This Can't Be the End...

... is an encouraging statement to me. In the last couple weeks I've shown marked improvement in tonal delicacy just by actively attending to the way I play and vowing never to allow my hands to play harsh notes. At least, not without attempting to correct them. I have (of course!) noticed that even despite my vigilance, my ear invariably detects harshness in my playing. I choose to consider that the result of an ever increasing sensitivity of the ear and contributory to an overall increased aesthetic sensibility. Again, I opine: a good thing.

But... it is December 2016 and I'm still nowhere near ready to play my first Rachmaninoff—as I had hoped in a previous blog entry. I've made a list of what I consider to be the most accessible of his works. I've based it on my listening, my perusal of Henle's library and the difficulty level assigned to each piece or album it contains, and the RCM levels at which some of these pieces occur. This is what I've come up with:

1. Prelude in B Major (Op. 32, No. 11)
2. Prelude in F# minor (Op. 23, No. 1)
3. Melodie (Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 3)
4. Elegie (Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 1)
5. Prelude (Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3, No. 2)
6. Prelude in D Major (Op. 23, No. 4)
7. Prelude in G-flat Major (Op. 23, No. 10)
8. Prelude in E-flat Major (Op. 23, No. 6)
9. Etude-Tableau in G minor (Op. 33, No. 8)

As is evident, my current RCM-7 level is no match for the "easiest" (ha!) of these. But I remain undiscouraged. Heartened, even, for it was two days ago that I recall watching some kids playing their ABRSM (post) Level 8 pieces extremely well and thinking, "Good thing I have three more years to develop that kind of flair." Good thing, I said! And I marked it, because never had I before revelled in the idea of requiring more time to develop. But I did in that moment, and spontaneously. 

I think that's a sign both of my accepting my current level and of my growing contentment with the progress I'm making. I finally have confidence in my ability to reach somewhere good,* and in the fact that I have already reached somewhere good. I'm happy to take the circuitous path to that "somewhere" because I want to develop a real visceral connection to piano playing—to really know it, experience it, understand it...

* Nice diction, treenataniesha!