June 8

Well, I had another two recordings for you, but my phone decided to crash and erase them forever. Sorry.

Also sorry for all the squeaking in this one, although it's not I who should be apologizing...

June 2

I'm pretty tired of Bach. Maybe you could tell, since it took me a month to work up just the first half of the 8th Goldberg Variation. Here that is, by the way, in OK shape (but still not really anywhere near done):



In the meantime, I've decided that ultimately this project is for me, and since I haven't been enjoying it for a while now, It's OK to make some changes. Here's the change I'm making: I'm going to put together one of my favorite pieces ever. It's something I've looked at haphazardly from time to time in the past, and so I have some of it in long-term memory. But I never finished it, and I never put the pieces together either. Let's take a month and really do Chopin right, shall we?

May 23 (Var 8)

OK, I've figured out what to do with the overlapping parts at the end. Now I just have to commit them to memory. As usual, the recording is much worse than the last couple of practice runs; I was composing this post in my head. I was also anticipating dog squeaks which somehow never happened, even though she was rolling around on the ground with her squeaker the whole time.

I don't like this variation. But strangely, I really enjoy playing the middle part of this, where the left hand is climbing and the chord changes are simple and clean. As you're listening, try to hear the melody in the bass - that's where it starts anyway. I didn't even recognize this variation at first because I was focusing on the right hand, but at least at the beginning the treble notes are really just decoration for the bass melody. The recording is so much faster, and the artist so much better at bringing out the melody, that I didn't even recognize it at first with my clumsy playing. Still, it's another step in the right direction. 

May 21 (Var 8)

Assistant Coach said today, while I was practicing: "It doesn't sound like your heart is in it". No, it probably doesn't. "I'm doing it because I have to" I said. Thanks for listening, anyway - without listeners I wouldn't have much reason to keep going!

May 20 (Var 8)

Time for a little secret: Most of my practicing happens late at night. I go about the day, doing all the normal things that I do, and then I relax with a cup of tea and I practice, sometimes as late as 10 or 11pm. Can't do that with visitors, so I missed the last two days! Sorry! Today I made sure to make time.

I'm pushing the tempo way too fast, hence the mistakes. I need to be playing with the metronome. Today I just drillllllllled measures 17 through 24. Hope you're enjoying this variation more than I am!

May 17 (Var 8)

So, part of the reason for the big break is that I'm honestly not sure I'll ever be able to play this one. The hands are intertwined in ways that are basically impossible. Coach says to just change it, rewrite it so that I can play it, but that feels like cheating and I don't want to do it that way. I'll keep plugging away, but...

By the way, if this recording seems like a step backward from yesterday it's because I did all my practicing this morning, and recorded this evening after just a short warmup. That was a mistake! I'll try not to do this in the future.

Apr 16 - May 16 (Var 8)

I'll just say it -- it's been a whole month.

I have three excuses, and they're all good:

1. The piano was out of tune and it was very uncomfortable
2. I was getting tired of practicing the same darn pieces day after day and night after night
3. I bought a house!

But all that's behind me now.

1. The piano was tuned today and it sounds wonderful
2. I've had a nice rest and the rigid structure of the pieces feels nice again
3. We're all unpacked and set up so I can get back into a routine that includes practicing

Here is a video from exactly one month ago, and one from today. It's like the break never happened!

April 15 (Var 8)

I've been practicing, believe it or not! I'll be sharing 3 videos today. My routine is all out of whack, and I don't always have a computer at home that I can post on. We're starting anew movement now, and it's one that doesn't sound familiar to me at all! I hope it sounds good!

Apr 10 (Var 7)

Well, I guess I oughta be finishing this one soon. I'm now way behind schedule, although probably the number of days I've practiced this variation isn't too bad. Anyway, it feels close, and I don't have much desire to increase the tempo here, so let's aim for tomrorow?

Apr 9 (Var 7)

I'm back!

