing.
The upside is, the piece I'm reviewing is sounding even better than when I played it for the state piano convention in Tacoma. It's a movement from a Beethoven sonata. The primary tempo (Allegro di molto, e con brio = Very fast, and with spirit), it's in cut-time, which means little to non-musicians, but it just means that all of my notes are twice as fast as normal, because the beat-note is twice as long (just take my word for it). Today, I only went up to about 108 beats per minute (bpm). This means my 8th notes were going at a moderate pace of 432 bpm. Before when I learned this, I *think* I had the beat up to 160. It might have been faster. This means, of course, that my 8th notes would be going at 640 bpm. And these figures don't even include the trills during parts, which are (in theory) without time value... meaning a lot quicker still.
Also, the Bach fugue I'm learning, (the second piece I was playing today), I've learned just about all of it up to speed, and have about half of it memorized. For those who don't know, a fugue is like throwing 3 or 4 (4 in my case) very talented vocalists (oxymoron, I know *tease*) together and having them sing COMPLETELY different things at different rhythms, while moderately keeping to a main theme and a counter theme. O yeah, and playing it with only two hands. Sometimes, there's two voices in each hand; sometimes there's a voice or two resting. Sometimes there's three voices in one hand. Sometimes (the times I dislike), one or more of the voices keeps JUMPING back and forth between the hands. And of course, I have to play it just so, to make it sound like one voice and not two separate, disjointed voices. The object of a fugue is to make it sound pretty when you'll all done learning it. *sweat droplet*
At least work will be easier.
I have been practicing
The piano
For three hours straight.
Not only that, but I was only working on two pieces of music. In fact, the entire reason I got off the piano was that my hands and forearms were tired, and they started aching. That, and I had the distinct impression that time was passing.
The upside is, the piece I'm reviewing is sounding even better than when I played it for the state piano convention in Tacoma. It's a movement from a Beethoven sonata. The primary tempo (Allegro di molto, e con brio = Very fast, and with spirit), it's in cut-time, which means little to non-musicians, but it just means that all of my notes are twice as fast as normal, because the beat-note is twice as long (just take my word for it). Today, I only went up to about 108 beats per minute (bpm). This means my 8th notes were going at a moderate pace of 432 bpm. Before when I learned this, I *think* I had the beat up to 160. It might have been faster. This means, of course, that my 8th notes would be going at 640 bpm. And these figures don't even include the trills during parts, which are (in theory) without time value... meaning a lot quicker still.
Also, the Bach fugue I'm learning, (the second piece I was playing today), I've learned just about all of it up to speed, and have about half of it memorized. For those who don't know, a fugue is like throwing 3 or 4 (4 in my case) very talented vocalists (oxymoron, I know *tease*) together and having them sing COMPLETELY different things at different rhythms, while moderately keeping to a main theme and a counter theme. O yeah, and playing it with only two hands. Sometimes, there's two voices in each hand; sometimes there's a voice or two resting. Sometimes there's three voices in one hand. Sometimes (the times I dislike), one or more of the voices keeps JUMPING back and forth between the hands. And of course, I have to play it just so, to make it sound like one voice and not two separate, disjointed voices. The object of a fugue is to make it sound pretty when you'll all done learning it. *sweat droplet*
At least work will be easier.