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.