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks; I'm still kind of reeling from it. Definitely picked the wrong week to buy a house. Anyway, now we're about half-moved, and that includes the piano. It projects now, into the living room and right toward a set of windows, and it's so much brighter than before. The bass is more powerful now, too. It's a different experience when you're playing, and in some ways I like it a lot. We'll see how things sound when there's a couch behind it.

By the way (buh-twuh), you can consider this the resumption of my daily posts. Sorry for the gap. I missed this.

Mar 25 (Var 7)

I'm starting to feel the structure of these pieces a little more intuitively. The first notes of the piece: a B over a G. That's been true in most of the variations. Then the modulation in the second half to D -- also recurring. But now, when I notice these things I'm not thinking about the letters any more. I'm not thinking about the fact that the D is the V of G. I'm just *feeling* the parallelism. And it's nice!

By the way, still working on notes / tempo here. I have some goals, and if I write them here I'll be more likely to work toward them.

Goal 1: play more evenly in terms of dynamics. I am landing hard on some notes, particularly surrounding trills. This is something I've never been good at hearing, but I know I'm doing it (thanks coach!) so it's also something I will try to get better at hearing.

Goal 2: play more evenly in terms of tempo. There are lots of cool rhythms in this piece. Not much syncopation, but still some things that can trip me up. The faster I get, the harder it becomes to play those quick runs of four notes in an even, smooth, light way. Some of them are easier than others because of the particular fingerings they use; the ones that are harder will need some dedicated practice.

Goal 3: get to 152 bpm. This recording was somewhere around 130 - probably a notch or two below that. It sounds pretty good at that speed, but I think it's more lively just a little bit faster, and a Gigue should definitely feel lively and spirited.

Mar 23 (Var 7)

It happened again -- I was working on parts of this variation, thinking: "I know I've played this before but it is completely unfamiliar!" It's Friday. I'm tired. And I was very distracted by the dog! She was laying calmly on the floor before I started recording, and she's laying calmly on the floor now. But she knows when I hit that red button!

Mar 21 (Var 7)

This one is the second take, because for the first take I tried a new camera angle - and all you could see was my back. The first time through was a little better, but also included the cat being pretty angry at the dog. This one just includes the dog distracting me. Gee, I wonder if recording studios have energetic dogs living in them? Probably not, right? Ugh.

Mar 20 (Var 7)

Late post - early recording, but late post. I tried a different angle: over the right shoulder. I want to do directly overhead, but the tripod/selfie stick I got isn't very sturdy, so I'll need to find a way to anchor it instead. In the meantime, I was too busy winning at bingo twice today. Maybe tomorrow I'll figure something out :)

Mar 19 (Var 7)

Surprise! It's a tripod! It looks like I'm sticking with this project for the long haul so I decided it was worth spending a tiny amount of money on it. And seriously -- I can't believe how inexpensive this very nice tripod was. It even comes with a remote control shutter button. And how about that view? 

So this, Variation #7, is another jaunty one. It's one of the few variations with a tempo indication, "Tempo di giga", whatever that means (no, seriously, whatever that means). I just remind myself that it means it's French, and then I try to play "Frenchly". Let me know how I do!

Mar 18 (Var 6 FINAL)

I can't believe the pup let me do it. She wanted my attention through this whole recording, but she managed to control herself. She didn't nudge my hand, she didn't whine or bark, and she didn't squeak a toy. It's almost like she knew what I was doing! What a good dog :)

By the way... I have a great surprise lined up for tomorrow's recording. I know you'll think it's a good idea. 

Mar 17 (Var 6)

Happy beautiful Spring Saturday! I've been out and about and the sunshine has really lifted my spirits after a week that was difficult in several ways. I just love being able to play the piano, because no matter what else is going on I know I can focus on the music and leave it behind for a while. When a doctor asks me how I deal with stress, I say the piano and they usually seem to get it.

As for Variation 6, we're very near the end. I've got the tempo I want (in fact I can play it faster than this but don't want to). I'm nearly error free, although the three parallel sections all have very different fingerings and accidental patterns, making it very tough to keep all three in working memory at the same time. I believe tomorrow will be the last day for this one.

