Hello!

Hi! Welcome to the first of many posts documenting my attempt to learn the Goldberg Variations. This is the piece that turned me around on Bach; my recording of Vladimir Feltsman (amazon) is my go-to work music when I absolutely must concentrate. It's by turns gorgeous, jubilant, technical, and haunting. There are 30 movements (variations), all related tonally and thematically. Some excellent musical writing has been made about this piece, and I'll try to point readers toward it as I go. Suffice it to say, it's fascinating.

My goal is to learn all 30 variations, as perfectly as I'm able, and to document my process and my progress as I go. These are the rules: I have to practice 30 minutes every day, and at the end of each session I will record myself playing whichever variation I'm working on. There are 52 weeks in a year, so at 30 variations that's just under 2 weeks per, so it seems like a great year-long project.

I must credit Rosie's 365 days photo blog for the motivation. If this project is half as successful as hers I'll be proud. Thanks for reading, and stick around!

R