I've structured my practice based on what has been working and what I'd like to accomplish. It's not really much of a change, just a solidification. I've done this for several reasons. Here are some:
- I needed to fit sight reading more securely into my daily routine, and at a time when I wasn't so tired I wouldn't want to do it anymore.
- I needed to get on track to coverage of all the scales and arpeggios. This is difficult. I'm still working on getting the minor scales going.
- I read about the optimal time to spend working on a piece and stuff like that. If 15-20 minutes is standard, I thought my practice time could fit about six sections.
So I figured I could sustain my own interest and momentum by segmenting my time thus:
This is the master. It will change based on the precise pieces I'm working on. Yesterday (Monday), for instance, I did the following version of this schedule:
- Major scales in all keys
- Menuetto (from Haydn's Sonata in E♭)
- C Major Arpeggios
- Solfeggietto (CPE Bach)
- Sight Reading (JS Bach's Prelude in D Minor)
- Scarf Dance (Chaminade)
So hopefully this will get me somewhere tangible in the future. I managed to stick to it pretty well yesterday and finished everything in about 90 minutes, so there was wriggle room and everything! Fingers crossed it'll keep on working out.
February 26, 2016 and I think I'm finally making progress on these arpeggios, particularly the C minor and G minor types, but even the majors too. A lot more room for improvement though.
April 16, 2016 and I really have been keeping up with this regimen, although I haven't really been adjusting the chart. I do one group of notes per day: C Major and Minor in scales and arpeggios on Monday, D Major and Minor on Tuesday, and so forth. So far I haven't been doing all the minor scales. Mostly the natural and some harmonic. And the chromatics have fallen by the wayside (alas...). But the arpeggios are the scariest of all... and I've been doing them! I've even managed to get some contrary motion going in G, A, and E Major, so far. Hopefully this progress will continue and adding in the missing technique will be easier, not harder. (I'm acutely aware of neglecting the major, dominant and diminished seventh arpeggios, as well, but those too will come in time. Onward (like it's the first day) ...
July 29, 2016 - So, I've pretty much been following a version of this since the original post (9/15/15) and today I thought I'd document feeling a new elasticity in my fingers and joints. I've felt this before, and after a few weeks found myself again disgruntled by the harshness of my tone and seeming rigidity of my fingers. It dawned on me today that whenever such a breakthrough feeling is followed by a contrasting feeling of dissatisfaction, it might be my ear and body and general aesthetic sensibility (proprioceptivity?) becoming sharper. So it might be a good thing that prompts me toward developing even more subtlety with my fingers. So I guess now I should be looking forward to becoming dissatisfied with even this newfound flexibility? Yay!
July 29, 2016 - So, I've pretty much been following a version of this since the original post (9/15/15) and today I thought I'd document feeling a new elasticity in my fingers and joints. I've felt this before, and after a few weeks found myself again disgruntled by the harshness of my tone and seeming rigidity of my fingers. It dawned on me today that whenever such a breakthrough feeling is followed by a contrasting feeling of dissatisfaction, it might be my ear and body and general aesthetic sensibility (proprioceptivity?) becoming sharper. So it might be a good thing that prompts me toward developing even more subtlety with my fingers. So I guess now I should be looking forward to becoming dissatisfied with even this newfound flexibility? Yay!
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