I also wanted to include the sections that are calling back to earlier sections -- Variation 2. Here are two spots in Var 6:

And here are two similar spots in Var 2:

And here is a recording of Var 6:

Mar 16 (Var 6)

Long week. Fixed the sink today! I'm ready to take it easy for the next 2 days. Take it easy with me! Don't work too hard! I won't XD

Mar 15 (Var 6)

Back to just the first half. The end of the week is fast approaching and I am running out of extra energy. Instead of working on notes that are still pretty new, I decided to up the tempo a bit (and it is up a fair bit here - almost as fast as I want it). I *also* decided to try some of that stylistic stuff I mentioned a couple of days ago. Vlad does this cool thing where the down runs are staccato while the left hand kind of rumbles along smoothly below. This is my attempt at that. It's a cool effect and I think it will be even cooler at about 10bpm faster.

Mar 14 (Var 6)

When you hit play, you're going to think "wow, wasn't he a lot faster than this yesterday?" You'll be right, too -- I was. But yesterday I didn't play the second half too! And today, I did. Learning one-half at a time may be a bad idea so I'm trying it differently this time. We'll see how it goes. There are now more spots to spot-check, and just more notes to keep in working memory at any one time, but for this variation I think it's doable.

Mar 13 (Var 6)

Weeeee! Making progress on this one quite quickly! That means I can do fun things like experiment with expression - Vlad plays the down runs at the beginning separated, which produces a nice light feeling. It's not great at this speed, but tomorrow or the next day maybe I'll record it both ways and we can take a poll!

Mar 12 (Var 6)

Folks, I'm feeling a renewed spirit to work hard. That's what Spring Break is for, right? You step away from your normal routine, and it doesn't really matter where you go or what you do there. When you come back, the normal routine doesn't feel so routine, and you can do it better than you could the week before. Well I'm ready to work harder than ever!



Oh - and you might hear a dog in the background who wants to come inside. She can wait til I'm done with the song!

Mar 11 (Var 6)

Hi!

I'm feeling refreshed. I'm home, I'm rested, and I'm back to my usual routine. I'm also back to longer, more productive practice sessions. 

Today, we're starting Variation 6, which is the second Canon, the Canone alla seconda. Fittingly, the title has a double meaning, for not only is it the second canon of the work but it's also a Canon on the second, meaning that the second entrance of the thematic voice is a second (i.e., one whole step) above the first. One imagines, in the vein of mathematical playfulness Bach embodied, that the relationship of this second canon vis a vis the first (Variation 3) must be similar to the relation of the two themes. I'll see if I can tease that out further as we go. And for sure we have echoes of the first, whose photos I forgot to take today but which I'll share with you tomorrow.

Happily, this variation seems to be much easier than the first.

Mar 8-10 (Var 5 Final)

Traveling is over. It's good to be back home, and it'll be nice to back on a regular schedule.

Mar 8: on Grandma's piano. A beautiful Steinway that plays and sounds great. It was the best way to close out this section of the blog that I could think of, and I'm really happy I got the chance. 


Yesterday was one of those days that should just be forgotten. So let's forget it.

Here's today. I've decided that I'm done with this variation, partially based on Grandma's advice that it's fast enough as-is. I can play the first half of the first half (Note to self: just say the first quarter??) quickly, like as quickly as I could want to. But there's no way I'm going to invest the time it would take to get the rest of the way there. Gotta stick to the schedule! We're calling this final, and tomorrow it's on to the Canon on the 2nd! Can't wait!

Mar 3 - 7 (Var 5)

I'm traveling! It's Spring Break! I'm not practicing very hard, but I am making sure to sit down at a piano every day. Haven't missed one! Here are the recordings:

The first recording comes after a loooong day of traveling. I met my grandma at her apartment to borrow her car, and on the way out I sat down at the piano in her lobby. It's a pretty nice piano, a Cable-Nelson, made by Yamaha. The action is light and the tone is very pure. I have always enjoyed playing on it.



