Friday, May 17, 2013

Plugging along on piano

I am of course continuing my piano lessons. Bach, Brahms, Bartok, and Debussy are all on the plate at the moment. At a recent lesson, my teacher asked if I was planning any performances any time soon. I wish! The dates never seem to coincide with my availability and level of preparedness. He opined that I hesitate because I have "standards." Maybe so, though I'm hardly a perfectionist. I think the problem may be that I'm working on such hard pieces.

This is good in many ways. It's challenging, and I'm learning techniques (like fast repeated notes, how to voice thick chords, and how to play fast in general) that have always been baffling to me. But are they too hard? Are the tasks insurmountable?

The bad part is I don't have anything simple I can just toss off on request. I suppose I could remedy that on my own by working up a few pieces that are within reach just for this purpose. But as I keep lamenting, I have so little time; every week is a scramble just trying to make progress on what I'm doing for my lessons.

All that being said, I'm still very happy with my teacher. He always tells me things I find interesting and useful, and I think we work well together. So I will press on. Perhaps it all will come together in time.


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