Still slogging away at the Dvorak. This is a stage I hate, when I realize how precarious the whole thing is and can't stop feeling I should be able to sound like Yo Yo Ma, even though I know I can't. And I wonder, why do I need to practice so much just to sound okay, not even great? It's discouraging.
I tried recording the piano part and playing the cello along with it. This was much less successful than the other way around. It's too hard to hear what I'm doing on the cello when I'm listening to the piano part through headphones, but when I play the recording through the computer speaker, it's not loud enough. I don't know how anyone ever got much satisfaction out of those "Music Minus One" records.
Most worthwhile use of my time seems to be practicing with the metronome. I'm trying setting it to click on each sixteenth note and then each eighth note to really get a sense of what is inside of each main beat.
On the piano:
Bach prelude and fugue in c minor from WTC II
Gershwin preludes
Brahms Op. 118
Some sight reading
I've been listening to the Chopin nocturnes. I'd really like to learn another one, but I can't decide which.
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2 comments:
Can you burn your piano recording to a CD and play it on your CD player? That would give you more volume. (assuming you have a stereo system)
Let me know if you need info on how to do this.
AdagioM
Thanks, Michele. That would be another option. Actually, I can play the e-file on the stereo through i-tunes (we have a wireless network setup), so I wouldn't even need to burn a CD. IME, though, playing along with a stereo doesn't work very well -- the cello drowns it out. It's something to experiment with, though.
I felt like I was keeping up with technology pretty well until this past year, but now see all these kids posting videos on YouTube of themselves playing while sitting on their beds, and I'm feeling more and more out of it.
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