The second recording is on Mike Sidwell's piano, in his new house, while a party happens in the other room. I did not spend long locked up by myself, but it was important to me to get that recording done. I didn't have my music, so this one is from memory alone.



On the third day I was back at Grandma's. Had a very nice morning and afternoon with her; the afternoon found me practicing (for real this time) while she did the crossword. The lobby was quite busy, and folks stopped to talk. I was very conscious of volume, and didn't have a very good time.



If you listen to just one recording, it should probably be this one. This was on Samick, the piano Rosie grew up with. Samick is wildly out of tune, and lives in the valley of the clocks, which you'll hear on the recording. I tried to ignore them...



This morning I spent some time on the Ohio State campus, visiting old friends and working at the MBI. Before I left, I stopped in the practice rooms (Hughes Hall, 4th floor). There I found a very serviceable Baldwin upright and had my first legitimate practice session all week. Across the hall a student was playing pieces vastly more difficult and vastly more competently -- just a reminder (as if I needed one) that I'm a mere hobbyist. In the room next door was a harpsichord, and oh how I wanted to record some Bach on that thing! To my dismay it was locked, and I did not have the spunk to try to find someone to let me in. But! Now I have the goal of trying out a variation or two on a harpsichord, just to see what it's like.


Tomorrow I'll be on one of my favorite pianos in the whole world, so I'm reserving a whole post just for that. It would be nice if I could finish this 5th variation and start something fresh when I get home on Friday.

Mar 2 (Var 5)

Not going to lie - I dashed this one off pretty quickly. But! I'm all packed and ready to go. I don't know if I'll be able to post tomorrow; I'm traveling from 7am until 7pm and I may not find a piano. I'll try though!

Mar 1 (Var 5)

Today's recording is really a tale of two halves. I played the second half straight through at 80 bpm today, totally accidentally. That represents a really tough target for me - on the second half. For the first half, that's really slow, so slow that my mind starts to drift and *that* causes me to make mistakes. I can comfortably play the first half at 100 and uncomfortably a couple of notches above that. So you'll hear me pushing the tempo pretty strongly in the first half here, and then being blindsided by how much faster the second half feels, hence a mistake and restart. What it all means is that I need more work to bring the second half up to the level of the first, but it's a result of the fact that the second half is significantly harder. When I was first sightreading through it, I literally could not even figure out what to do at the end. So while this recording shows some real issues, it also represents real progress!

Feb 28 (Var 5)

Twice through in practice with no mistakes. And this is the best I could do after I hit record. 

Feb 27 (Var 3)

Hi! Let's have some fun with album covers! I just did a Google Image search for "Goldberg Variations Album" and let's take a look.

This is the one that gave me the idea for this post. I saw it while looking for my man Vlad (Feltsman) and at first I was like "what the heck is that". But it's actually a really brilliant choice! See how the leaves are all divided into two distinct halves? So are the Goldbergs. See how the leaf in the front is further split into quarters, and then eighths, and so on? So are the Goldbergs. These leaves have fractal properties, and so does the music. Somebody put some thought into this album cover, and I like that. My man Vlad probably doesn't:

Vlad wants to know which side is his good side. (It's his right side, obvs). I can't be too critical though; look at that hair! This image is the image in my mind for the Goldberg Variations, for better or for worse. But it could have been:

He is... semi undressed and making a very suggestive face. And he chose this photo for the album. Glenn, you scamp. And he titled the album! It's two recordings of the variations, nothing more, but he felt like he had license to add his own title to it - to make it about him. From what I've read, that's mostly how critics responded to the recordings themselves, too. He did it his own way, and classical music aficionados (especially Bach fans) care about fidelity. But Mr. Gould is easily the most famous of the Goldberg performers, at least in the US. More than half of the first 10 google results were of him:

And they all feature him prominently. 

I prefer the artistic album covers; I think this one is particularly nice:

OK, it's a little dreary maybe, but I would hang that on my wall! Not in my bedroom, maybe. Or:

I'm not a fan of that one, but at least it's not a sweaty Glenn Gould!

How about these ladies:

They look fun! And their recorder quintet is named the Seldom Sene! I find this hilarious, mostly because there's a bluegrass band called the Seldom Scene, and 1) that pun is way better, and 2) they did it first. But it's a recorder quintet, which is amazing, and look at that big honkin' one in the middle (the recorder, not the lady). I guess that must be a contrabass recorder, which I've never seen before but now I kind of want one.

That guy thinks he's fun.

That guy thinks he's hot shit.

This guy is screaming authenticity, with a page from the original manuscript above his name. I bet it's a subpar recording, and I have no good reason to think that.

And here's the ultimate minimalist album cover. This one is notable to me mostly for who the artist is -- Keith Jarrett, to me, is that guy who moans while he plays freeform jazz. But apparently he's also the guy who moans while playing extremely rigid harpsichord music. Who knew!

OK, that concludes our brief tour through Goldberg Variations album covers. There are a lot more out there, but they're mostly Glenn Gould.

Feb 26 (Var 5)

Time for another video post! Make sure you watch until the end...

Feb 25 (Var 5)

Today I played the second half all the way through. Drilled the heck out of the part that climbs from the bass to the treble - drilled, drilled, drilled. I even bored myself! 

Feb 24 (Var 5 + Bonus Dragon Warrior!)

I'm sorry.

Yesterday I did not record. I feel terrible about it - but I had a good reason! I had a bit to drink before I remembered to practice and what I was playing was not worth recording. So as penance today, I recorded a bit of that Dragon Warrior castle theme I mentioned the other day! 2 for 1!

Feb 22 (Var 5)

I have the feeling that I make less and less progress as the week goes on, then I get it all done on the weekend. Today's practice session felt like treading water. I was playing the notes, but I wasn't *practicing*, somehow. I kept putting off doing the recording, because I don't feel any better than I did this morning, and that depresses me. Oh well; here's to the weekend!

Feb 21 (Var 5)

Good progress today. This is the third quarter of the variation, and I picked it up a little faster than either quarter of the first half. But the fourth quarter - it's a mess. I can't sightread it. The clefs are constantly changing, the melody is constantly switching hands, and I get very very frustrated. So we'll see how that goes! Working on the end of this piece might be the first time a bad word makes it into a recording...

Here's 8 measures!

Feb 20 (Var 5)

There's a game for the NES called Dragon Warrior. I had a copy of this game when I was a kid. I played it a lot. It was a genuinely excellent game. But that's not why I mention it here, of course! I mention it because of the music in that game.

I always suspected that whoever wrote the Dragon Warrior soundtrack was inspired by Bach. Today, I found proof! Have a look at this photograph:

These 9 notes are encoded so deeply in my auditory neurons that after I played this the first time I stopped dead. I know it doesn't look like much, but here's what it reminded me of:

Do you get it? Can you get it? It's a work of genius, seriously. There was an incredible amount of really really good music in those old video games, more than there was any right to be. 

OK, so I have two maxims for you today. Number one: Constraints breed Creativity. The Dragon Warrior castle theme is a great example of that. The NES just wasn't capable of realistic audio; what it could do was beeps and bloops and noise. Seriously, check it out: famitracker.com. But great art comes from working within limitations, whether they're self-imposed or exogenous. And I guess the NES was just limiting enough, but had enough capability, that people managed to wring some beautiful sounds out of it.

Maxim number 2: the 80-20 rule. In any project, the last 20% of the work takes 80% of the time. I should have kept that in mind when I told you two more days! I moved up by just 4bpm tonight. I'm finding that my practice sessions are so much more productive when I'm well fed and well rested. And I've been skipping lunch lately...

Feb 19 (Var 5)

OK, I'm close enough to set a target: 100 bpm. I can play the beginning of this variation fast enough to really bring out the melody (which is in the jumping right hand, recall). The second half of this first half feels like it's speeding up, I guess just due to its difficulty, so I'm not there yet all the way through. By the way - I think I said 120 bpm yesterday. That was a lie; the beat is on a quarter here but I was putting the beat on the 8th, so I was actually playing 60 yesterday. Today is 76, and that's all the way through without any major errors. At this rate I'll have the first half in 2 more days. In the meantime, I guess I need to start looking at the second half, which will almost certainly be harder than the first.

Feb 17 & 18 (Var 5)

Hello reader. I missed you. Sorry about yesterday - I recorded (check the "date uploaded" on the video for proof) but totally forgot to post. So today is a double whammy! Here's yesterday (it's not very good):


And here's today! New camera angle, so you can see just how much my hands are mixed up with each other. This might be the first variation that explicitly tells you to use two keyboards; it's certainly the first time I've really wished I could. This one will be hard to play fast, that's for sure. Right now I'm solid at 120; let's watch that number climb together!

Feb 16 (Var 5)

Don't expect much. I got really tired tonight, unexpectedly. We'll try for a good one tomorrow!

Feb 15 (Var 5)

One of my favorite pieces of all time: the parallel thirds etude. Listen to it. The video I linked to is a good one because it shows her fingers. This etude requires virtuoso technique. I have made 3 true, good-faith efforts to learn it. Each time, I hit a wall and put it away. I like to believe with enough hard work I can play anything, but it's just not true.

But I can play this variation. And I'm looking forward to it.

Feb 14 (Var 5)

OK, first, listen to this:

Vladimir Feltsman playing this variation

It's beautiful, right? There's the delicate middle line weaving throughout. Occasionally it emphasizes itself to add some counterpoint. Meanwhile the melody is jumping back and forth, a part of but somehow separate from it all.

I love this variation, and there's a very real chance it's where this journey will end.

If you've read about the Goldberg Variations yet, you've no doubt encountered the word virtuoso. Its synonyms include genius and expert. And the Goldbergs are said to require virtuoso technique. I do not have virtuoso technique. I am solidly advanced. I am dogged and I know how to practice. But my fingers are not nimble and my touch is not sprightly. I will do my best. For now, this is my best:



PS: this is only 8 measures. Just as I predicted, we're doing now one-fourth of the piece at a time.

Feb 13 (Var 4 FINAL)

Well, it's not perfect, but what is? 

As I was playing, I was thinking about an article I read recently about the great memorization debate. I was looking at the music occasionally, but not really reading it... when you really learn a piece, you get to a place where the music looks *different* somehow. Like, obviously it's the same music, but it's been transmuted. It's not just a bunch of notes, it's a structure. And looking at that structure helps me play it. I guess I'm remembering the piece in 'chunks' rather than notes. This is how I was admonished to practice way back when, too -- learn chunks of the piece, separately, and be able to play them on demand. That's what I rediscovered on the last piece, when I stopped trying to do the whole thing every day and broke it down into halves. On harder variations, I may need to do even less, quarters even.

The above leads to the interesting thought: is there a level of knowing a piece above chunk-wise? Like, the way I see measures and phrases as unitary wholes, are there musicians who see entire pieces (or pages) that way? Anecdotal evidence points to yes: I read recently about musicians in long-running Broadway shows who read novels during their performance. I'm pretty sure I've never been there on any classical piece, but I suspect there are Queen songs that I knew on that level, at least for a while. Performing on stage, I focused a lot on tiny tiny details that had very little, if anything, to do with the notes I was playing. I think that's because I learned those songs mostly as chord progressions; a chunk of chord progressions basically *is* a song. So.

Feb 12 (Var 4)

Time for an experiment! I'm open to feedback: do you prefer video or audio? Do you like this angle?

This is 120 bpm, and includes a dog running through and being as distracting as possible. I'd say we're on track for finishing this variation tomorrow!

Feb 11 (Var 4)

The countdown has begun. 100 bpm today (I did it without errors before I hit record). My goal is 132 (a jaunty number). Two days max - it's so early today I expect I'll probably practice again later tonight. For now, I'm off to work!

Feb 10 (Var 4)

OK, this second half is harder than the first, by far. Dunno why though! I played it real fast tonight, and the recording could have been a lot worse. I have to go down to 80 bpm to get it right all the way through, which is e x c r u t i a t i n g l y s l o w. I was so optimistic when all I knew was the first half...

Which reminds me, this whole composition is a fractal. Each piece is divided into two halves, the second of which is an inversion of the first (and generally harder). Also the whole thing is divided into two halves - and I'm pretty sure the second half is harder. So we have that to look forward to. 

Anyway, here it is.

Feb 9 (Var 4)

There are three measures right in a row, in the second half of Variation 4, where you play the same note twice in succession, as part of two different melodies. I don't know why, but they're evil. They've been torturing me for three days. But today, a breakthrough!


Here are those pesky spots, by the way:

Feb 8 (Var 4)

The less said, the better.

Feb 7 (Var 4)

Well. Dogs can bring joy, can't they? 

Also they can refuse to let you practice in peace. I had a very frustrating time trying to start the second half of this variation, getting interrupted constantly. I can pretty much play the first 8 bars, but I didn't record that. Instead I worked out my frustration by dialing the metronome way up on the first half.


That's 132 beats per minute. At this tempo some of the awkward spots are evening out a little - this piece is a real struggle between staccato and legato playing. I'm aiming for a middle ground, which mostly goes fine I think. But there are a couple of awkwardly fingered spots where I have to pick my fingers up more than I want to; at slower tempos (and with less practice) those spots sound pretty abrupt. I think the speedier tempo helps.

Feb 6 (Var 4)

Yep, this one is coming along nicely. Practiced successfully at 128 bpm; I dialed it back a couple of notches for the recording. You might hear coach snapping along with the beat. You might also hear her snapping along almost with the beat. And yet I managed to get through the whole thing! My focus is returning!

Also today I ate a bunch of candy and went running and got a stomach ache afterward. So I felt like a little kid today. Still it was fun; I recommend you try it!



Also, after I play this song I usually end up with "The Holly and the Ivy" in my head, one of my favorite Christmas carols. Do you hear it too?

Feb 5 (Var 4)

OK, this one is definitely a little easier, and a little shorter. And maybe I'm getting a little better at practicing, too. I got distracted a couple of times tonight because I was thinking about what I was going to put into this post! I don't know if that's a good thing - I enjoy it, but I need to focus! Anyway, here are the things I thought of:

Two places in this first half a curious thing happens: I play the same note twice in a row, but to my ear they sound distinct. It's because the first time they're part of one melody line, and the second time they're part of the other. The two lines that are happening together just need the same note at about the same time, is all! What I love about this is that Bach intended it that way, since this variation is marked for 1 manual, that is, a harpsichord with just one keyboard. There are others that are designed for an instrument where each hand has its own keyboard, and I gather those can get super tricky. Not looking forward to that. Anyway, here are the two places I mentioned:

In the first, it's pretty obvious what's happening. We play that D in the bass clef twice in a row, but the first time it's coming from the G above, and the second time it's coming from the B below. And what's amazing to me is that I don't hear the repetition at all, I just hear the two lines that happen to have the same note in them. But I've been listening to this piece for years already; do you hear it that way too? Here's the second place this happens:

It's a little less obvious, but the B in the treble (marked with a 2) is the same note as the B in the bass clef (marked with a 1, right after it). Same deal as above. Remarkable! What's even cooler about this occurrence is that both times it's played in the same hand, but with different fingers. And that really helps the performer bring it out. Another cool thing happening here is that wide arpeggio in the treble clef is split between two hands. You can see why Bach's pieces are considered to need a virtuoso technique (which I don't have, sorry). Making all of this sound like it's supposed to is harder than it looks. In fact, that's more or less true by definition since the manuscript is written in a way to highlight the melody, rather than to make it easy to play. Putting the first B in the treble clef and connecting it to the G-C above it is a prime example of that.

Two other notes. One, I have big hands:

The last note in the bass clef there is intended to be played in the right hand, because the stretch of a 10th is more, apparently, than the editor expects from a normal human. But it's really comfortable for me! So I'm playing it in the left hand, and feeling good about it every time.

Lastly, my teacher in grade and middle schools would be annoyed with me based on how I'm playing the following:

The right hand, along with the top note of the left hand, is supposed to be completely silent during the last note of this measure. It's clearly marked. I'm not doing it; go back and take a listen and see if you notice! I guarantee that Ms. Moore would have noticed. People complain about the Suzuki method, but if you want to grow up and play Bach, it's definitely the way to go!

Feb 4 (Var 4)

I love this variation. It's so jaunty! (Have I called it jaunty yet?) I also think it will be a nice recovery piece after that beast of a canon. Working a half at a time, I expect I'll get this one down much faster. In the meantime, I've been starting to do some deeper reading about the Goldberg Variations, and I'd like to start sharing some of that knowledge with you as it comes up. First though, an update on Maurice! He was working really hard holding up the lamp, but the lamp was sideways and he didn't feel good about his work. Together we found a more suitable solution:

Beethoven doesn't approve, but he doesn't really approve of much anyway. Maurice is feeling useful but less stressed, and there's no more rattling! Win-win.

As it turns out, scholars seem to think of the variations as *really* starting with Variation 3. There's some debate about whether Bach even wrote the Aria himself, or "borrowed" it, but I guess most people think he wrote it. But Variation 3 is the first of 9 canons, and it's a canon in unison. That means that there is a leading voice and a following voice, and they both start on the same note (the unison). Variation 6 is another canon, this time at the second (the follower starts up one step from the leader), and so on up the line. Also apparently the canons are considered by many to be the best part of this whole thing. This suggests the time spent on Variation 3 was worth it!

After each canon comes the 'real' variations, which are written in a wide range of styles. I'm told that listeners of his day would have recognized them as wildly different styles; I don't know if that means hip-hop vs ambient nowadays, but I bet it's at least on the level of rockabilly vs metal. Variation 4 is (I think) a toccata, a kind of dance. The name sounds jaunty too!

Feb 3 (Var 3 Final)

Hi! It was a beautiful morning for a walk; lots of lovely little snowflakes everywhere. Georgia had a great time, but she's not much of a conversation partner. When we got back, I sat down at the piano. It's a nice change to have time in the middle of the day to practice; usually I'm squeezing it in around dinner time. It's undoubtedly better practice time, too. If only I could be a house-husband, practicing the piano and cooking delicious food all day... 

Anyway, here you go: my final recording of Variation 3. This one's been a long one, even longer than my allotted 2 weeks per. At this rate I won't finish in a year, but also I don't really mind. I'm enjoying myself a lot! I hope you are too.

Feb 2 (Var 3)

Coach and I had a debate over whether it's time to move on. She said yes, I say no. I think at slow speeds it's too hard to hear the two lines in the right hand as distinct. But I'm not sure what "slow" means.

I do know that I played both halves without mistakes at 112 bpm tonight. The recording is probably 116, since I tend to rush when I hit record. I'm setting my sights on 120, and once I get a clean recording at 120bpm, it's on to the next jaunty piece.

If the focus on tempo seems a little strange, it's because just tonight I discovered the true value of practicing with a metronome. Sure, it forces you to keep an even tempo and not cheat (slow down) on the difficult parts. But it does something else I never appreciated until tonight: it provides an objective measure of progress for that part of the learning where you know all the notes but still sometimes make random mistakes. It gives you a number: today I went "no mistakes" at 112bpm; can I do it at 120 tomorrow? I think for the next piece I'll start doing it that way much earlier, and watch that needle tick up. Plus it'll give you, the reader, something a little more concrete.